GOEA 415, 417, and 695 are all back on their wintering grounds in the Driftless! What did their 2024 journals look like? Let’s take a look! We’ll start with Golden Eagle 417.
Golden Eagle 417
417 began her 2024 spring migration on March 21st, covering an impressive 1,747 miles over 74 days to reach her summer home. She spent the season in Nunavut’s Qikiqtaaluk region, on what English speakers call Baffin Island, exploring the shores of an unnamed inlet. The Brodeur peninsula, which towers to the northwest of the inlet, offered ideal conditions for thermal soaring and picture-perfect postcards, while the 57 day-long day provided plenty of time for sunning and hunting in her vast, remote sanctuary.
Sun Graph at 70NIn the Driftless, 417 might hunt and eat wild turkey, rabbits, waterfowl, or young deer. But what does she eat on summer vacation? Local wildlife surveys and research from similar Arctic regions point to Arctic hare, ptarmigan, waterfowl (especially geese, which are abundant on Baffin), Arctic fox, young caribou, and the carcasses of whales, dolphins, and seals. Hunting rabbits might seem like a lot of effort for a small meal, but Arctic hares are far larger than the petite cottontail rabbits that DNF and Mr. North carry into the North Nest. These hefty lagomorphs weigh between six and 15 pounds and measure 19 to 26 inches from nose to tail. Hassenpfeffer, anyone?
714 cruises the Brodeur peninsula in a low soar, hugging the steep upslopes and rising high over the valleys that roll beneath her. She spots an Arctic Hare and banks into a steep dive. It swerves to avoid her, but she is surprisingly agile for such a large bird. Success! She subdues the hare with her large, powerful feet, and begins to eat.
Her hunger sated, she seeks a favorite roost on a high promontory, overlooking endless blue sky and cold, blue water wrinkled with waves and the trails of whales and seals. The sky dims a little at night, but only enough for the brightest planets to shine and twinkle in the sky. Night or day, the cries of birds fill the air. The arctic summer is bright but short, and everyone is busy in this season of abundance.
417’s long arctic day ended with one minute and eight seconds of civil twilight on July 21st. She struck out for her wintering grounds on August 29th, when the arctic day had dwindled almost nine hours, crossing at least five ecozones on her way back. 94 days and 1778 miles later, she reached the heavily populated eastern Temperate Forest of the Driftless and settled in – more or less – until the lengthening days and warmer weather stir her urge to move again.
Sun Graph at 44NFlat, stony arctic land, low taiga, northern forest, farmland, and cities rolled beneath 714’s powerful wings as she migrated south. Almost everything is different about her wintering grounds: the landscape, the people, the animals, the prey. But the need to eat and roost is always there. She seeks a favorite perch in the lee of GrandDad rock, a massive chunk of grey limestone that overlooks a steep, narrow valley. Noise travels for miles in the bitter cold: a chainsaw, a train, a barking dog. In spring, she’ll trade the sights and sounds of the Driftless for Baffin Island once more. But for now, she is content here.
To explore the travels of all the eagles we’ve tracked, check out our interactive maps: https://www.raptorresource.org/learning-tools/eagle-map/. ‘Current Locations’ show where eagles are now, the cluster map shows every location we’ve had for all of them, and ‘Make A Map’ allows you to build your own map based on date ranges or months. A thousand thanks to Ryan Schmitz, Brett Mandernack, and the staff of Eagle Valley for sharing their data, maps, and expertise with us!
Photo Credits and Links
In addition to fitting GOEA with transmitters, we also took blood samples to test for HPAI, heavy metals, and relatedness. We’ll be posting about that soon. Thank you for supporting our work!
The Raptor Resource Project