What a weekend! At Decorah North, Mr. North and DNF are coping with an influx of unwelcome hungry visitors, T3 fell down (https://youtu.be/FdJEQKhmzOA?si=oWU3M4H8ToRdYlDj), and we watched a coyote feast on a dead deer. At Great Spirit Bluff, two banded falcons dropped by: Rosemary V/82, a female falcon that John banded at Castle Rock this spring, and Zazu 18/U, a male falcon that Amy banded at Bay State Milling in 2022. If you like gorgeous closeups of Bald Eagles, look no further than this video of Mrs. T, who is clearly ready for her headshots! https://youtu.be/r4s5LzM_HKM?si=EE3_YOJx4x-I8ARs.
Mrs. T is ready for her headshots! Watch the Trempealeau eagles here: https://www.raptorresource.org/trempealeau-eagles/
What are we looking forward to this week? Look for intruders and eagle pool parties at Decorah North, growing bald eagle congregations on the Flyway, and migrants everywhere. It’s a little early for Tundra Swans, but we’re keeping our eyes and ears peeled and spotting huge numbers of migrants on the Flyway. Everybody’s on the move!
Decorah North
November 4, 2024: The Norths arrive and eject the visitor – https://youtu.be/6D8CvDeDSms?si=ocHOGCbgSg5xFQAf. Bald Eagles are among the last boreal birds to migrate and they are beginning to move south in large numbers! We see more of them at the Valley of the Norths than we do in Decorah, which is further away from the Mississippi River and at the very western edge of the Driftless. But the Norths are living just inside a north/south wind-funnel that cuts through the hills and channels wind – and birds – for miles. Topography influences migration in many birds, including bald and golden eagles. Looking at the terrain, it is no surprise at all to see eagles congregating here – even if the Norths don’t exactly put out the welcome mat! Look for the Norths to serve their eviction notice at 56 seconds
A subadult near the North Nest: one of at least eight visitors that we counted on Sunday.
November 3, 2024: More visiting eagle action – https://youtu.be/2P45DtSbZ_8?si=ge_7vy7Rd68ylVjc. The video opens with an unknown adult eagle perched on a tree across from the nest. At about 5:58, it quickly leaves its perch as another eagle arrives. At 6:07, we see one eagle fly upstream while another flies downstream. At 6:20, the camera operator finds two eagles perched together. I thought at first that this might be DNF and Mr. North, but the female eagle on the right appears to have some dark feathers on her head. A young adult, perhaps? Our camera operators counted at least seven or eight eagles in the Valley of the Norths today and it wasn’t easy to keep track of their comings and goings.
Splish-splash eagle bath! We’re looking for a few big eagle pool parties later this month.
November 3, 2024: Visiting eagle has a bath in the stream – https://youtu.be/p32HjCweh1U?si=CxoBMN2PYAeuoeFt. Eagle pool parties aren’t uncommon here in late fall/early winter. We’ll be looking for more in the weeks to come!
November 2, 2024: The Norths meet on the nest – https://youtu.be/ICo-tEO5tUM?si=ORUBMXFL10VzMtDq. A nice look at the Norths on the nest together. Mr. North flies in at 25 seconds and DNF joins him at 1:50. It appears that she’s still getting used to the dimensions of the new nest, but the two have plenty of room for expansion!
A juvenile bald eagle on November 1st.
November 1, 2024: A coyote enjoys a meal from a deer carcass – https://youtu.be/q6_v7K9aHQ4?si=mjhZ8EZTTcCMIlr9. A brief but interesting look at a coyote enjoying a free meal: no hunting or risk required! Carcasses are an important but often overlooked source of protein and soil health. When scavengers find an intact, edible carcass – one that hasn’t spoiled too much to eat – they break it into smaller bits as they feast and disperse it more widely across the landscape. It’s generally believed that there is greater biodiversity in areas with ‘ordinary’ carcass supplies and lots of scavengers that make nutrients available to other animal and plant communities.
Great Spirit Bluff
November 2, 2024: Two banded falcons visit – https://youtu.be/g10pKzS-rlQ?si=FmRFKBkQSiL7ZRUZ. The falcons are Rosemary V/82, a falcon that John banded at Castle Rock this spring, and Zazu 18/U, a falcon that Amy banded at Bay State Milling in 2022. Both sites are roughly 23 miles NNW as the falcon flies.
Odds and Ends
The Internet of Animals: https://theconversation.com/the-internet-of-animals-an-inside-account-of-an-ambitious-plan-to-track-animal-movements-across-the-globe-230549. We sometimes get asked why we track bald and golden eagles. The project started because we wanted to know where eagles from the Decorah nest went after the dispersed. But in the process, we’ve learned so much more about the decisions our eagles make in the world, the knowledge they accumulate over their lifetimes and of course all the places they go. The ‘internet of animals’ shows a great deal of promise for future decision making, better understanding of our fellow travelers, and more engagement in the world around us. I think it’s very exciting. Check out this look at some of the data: https://www.movebank.org/cms/movebank-main and visit RRP’s interactive eagle maps to learn more about our bald and golden eagle tracking: https://www.raptorresource.org/learning-tools/eagle-map/.
The Raptor Resource Project