A transmitter will track its migration
Researchers net golden eagle on a ridge north of Rome
Wildlife researchers trapped a golden eagle on a ridgeline north of Rome on Thursday morning and fitted it with a transmitter to track its migratory pattern. This marks the second year in a row that the biologists have successfully netted a golden eagle between Rome and Dalton.
Tricia Miller, Conservation Science Global chairwoman in Cape May, New Jersey, led the group that waited patiently on the ridge top for three days before successfully netting the bird. Deer carcasses from road kill were placed in an opening in the ridgeline as bait, and a game camera caught the bird coming in for a free meal before the research team came down to set up on the bait station.
Miller said the bird netted Thursday was an adult male and estimated that it was at least 6 years old.
“It’s probably older than that by the looks of it,” Miller said.
This marks the fourth year researchers affiliated with the Eastern Golden Eagle Working Group have set up on the ridge north of Rome. Last year, the team put a transmitter on what U.S. Forest Service biologist Ruth Stokes believed to be a second-year eagle that weighed about 10 pounds.
The transmitter continually releases data as long as it is within reach of a cell tower.
The signal was lost May 6, 2017, near Yellowknife in the Northwest Territory of Canada and has not been recorded yet this year.
Miller said she fears that bird may have been lost over the winter months.
“The fact that he didn’t return indicates that he might not have made it,” Miller said. “Typically there is increased mortality rate for young birds. You really have a high mortality rate for first-year birds, it drops a little bit for secondyear birds and the survival rates get better as they age.”
In addition to the birds’ migratory patterns, the study is also seeking to develop information related to habitat the birds frequent.
“We’re looking at threats, not just during migration,” Miller said. “The transmitter was bought by Georgia DNR and we want to know where they come from, and what they’re doing when they’re in Georgia.”
One of the original concerns for the eastern Golden eagles was the growing use of wind turbines along Appalachian ridges to produce energy. There has been a lot of problems with eagles being killed by the turbines out west.
Golden eagles are more abundant in the western United States.
They are similar in size to the bald eagle, but unlike the bald eagle, goldens rarely nest in public areas and are much more reclusive
The team was excited last year because the bird took a much more westerly migratory path up and down the spine of the Appalachian mountain range than many of the other birds that haven’t been fitted with transmitters.
Most of those birds have headed into Quebec and eastern Canada.