Wednesday Update, January 24th, 2007

Hello Eagle Fans!

Update time again. I was on Santa Rosa Island all week so I’m going to report on what’s been going on there. I was there to check up on some eagles that have been spending a lot of time there, as well as search for potential nests. It was a gorgeous week on Santa Rosa. On Wednesday, I went to the northwest corner of the island to radio-track some birds and to look for a transmitter one of the birds had dropped. The transmitters do fall off after a year or two, but with the GPS and the radio we can track them down. We store the recovered transmitters to be re-used later if the unit is still in good condition.

On Thursday, I returned to the northwest corner of the island to do some radio-tracking. A lot of the eagles have been spending time in this area of the island and I saw eagles of all different ages (juveniles to adults) in the area. There’s an assortment of food items the eagles might be feeding on (fish, gulls, cormorants, ducks, elephant seal carcasses and afterbirth). The older eagles may be fishing and hunting for birds, while younger eagles may be scavenging or pirating food from the older eagles or other birds. There were a lot of eagles in the area (8-10 at least). I did see one adult perched on a bluff feeding on something, but was not close enough to see what it was. Later, after it had flown off, I hiked over to where it had been feeding but did not find remains. I hiked to the far northwest corner of the island. The wind was pretty strong that afternoon and I saw a handful of eagles soaring above the cliffs at the end of the island. There are great updrafts here and the eagles just hang up in the air there for a while. Effortless. It looked like fun! I picked up A-49’s radio signal there and I may have seen her, but I was not close enough to read tag numbers and there were lots of other eagles in the area too. But, I did see her later in the week, a few different times.

On Saturday evening I saw A-49 perched in some oak trees. These particular trees are a popular roost for the eagles on the island. There were at least three other eagles roosting there that night. On Sunday, I saw A-49 twice. I think she was following me. First I saw her soaring above the southern point of the island with A-52. Later in the evening she flew over me as I watched another set of oaks where we’ve seen eagles roosting before. She looked great. I’m not sure what she’s feeding on over there, but I did notice she had a nice, full crop on two of the occasions when I saw her. So, she’s finding food, soaring with other eagles, and roosting in favorite roosting spots. I think she’s got the hang of being a Bald Eagle on the Channel Islands! I also saw A-60 (the grassland chick) who is also doing quite well.

Over the week, I visited different parts of the island, hiking to numerous overlooks to search for adult Bald Eagles and/or potential nesting sites. I did see some adults and I did see lots of good-looking potential nesting sites, but I did not see evidence of nest-building at these sites. There’s still a lot of time for nesting to begin and there’s still a lot of the islands to cover. Thankfully, we just got some reinforcements to help in the nest-searching effort. We now have 4 new additions to the IWS Bald Eagle crew; Andy, Karen, Kim, and Ryan. They will be hiking all over the islands over the next few months searching for nests and will be monitoring the nests. We’re excited to have them here to help and hope it is another successful nesting season.

Below are a few pictures, not the greatest, but the best I got of eagles. I also will post some other photos on www.eaglefix.com. The map is of A-33. Chris mentioned A-33 flew to San Nicolas and Santa Barbara Islands. Well, now A-33 has returned to Santa Rosa Island after a brief stop on Santa Cruz Island. The map shows the GPS locations for him for Jan. 12 through Jan. 22 with each day’s data points in a different color. He covered a lot of ocean and four different islands over these eleven days. All I can say is, I’m impressed!

Have a good week and thanks for keeping us up-to-date on the goings-on at the web-cam nest.

Jessica



Island Codes: SMI (San Miguel Island), SRI (Santa Rosa Island), SCI (Santa Cruz Island), ANA (Anacapa Island), SBI (Santa Barbara Island), SNI (San Nicolas Island), CAT (Santa Catalina Island)



A-52 soaring above south side of Santa Rosa Island



A-49 soaring above south side of Santa Rosa Island



A-49 and A-58 perched in oak trees (I promise there are two eagles there, if you look close at the lower third of the oaks there are two brown figures, the upper one is A-58 and the lower one is A-49, I was able to ID the eagles through the spotting scope but due to the distance and the glare as the sun was setting behind the oaks, the photo is not the best)

Wonderful report, Jessica, and equally wonderful pictures! Especially glad you saw A60 and so much of Cruz! The pictures are great!!! Though I'm still hunting for the eagles in the oak trees! Maybe in the morning my eyes will focus better! Thank you so much for all the work you and the whole team does for these birds....and for taking the time to post your reports for us here along with the pictures. I love the picture of Cruz soaring! And the map of A33....wow! That bird has really made the rounds!!!

Jessica - thanks for another great, and newsy, report. #49 is as beautiful as ever, and it's heartwarming to have occasional pictures of her. Thanks so much. And welcome Andy, Karen, Kim and Ryan. I envy you and the adventures you are going to have.

Oh my, there's our girl! How truly majestic she looks soaring through the sky. Thank you so very much, Jessica and everyone else at IWS, for the update and the photos!

Jessica, thank you for the impressive report--I enjoyed the map. All your news is much appreciated and the photos are always a treat. Happy you have 4 new IWS crew members, too. Looking forward to any reports you may have on potential Santa Rosa nests. Take care and thanks, again. Your team always does a terrific job with the Updates.

Thank you so much Jessica .... a wonderful and very informative update.

Welcome to Andy, Karen, Kim and Ryan .... the newest members of your crew.

So great to hear and see our girl .... and also to hear that A-60 ... the Grasslands chick ... is also doing so well.

WoW! A33 .... that was some journey he made .... thanks for the map ... very impressive.

Good nest hunting guys!

Dittos and kudos to you and the entire crew...would LOVE to be a mouse in your pocket and hear how you and Dave and Peter 'splain the IWS/Eagle 'groupies' that eagerly wait for and devour each morsel of information that you post weekly....do the 'new kids on the block' know that another 'field trip' to Sta.Cruz is planned for late April? Do they (and you) know of the dangers that await them should they be close enough to be mantled by representatives of the group?

Sincere thanks for the great report/map/pix!

Welcome to the newest members of the IWS crew! Thank you Jessica for a great update and photos!

It's wonderful to know the eagles are doing well and enjoying each other's company - especially our girl!

Thank you for your efforts and certainly for the information!

Jessica - Thanks a million for your very informative report and the great photos.
It is so reassuring to know that the juvies are doing so well, have full crops, and are having fun soaring the skies. Welcome to all the new IWS crew, I really envy you all.

Jessica, great to hear from you. As always a wonderful job describing the situation over there on Santa Rosa. I love that you saw and captured pictures of Cruz. Isn't she gorgeous, well they all are but she is "special" to me. This brave little bird with so much riding on her sholders, Go! Cruz, Go!

Welcome to the new IWS heroes, Andy, Karen, Kim and Ryan. Glad we have more reinforcements out there keeping an eagle eye out on our wildlife. Go! IWS, Go!

This is my first post.

What beautiful pictures, and thank you so much for the map. I visit Santa Cruz often (son and family live in the mountains with goats, chickens, ducks, dogs, and wildlife), but I have neer watched the eagles there. They have!

Hello Beans! I see your Lil avatar, so you must have found your way over here from HWC? Good to see you here too.

I recognized you, too, Ostrich. Yes, I travel with Lil Sid. He's getting kind of heavy, sitting on my shoulder.

I'll take pictures of these eagles, too, when we go there.

Jessica, thank you for a wonderful update on our eagles. Thanks so much for the photo of our favorite A-49, such a treat to see. Welcome to all of the new IWS crew....we really appreciate all of you. Until next week, thank you.

Thanks so much Jessica for the great update and pics. I get very excited seeing our Princess looking so good. and the grassland A-60 that is great he is doing so well. I think it is a he? anyway love to hear news about our eagles what ever sizes or age they are. THANK YOU, THANK YOU.

Frances