Nevada wildlife biologist keeps tabs on state’s golden eagles

State wildlife agent hangs with nestlings

The wildlife biologist rappeled several feet below a cliff top to a spot where he knew he’d find nestlings.

Minutes earlier, with his binoculars, he’d seen a single white head pop up.

“That’s junior,” Joe Barnes said proudly, his brown hat from the Nevada Department of Wildlife shielding him from the sun.

Up on the cliff outside Pioche on Thursday, he reached into the nest for one of two golden eaglets.

“Relax, relax, buddy,” he said, his gloved hand holding it by its talons and wings. He carefully scooped the 5-week-old nestling into his black Adidas bag.

“There you go,” he told her, reaching for her other sibling. “You’re wet.”

It had rained heavily Tuesday and Wednesday, and weather conditions are critical factors in nestlings’ survival, a concern for the up to 12 nestlings in six territories that Barnes studies.

Before 2014, little research had been done on golden eagles in Nevada.

“Nevada is kind of a black hole,” Barnes said Thursday. “There’s not much data. This feeds into the bigger picture.”

The birds, protected by the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act and identified by the Nevada Wildlife Action Plan as

a species of conservation priority, are thought to be declining in the western United States.

Their populations face conservation challenges, including habitat fragmentation, development, electrocution, collision with wind turbines and human disturbance.

By tracking golden eagles, researches can determine what might have caused an eagle to die.

By collecting genetic samples from the babies, researchers can pinpoint where those eagles grew up and which population was affected by their deaths.

Across the West, 280 eagles are being tracked. Nevada is home to roughly 3,000, Barnes said.

Since 2014, Barnes has surveyed territories in southeastern Nevada, taking samplings from eaglets and attaching transmitters on seven adults and 17 nestlings. Two more will be secured this year.

Five years in a row, 100 percent of the golden eagles he tracked came back to breed. Of the 15 known occupied golden eagle territories, he has assessed breeding at eight. Six laid eggs this year.

Part of Barnes’ research on golden eagles in Nevada is a collaboration with other researchers in New Mexico, Wyoming and Idaho, who hope to answer different questions about what influences eagle populations.

On Thursday, he made contact with his first two nestlings of the year.

“It’s like peeling back layers of an onion,” Barnes said. “Today feeds into the bigger picture.”

Sampling

Barnes pulled himself up over the cliff, carrying the stowed-away nestlings over his shoulder in his black bag.

“I call it my ‘kid carrier,’” he said. Barnes, who’s 43 and sports russet sideburns and a goatee, has studied eagles for about 15 years but first

Andrea Cornejo Las Vegas Review-Journal @dreacornejo A golden eagle nestling is held by Brady Whipple, a wildlife management area technician, near the nesting site outside Pioche on Thursday.

Joe Barnes, a biologist for the Nevada Department of Wildlife, bands a golden eagle nestling Thursday while Brady Whipple holds it down.

Andrea Cornejo Las Vegas Review-Journal @dreacornejo State Department of Wildlife biologist Joe Barnes climbs toward a golden eagle nesting site Thursday outside Pioche.