Djoorabiddi's Journey

It was very exciting to see Djoorabiddi's Journey feature in the West Australian Newspaper just prior to Christmas. Although it doesn't seem very long ago that I was plucking him off the eyrie in the Perth Hills to fit the transmitter, with camera crew from Channel 10's 'The Project' filming every move, more than 12 months have now passed. Since beginning dispersal in March this year, this remarkable eagle has moved 10, 000km across this vast continent. Click on the above image to enlarge it and read the full article.

On Country with Martu on ABC

Despite it being a particularly dry year at Matuwa, our recent GEMG-supported field trip to monitor the Wedge-tailed Eagle population was packed full of action as usual! One of the most exciting elements was the filming of some of the two-way science activities carried out by ornithologists, students and teachers from the Wiluna Remote Community School, CSIRO and Central Desert staff and volunteers.

Click here and watch the video put together by ABC journalist Rhiannon Stevens, which gives a fantastic overview of what has now officially become 'Warlu-wurru week.'

Homecoming?

It's been quite a while since we checked in with Kuyurnpa, our longest-tracked Wedge-tail that was satellite-tagged nearly FIVE years ago. My focus on the 2017 and 2018 sample of juveniles, however, doesn't mean that I haven't been watching her tracking data with eagle eyes. The pattern in her behaviour observed when we last read about her movements has not changed much during the last 12 months, with this fifth-year eagle moving between the Carnegie lakes system and the Fortescue Marsh area every few months. Just over a month ago, however, Kuyurnpa made the ~700 km journey south from Roy Hill and roosted close to the northern boundary of Matuwa. Since then, she has behaved 'like a fox patrolling the boundary of a chicken pen', making almost weekly 'incursions' onto Matuwa, sometimes roosting the night, usually in places I know (from our map of eagle nests) are away from active breeding sites.

The below map (click to enlarge) shows one such foray, where she moved from a roost ~20 km north-east of the Matuwa homestead, spending several hours over Lindsay Gordon Lagoon (just south of Kapiburror's nest), before moving off Matuwa again to roosting on the neighbouring property Wongawol.

On another occasion (last Saturday), she soared into Matuwa from the south and actually spent the night roosting in a tree under which I have walked, on the southern banks of the same lagoon. This makes July 2018 the month in which Kuyurnpa has roosted within 25 km of her natal nest more times than any other.

Tracking data showing the 14th July 2018 roost site on the southern bank of Lindsay Gordon Lagoon.

It will be so exciting to observe her movements in closer detail over the coming weeks! As we get further into the 2018 Arid Zone breeding season, I'm really interested to see whether Kuyurnpa's seemingly 'desperate' attempts (ok that's a bit too dramatic!) to enter the breeding population continue, and she ends up settling in a breeding territory close to the nest on which, half a decade ago, she came into this amazing world.

Eagles Everywhere!

Last week I gave a presentation about my eagle tracking research and preparing for this gave me the opportunity to put together the above map, which shows the recent movement paths of all surviving juvenile Wedge-tailed Eagles satellite-tagged in 2017. It's really interesting that Gudju and Kapiburror (black and white) haven't moved far from their natal home ranges at Matuwa, and amazing how birds like Darlyininy and Djoorabiddi (red and green) have 'met up' in the vicinity of Lake Argyle, thousands of kilometres from their natal nests in the Perth region. I'm looking forward to compiling the data and investigating the reasons (most likely to be climatic/rainfall-related) behind these movements. Currently I'm working on my first PhD paper about the post-fledging and dispersal behaviour of these birds, so I'll post more updates on that as they get off the ground!

Juvenile Satellite-tagging Summary

After an extremely busy field season last year, I've spent some time over the New Year break catching up on summarising the data I managed to collect, and reflecting on all the juvenile eagles fitted with GPS/Satellite Transmitters. Thirteen birds were satellite-tagged in 2017, bringing the total number of juvenile West Australian 'wedgies' tagged to 22 (including Kuyurnpa and Jarrkanpa, who were fitted with transmitters in 2013 and 2014, during my pilot study). All birds have been named using traditional Aboriginal languages from the two study sites where my PhD research is being carried out: Noongar in the Mundaring/Perth Hills region, and Martu at Matuwa (Lorna Glen) in the arid zone. Summaries of these members of our Wallu-wurru (4 males, 4 females) and Wailitj (7 males, 5 females) families are shown in the images above and below (click to enlarge). You can read more about the individual tagging events on my personal blog by clicking the name of the eagles listed below.

Thank you so much to all those amazing people who supported the crowdfund which covered the cost of most transmitters deployed in Perth, as well as the other groups like the GEMG, Whiteman Park and Tronox for sponsoring individual birds. More information on their movements will be uploaded soon!

Matuwa Indigenous Protected Area:

Kuyurnpa
Jarrkanpa
Goonta
Malya
Karlbartu & Djootabay
Kapiburror
Yapu
Junjurru
Gudju

Mundaring (Perth Region):

Wailitj
Korung
Kala
Yirrabiddi
Walyunga
Darlyininy
Ngooni & Naakal
Djoorabiddi
Baakininy
Moonah
Kwidi