Spread those Wings

It is now almost 2 months since Malya fledged, and his progress has been amazing! Initial movements of 50 - 100 m from the nest (shown by the pink pin on the above map) continued over the first fortnight, and soon the young male eagle was roosting in a tall tree just over 1 km from the eyrie (which, coincidentally, I had climbed the day of his tagging, to photograph an oncoming thunderstorm!).

These short bursts were rapidly replaced by longer flights of over 100 m, and in the last month of tracking, Malya has spread his wings widely and travelled across an area with a radius of just over 6 km. He has also been recorded soaring to great heights, reaching altitudes of over 2000 m on some of the warmer days.

Malya's parents' territory happens to be adjacent to that of Wallu, our 'founding member' of the eagle tracking family, and zooming out provides a comparison of the 2 birds' movements during the past 8 weeks. The dark, diagonal line shown on the below map (click to enlarge) is a ridge running north-west to south-east, a landform which appears to form the northern boundary of Wallu's territory. So far these two birds have not overlapped, but it is important to keep in mind a juvenile like Malya may be tolerated 'intruding' on another adult's patch, unlike one of his parents. It is great to be able to have this context of two arid-zone wedgies