Unfortunate!

 As an environmentalist I am happy that small steps have been made to transition our energy needs to cleaner sustainable sources. New sources like wind, solar and wave technologies lessen our dependency on sources like coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear. These older technologies pollute the environment and can be very dangerous.

Unfortunately good intentions can sometimes have bad side effects. That has been the case with wind energy. A study by the Us Fish and Wildlife Service reports that at least 85 golden and bald eagles were killed at wind farms between 1997 and 2012. That may not sound like a huge number over 5 years, however the study relied mainly on volunteered reports of fatalities by the wind energy companies. So it is possible the number may be much higher. The study also did not include all US wind farms. The Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area in California was not included in the study. It is located in an area with a high population of golden eagles and may be responsible for as many deaths as reported in the study every year.

 

Most of the concern is about eagles but other types of raptors also collide with windmills. Raptors typically watch the ground when they fly because they are looking for food. By the time they notice the structure it is too late as the blades which can be spinning in excess of 150 mph create wind currents that can suck the birds in. Most of the deaths happen at older facilities. While the UFAWS report has sparked awareness on this issue from concerned citizens a 1 million dollar fine that was recently levied against a wind energy company in Montana has gotten the attention of the wind industry. Some Wind energy companies now hire people to do impact studies before building new farms. Unfortunately the best location for wind farms are often great habitat for eagles. Other technologies, such as radar that can turn of turbines when it detects an eagle in the area, are also helping us to create a cleaner environment while minimizing our impact on eagles and other birds of prey.

Winter is Eagle Time

Winter is eagle time in south east Minnesota. Minnesota has the largest population of nesting eagles in the lower 48 states. During the winter eagles from around the state and eagles that have migrated south congregate at the few spots where they can find open water. Most of these locations are along the Mississippi River in southern Minnesota. During the winter we also get a population of golden eagles that migrate down from northern Canada and spend the winter in southeastern Minnesota and southwestern Wisconsin. Since they are not fish eaters the golden eagles are usually not found right along the river but they do like the rolling hills that are in the area adjacent to the river. Often time it is possible to see both species in the same area. Since bald eagles do not get their white heads and tails until they are 5 to 6 years old, it can be a challenge to distinguish the golden eagle from the immature bald eagle. In this photo we have one of each. Can you tell which is which?

Golden Eagle Survey

 This weekend I participated in the 9th Annual Golden Eagle Survey through the National Eagle Center.Each January, for the past nine years, volunteers have braved the cold to go out and count golden eagles in south eastern Minnesota, south western Wisconsin, and northern Iowa. This was my fifth year on the survey and I was joined by my crew mates from The Raptor Center Jim, who was also on the survey with me last year, and Less. We had the same route in south western Wisconsin as we did last year. This route has numerous territories in it and this year we surpassed last years numbers by 1 by spotting 6 eagles.

For many years spotting a golden eagle in this area was a rare occurrence. It was well known that 100 to 200 golden eagles were typically counted migrating over Hawk Ridge each year but most people believed that they migrated out of the area. Perhaps out east to Pennsylvania where a group of golden eagles was known to winter. Then Scott, the Education Director at the National Eagle Center began to spot them in the hilly areas just outside of the Mississippi River Valley. After a few years he organized the first survey. Since then the survey has grown. Last year there was over 154 volunteers and we spotted 130 golden eagles. They have also had the opportunity to put radio trackers on several eagles so that we can learn more about these eagles. One of the big questions is where do they nest, since they do not breed here in Minnesota. Preliminary info suggests that they either breed around the Arctic Circle north of Churchill, Canada or out east in Quebec, Canada. However we need a lot more info before we can hope to understand these majestic eagles and I am continuing to do my part by participating in the annual survey.

Golden Eagles

 This weekend I am hoping to make a trek down to southwestern Wisconsin in search of golden eagles. Golden eagles do not nest here in Minnesota and Wisconsin but there is a population that spends the winter here. I guess our harsh Minnesota winters are like Spring Break compared to the winters where they breed up in northern Canada. Each year we do a survey in January to count the gold eagles. Last year we had our highest count with around 150 birds. This year might be another good year since many golden eagles were counted as the migrated past Hawk Ridge in northern Minnesota this fall. They seem to be somewhat territorial even during the winter season. They typically return to the same territory year after year which will be good for me as I identified around 10 different territories last year. I did make a trip down into the area a few weeks ago in search of eagles with out much luck but that was before our first snow. By now I am hoping that more of the eagles have settled back into their territories and I will be able to get some more nice pics like the one above that I took last December.

This weekend I headed south down the Mississippi River to the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, MN. The center was celebrating the five year anniversary of their beautiful facility located on the banks of the river. They began back in 1989 as a group of volunteers, called EagleWatch Inc, that pointed out eagles to visitors from a outdoor observation deck on the river. In 2000 they moved to a storefront in Wabasha and took in two educational eagles Harriet and Angel (below).

In 2003 Columbia an immature female was added to the line up. In September of 2007 the National Eagle Center moved to the new 15,000 foot facility. A year later Donald, the center's Golden Eagle, came to join them from California. The final educational ambassador was tiny Was'aka, a six pound male that came from Florida. All of these birds came from rehabilitation facilities and can not be released back into the wild. To celebrate this weekend they also had Native American hoop dancing, chainsaw art demonstrations, a bird show from a Tennessee bird organization, as well as their normal educational programs and displays. The weather was beautiful and it looks like everyone was having a great time. The only thing missing was the cake, but as a diabetic I did not really miss watching everyone else pig out on sugar.  

Eagles

There are over 60 species of eagles in the world. Most of them are found in Europe, Asia and Africa. Eagles are members of the Accipitridae family which includes most of the diurnal raptors. Eagles are divided into three groups. The first group is the sea or fish eagles. These are eagles that have scaled legs with no feathers on them. Their legs are designed to dip into the water and catch fish. The bald eagle of North America is an example of a sea/fish eagle.
The next grouping is the booted eagles. These eagles have feathers that reach all of the way down to their feet. They are usually better hunters then sea eagles and live off hunting live prey, such as small mammals and ground birds. They often live in more arid climates and get most of their moisture from their prey. The golden eagle of North America is an example of a booted eagle.
Snake owls are generally smaller then other eagles. They are usually found in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. As their name implies most snake eagles hunt and eat snakes. Since many snake are equipped with venomous fangs snake eagle have extremely tough pads on their feet to help protect them from snake bites. The bateleur eagle of Africa is an example of a snake eagle.

Some people also separate the harpy eagle of South America along with several other large and powerful eagles into a forth group. Many of these eagles eat larger prey such as monkeys, sloth, or lemurs which they pluck from the tree tops.

Golden Eagle Survey

Last weeks golden eagle survey was a great success. The weather cooperated for most of the day with blue cloudless skies until we were finishing up. I was partnered with Jim, who volunteers with me at The Raptor Center, and Bill, who I just met at the survey.
Is was still pretty cold in the morning around 9:30 am when we began. We did not see many birds early on, but as the day went on and the temps began to rise suddenly the eagles came out to hunt. In our area in western Wisconsin we counted 5 golden eagles. The first one that we spotted was perched and did not give me an opportunity to get any descent pics but the other birds where both in pairs that flew right over our heads. This was the most birds that any of us had ever seen on the survey and it was a lifer for Jim. This year in total there were 140 people who helped in the survey and 125 golden eagles were counted.

Golden Eagle

Tomorrow I will be participating in the 8th Annual Wintering Golden Eagle Survey. Golden eagles do not nest here in Minnesota. Even though for many years a hundred or more golden eagles have been counted as the migrated over Hawk Ridge in northern Minnesota it was believed that a golden eagle was a rare sighting except for special locations such as White Water State Park.
Eight years ago the staff at the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, MN began a survey to count golden eagles. The survey began small but each year more people join the survey. Last year over one hundred people counted 80 golden eagles in south eastern Minnesota, western Wisconsin, and northern Iowa. This year there are enough counters to fill 50 different routes. The route that I will be on is in western Wisconsin. It is part of an area that I have been photographing golden eagles in over the past month. So far I have spotted about a dozen eagles in nine separate territories. The eagles above where photographed in my route so it is likely that I will be able to count them tomorrow.

There's Gold In Them There Hills

Over the past few years I have spent the second Saturday in January driving around southern Minnesota participating in the annual golden eagle survey that is sponsored by the National Eagle Center located in Wabasha, MN. This January I had to decide whether to help in the golden eagle survey again this year or participate in the first ever Brrrrdathon in northern Minnesota, since both were held on the same weekend. It was a tough choice. Both events are great events for the naturalist and photographer in me and both support a worth while goal.

I finally decided on heading up north to the Brrrrdathon since it was the inaugural year for that event, if you missed last weeks Brrrdathon post you can see it here. Fortunately the National Eagle Center offers several afternoon seminars on how to spot and identify golden eagles prior to the survey. So I decided to head down to join the final seminar on January 8th.

The seminar consists of about an hour of classroom training on identifying golden eagles, which was redundant for me since I have been to the seminar two times in previous years, and then a couple hours out in the field looking for the eagles. The seminar is led by Scott Mehus from the NEC who runs the annual survey and has watched and studied these birds for years. Scott knows these golden eagles very well and your best chance to get a good look at these birds, at least in southern Minnesota and Wisconsin, is when you are out with him.

We headed out from Wabasha over the Mississippi and into Wisconsin. We continued east, away from the river, and into the interior hilly areas. We were looking for goat hills, like the ones pictured above. Goat hills are south west facing hills that get more sun; which evaporates more of the moisture leaving less for trees, bushes and other vegetation. The eagles use these goat hills to hunt, squirrels, rabbits and wild turkey. We made our way through the countryside looking at goat hills and we saw several golden eagles perched far away in the distance. I was a little discouraged because they were much to far away to get a good picture.

As it was getting close to 4:00 Scott headed our caravan to a special spot where he had recently had good luck getting close views of the eagles. With the sun getting low in the sky we pulled over next to a small hill on a county road in the middle of rural Wisconsin. We got out of the cars, out into the cold winter air, and waited. After about 10 minutes some people decided to leave but those of us who road with Scott wanted to stay just a little bit longer. About 5 minutes later an adult golden eagle came floating over the hill. We watched as she soared over head and then across the valley to the hills on the other side. We were then amazed and ecstatic as she came back across the valley and flew over head again this time carrying a stick in her beak. Scott told us that he had witnessed this behavior before and he thought that it may be some sort of mating ritual that prepares them for nesting. Golden eagles do not nest in this area but there do seem to winter here in pairs.

I headed home that day with some of the best golden eagle pics that I have ever taken, including the first two eagle pics. Two weeks later, on a beautiful sunny Sunday, I decided to spend my day heading down the river. After photographing common mergansers and other ducks in Redwing, MN and a beautiful pair of bald eagles in Lake City, MN I decided to head over to Wisconsin. I located the spot where we had seen the golden eagles during the seminar and I waited. After waiting about an hour and a half a golden eagle finally came flying over the hill, this time even closer then before, and I took even better eagle pics, like the bottom two. It was just about 4:00 pm again, which proved Scott's point that these golden eagles were very much creatures of habit. I waited around a little while after the eagle disappeared over the hill, hoping that it would fly over again but with the sun going down I decided to head hope happy with the great shots that I had.

Winter Birding - Golden Eagle Survey

With all of the summer pics that I have been posting you might think that I am hibernating over the winter. Spending all winter sleeping in a nice warm place sounds good, at least for a few minutes, but its not my style. So I have been out taking pics and participating in some fun events.

In January I participated in the Annual Golden Eagle Survey, which is coordinated through the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, MN. Each year we count the golden eagles that winter in southeastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin. This is my third year doing the survey so I contemplated asking for my own route but I was not sure that my car could handle the back roads and hills in the area, especially if the weather was not cooperative.

So I headed down to White Water State Park to join the group that was counting down there. When I arrived I found that there were about 20 cars, that were broken into two groups, that were surveying the park area. Since I thought that there were more then enough people to cover the park, in 2009 we had 4 or 5 cars, I decided to work some of the back roads between the park and Wabasha on my own, the weather was very cooperative this year.

While traveling the back roads I found a dozen bald eagles, one of which was an immature, and three red-tailed hawks but unfortunately no golden eagles. So I stopped back at the Eagle Center so I could get a shot of Don, the education golden eagle at the center. This year, the 6th year of the count, there were over 130 volunteers and 93 golden eagles were counted. Most of the eagles were in Buffalo County in Wisconsin where 25 volunteers covered 15 routes and counted 60 golden eagles. Next year I think that I will have to see if I can get a route in Buffalo County.

National Eagle Center

On Saturday I took a trip down the Mississippi River to the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, MN to attend a workshop on golden eagle identification. This is a prelude to the golden eagle survey that is held in south east Minnesota and Western Wisconsin each January.

The survey is sponsored by the National Eagle Center. The purpose of the workshop is to help those people interested in participating in the survey distinguish between golden eagles and immature bald eagles, both of which can be found in the same approximate area. I have participated in the survey the past two years. I have also taken the workshop in the past so I knew most of the info but a refresher never hurts and Scott Mehus, who runs the survey and the workshop, always ends the program by taking people out to a location where he knows golden eagles can be found

The Eagle C enter is a great facility located on the banks of the Mississippi River at the northern end of the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge. Since the Upper Mississippi River NWFR hosts the largest number of wintering bald eagles in the continental US, the National Eagle Center is an a perfect location. With a number of decks, like this one outside on the river, lots of windows, marked with decals to prevent birds from flying into them, and plenty of scopes and binoculars to use it is tough not to see an bald eagle here. If you happen to visit at a slow time when there are no eagles around outside you can always check out one of the four resident bald eagles at the center. The bald eagles include Angel, pictured above, Harriot, Columbia, and the newest arrival Was'aka an three year old immature bird from Florida. On my way down to the eagle center I spotted about 35 eagles on the river, much of which is now frozen unlike in these pictures which I took at the end of October.

Over the past few years the center has been branching out to look into the golden eagle population that spends winter in southeast Minnesota and western Wisconsin. After watching the golden eagles in the winter for several years Scott, who works at the center, put together a survey in 2005 to try and get an idea of the number of golden eagles wintering in the area. In 2005 25 people participated in the survey and they counted 21 golden eagles. Over the past five years the number of participants in the survey has increased, 2009 was the largest group with 100 people, which has helped to find an increasing number of eagles each year, 88 in 2009.

In 2008 the National Eagle Center went a step further and procured a golden eagle education bird from the California Raptor Center. This allowed visitors to the center to see a golden eagle up close. In 2009 a golden eagle inadvertently caught in a coyote trap in western Wisconsin became the first bird in a joint research project between the center and Audubon Society of Minnesota, with support from the Minnesota and Wisconsin DNR and a couple other groups. Golden eagle 42, nick named Whitey, was fitted with a satellite tracking pack when he was released, he was rehabilitated at The Raptor Center. The project hopes to discover where these golden eagles spend their summer as well as general research on behavior and migration. Whitey traveled from Wisconsin up into Canada and spent his summer up at the arctic circle north of Churchill. Currently Whitey has returned to western Wisconsin to spend the winter. The project hopes to tag a couple more eagles this winter if possible so that they can learn more about these magnificent winter visitors.

For more information about the Golden Eagle Project check out this website at Audubon Minnesota.