Tuesday, June 24
Click here to view a few photos taken by Nora H. with commentary on what she is seeing there in Decorah.
From SOAR:
Sorry for the delay in posting today - meant to get it done sooner but we had to prepare for a new patient this afternoon.
Just when you think you are going to have a quiet day...
Update on Decorah Juvenile: He is doing well. His wing is wrapped and Kay is hand feeding and administering fluids to make sure he is as strong as possible for his surgery tomorrow!
(re: asking if the eaglet at SOAR is being fed with an eagle puppet) No need to feed with an eagle puppet. The eagle is well beyond the imprint stage. He knows we are not like him and as with most wild animals, he isn't particularly fond of us Especially that Kay girl who keeps messing with him!
The Eagles are wild and it is hard to know what they are thinking, except that they are probably thinking they would like to get away from us! Our education birds "get used to us", and learn what to expect just as we learn what to expect from them so we can handle them safely. But we emphasize that they are wild and don't want to anthropomorphize the birds.
From RRP:
The latest news from Decorah, plus an opportunity to have your questions answered by SOAR and Dr. Dirks. Read on!
The female Bob released on Sunday morning remains on hatchery grounds and her parents are still feeding her. We're hoping for a quieter week with better weather as she works on fledging.
The eaglet at SOAR will have his wing immobilized for 3-4 weeks to heal. After that, he'll spend another 2-4 weeks in ICU with limited movement, and then he'll be moved to the flight pens for exercise and muscle training. It will be a while before we know the outcome, so we're asking everyone to please be patient with the pace.
The third eaglet remains unaccounted for, although we have people looking.
We're getting a lot of questions about the eaglet in SOAR's care. Please post your question for Kay or Dr. Dirks below. We'll pick the top ten most common questions and forward them for answers. Once we have answers, they will be posted here (and possibly on SOAR's page as well). Please tag those questions with #forsoar
We were out banding today (four lovely little peregrines were banded in Duluth)! A big thanks to the moderators who managed everything while we were offline. Thank you for your hard work and dedication. I'm amazed at what a great job you do. We've gone to 25 sites so far and have at least one more on the list. What a year!
#DecorahEagles #RaptorResource
We're going to address the whole subject of ID in another post. A female eagle is at the hatchery and a male eagle has the broken wing. That's all I'm going to post right now.
(re: the possibility of doing something to eradicate the gnats for next year) I don't know. We've looked into possible preventative measures, but it's a complicated situation. I don't know if there is anything safe for the nest that will last for any period of time. The best control for fungus gnats is to control soil moisture. You see the problem. This is a very hard place to control insects.
(re: D20 at the Hatchery) We've seen her flying and we're keeping a very close eye on her success.
There was no camera at the nest last year, so we don't have nearly as much information about last years clutch. We are all learning together this year.
We will post about ID later. We have looked around and we've tried watching the parents as well. We haven't found this missing eaglet yet.
(re: the ID of both birds being watched) We are working it out. We'll post on that later this week. I'm sorry that we haven't had anything yet - in addition to the eaglets, we are wrapping up peregrine falcon banding and we've had a few extra birds come in for holding. A very busy time of the year for anyone involved with birds of prey!
We are still hopeful that the 3rd Eaglet has simply gone to a different spot that we are used to,and is being trained and taken care of by Mom and Dad. That is all we can do right now is to hope.
(re: wishing we were there to help) I think I can safely speak for EVERYONE involved with Raptor Resource Project....Bob Amy, Sherri, David, all of the chat and fb moderators, the camera operators, and so many others that are involved in so many ways we ALL love these Bald Eagles. My children have even taken to calling me The Crazy Bird Lady!!! ;-)(said with MUCH love of course) And it isn't just the Eagles, but the Falcons, the Owls, all of the raptors that Bob Anderson helps to make a better world for!!! If you have truly fallen in love with our Raptors, do what I did, find a local rescue and rehab to volunteer with...make a difference in your corner of the world!!! Advocate for Retrofitting of the power poles in your area so that you never lose another bird to Electrocution, look into fishing line recycling, learn the facts about wind farms, eliminate deadly poisons from your yard and garden. So many ways to make a difference!!!
All of us care deeply for the eagles, peregrine falcons, and other birds we work with. I can't tell you how thrilled we are when we get a band report on a bird we banded, how great it is to see healthy, footy young falcons, how much we enjoy watching life in the Decorah eagles nest, or how hard it is when things go wrong. We do our best to live in the NWZ. Bob could not have done the wonderful work he did in peregrine falcon recovery without the ability to make hard decisions. But that doesn't mean we don't care for the birds we monitor. Most of you know us from the Decorah Eagles. This paper describes Bob's work with peregrine falcon recovery on the Mississippi river: http://www.raptorresource.org/pdf/mnbirding.pdf
Bob and Brett from Eagle Valley measured the eagle prior to release and determined she was a female based on beak depth and other measurements.
(re: the possibility of fitting the eaglet at SOAR with a transmitter) We don't know about a transmitter yet. We are waiting to see how the eaglet does before we make any decisions about transmitters.
Click here to view a few photos taken by Nora H. with commentary on what she is seeing there in Decorah.
From SOAR:
Sorry for the delay in posting today - meant to get it done sooner but we had to prepare for a new patient this afternoon.
Just when you think you are going to have a quiet day...
Update on Decorah Juvenile: He is doing well. His wing is wrapped and Kay is hand feeding and administering fluids to make sure he is as strong as possible for his surgery tomorrow!
(re: asking if the eaglet at SOAR is being fed with an eagle puppet) No need to feed with an eagle puppet. The eagle is well beyond the imprint stage. He knows we are not like him and as with most wild animals, he isn't particularly fond of us Especially that Kay girl who keeps messing with him!
The Eagles are wild and it is hard to know what they are thinking, except that they are probably thinking they would like to get away from us! Our education birds "get used to us", and learn what to expect just as we learn what to expect from them so we can handle them safely. But we emphasize that they are wild and don't want to anthropomorphize the birds.
From RRP:
The latest news from Decorah, plus an opportunity to have your questions answered by SOAR and Dr. Dirks. Read on!
The female Bob released on Sunday morning remains on hatchery grounds and her parents are still feeding her. We're hoping for a quieter week with better weather as she works on fledging.
The eaglet at SOAR will have his wing immobilized for 3-4 weeks to heal. After that, he'll spend another 2-4 weeks in ICU with limited movement, and then he'll be moved to the flight pens for exercise and muscle training. It will be a while before we know the outcome, so we're asking everyone to please be patient with the pace.
The third eaglet remains unaccounted for, although we have people looking.
We're getting a lot of questions about the eaglet in SOAR's care. Please post your question for Kay or Dr. Dirks below. We'll pick the top ten most common questions and forward them for answers. Once we have answers, they will be posted here (and possibly on SOAR's page as well). Please tag those questions with #forsoar
We were out banding today (four lovely little peregrines were banded in Duluth)! A big thanks to the moderators who managed everything while we were offline. Thank you for your hard work and dedication. I'm amazed at what a great job you do. We've gone to 25 sites so far and have at least one more on the list. What a year!
#DecorahEagles #RaptorResource
We're going to address the whole subject of ID in another post. A female eagle is at the hatchery and a male eagle has the broken wing. That's all I'm going to post right now.
(re: the possibility of doing something to eradicate the gnats for next year) I don't know. We've looked into possible preventative measures, but it's a complicated situation. I don't know if there is anything safe for the nest that will last for any period of time. The best control for fungus gnats is to control soil moisture. You see the problem. This is a very hard place to control insects.
(re: D20 at the Hatchery) We've seen her flying and we're keeping a very close eye on her success.
There was no camera at the nest last year, so we don't have nearly as much information about last years clutch. We are all learning together this year.
We will post about ID later. We have looked around and we've tried watching the parents as well. We haven't found this missing eaglet yet.
(re: the ID of both birds being watched) We are working it out. We'll post on that later this week. I'm sorry that we haven't had anything yet - in addition to the eaglets, we are wrapping up peregrine falcon banding and we've had a few extra birds come in for holding. A very busy time of the year for anyone involved with birds of prey!
We are still hopeful that the 3rd Eaglet has simply gone to a different spot that we are used to,and is being trained and taken care of by Mom and Dad. That is all we can do right now is to hope.
(re: wishing we were there to help) I think I can safely speak for EVERYONE involved with Raptor Resource Project....Bob Amy, Sherri, David, all of the chat and fb moderators, the camera operators, and so many others that are involved in so many ways we ALL love these Bald Eagles. My children have even taken to calling me The Crazy Bird Lady!!! ;-)(said with MUCH love of course) And it isn't just the Eagles, but the Falcons, the Owls, all of the raptors that Bob Anderson helps to make a better world for!!! If you have truly fallen in love with our Raptors, do what I did, find a local rescue and rehab to volunteer with...make a difference in your corner of the world!!! Advocate for Retrofitting of the power poles in your area so that you never lose another bird to Electrocution, look into fishing line recycling, learn the facts about wind farms, eliminate deadly poisons from your yard and garden. So many ways to make a difference!!!
All of us care deeply for the eagles, peregrine falcons, and other birds we work with. I can't tell you how thrilled we are when we get a band report on a bird we banded, how great it is to see healthy, footy young falcons, how much we enjoy watching life in the Decorah eagles nest, or how hard it is when things go wrong. We do our best to live in the NWZ. Bob could not have done the wonderful work he did in peregrine falcon recovery without the ability to make hard decisions. But that doesn't mean we don't care for the birds we monitor. Most of you know us from the Decorah Eagles. This paper describes Bob's work with peregrine falcon recovery on the Mississippi river: http://www.raptorresource.org/pdf/mnbirding.pdf
Bob and Brett from Eagle Valley measured the eagle prior to release and determined she was a female based on beak depth and other measurements.
(re: the possibility of fitting the eaglet at SOAR with a transmitter) We don't know about a transmitter yet. We are waiting to see how the eaglet does before we make any decisions about transmitters.