Fly-past

Kuyurnpa remains in close proximity to her birthplace! A month ago she completed a 230 km 'home run' across her natal territory, starting and finishing at a roost site located about 40 km north-east of Matuwa. Not long after that, the young eagle headed west again, spending three nights at the edge of a large claypan, as shown by the green cluster of GPS fixes in the above map. The 15th July saw her cross her natal nest site again, and this time continue further east. Kuyurnpa has spent the two weeks since that date skirting Lake Carnegie, a giant inland claypan situated in the middle of the West Australian desert.

During the latest journey east, Kuyurnpa travelled very close to our resident adult male Wallu. GPS fixes from 15th July at 3 pm show these two eagles were only 15 km apart - but both birds have different priorities in life right now. While Kuyurnpa is still very much in her juvenile wandering phase, traversing the country widely on her own, Wallu is seemingly very busy providing food to his mate Wurru (and perhaps a new chick) at a new nest site in the woodland area. Will we find later this year the first successful hatching of a Wallu eaglet since satellite tagging?  I can't wait to find out!

A New Nest?

As the eagle breeding season approaches, I've been tracking the daily movements of our male wedgie Wallu, and paying particular attention to where he has roosted each night. In the last 2 weeks he has spent more than half of his nights at a particular tall gum-tree in a small patch of woodland about 700 m north-east of his favourite rabbit warren hunting place. This is shown by the cluster of GPS fixes in the above picture (click to enlarge). I have inspected this site a few times in the past year and discovered the perch tree is a tall Cue York Gum (Eucalyptus striaticalyx) with quite a few nice horizontal perches, perfect for eagles to land on. When not roosting at the actual tree, Wallu has still remained close by, spending every night within a 1 km radius of it. It has been interesting to observe a shift in his behaviour - over the summer period he often roosts in tall Gidgee trees on the high ridge that forms the northern border of his territory, close to his two existing nest sites, and only visits the Rabbit Ridge every few days.

The fact Wallu has spent an increasing amount of time in this area as Wedge-tailed Eagles are preparing to breed makes me think him and Wurru have built a new nest here. When I learned how often he visits the nearby rabbit warren, I did wonder why this pair persisted at attempting to breed (and subsequently failing) in nests which were so far from their apparent key source of food. It would make sense to build at a site much closer to an abundant and readily portable supply of prey. I am very much looking forward to visiting the territory later this year to see if my prediction is right!

Home Run

Kuyurnpa has continued her urge to return home! After her recent long journey south, she stopped to rest for a few days 70 km north-east of her natal territory (scroll down to read more). In the next 2 days the satellite tracking data showed her head south-west from here and, around 2 pm on 2nd July, pass right above the nest on which she hatched nearly 2 years ago. Kuyurnpa then flew directly south and roosted not far from the site where she spent her first ever night alone (on 29th March 2014), clocking up 115 km for that day. By dusk tonight (3rd July 2015), she was back at the northern roost site again, completing a 2 day, 230 km 'home run' loop. Does this behaviour indicate she is wanting to return home, or is searching for a vacant breeding territory near where she was born? I still feel it is a little early for Kuyurnpa to breed, and although we know from the CSIRO's work in the 1970's that most breeding eagles are adults aged more than 6 years, we have no data on when Wedge-tailed Eagles might begin their settlement. We will only gather some insight by continuing to track Where Eagles Dare - and you can assist with that by pledging your support to help this eagle tracking project continue. Visit the Crowdfunding Campaign for information on how you can help!

230 Clicks South

Kuyurnpa has in the last week been on the wing again, clocking up more remarkable kilometres during a sudden journey southward. Our young eagle, who is approaching her 2nd birthday next month, added 460 km to her odometer in a 4-day flight that saw her leave Roy Hill and fly back towards home soil. On one of these days, Kuyurnpa moved an amazing 230 km between 10 am and 4 pm, with one GPS fix recording her travelling at just over 90 km per hour! Just when I thought she might settle in the Pilbara region for a while (Kuyu has just spent 6 consecutive months on an area of Roy Hill that is approximately 100 km wide), this wandering wedgie has zipped across to the Gascoyne region, stopping about 70 km north-east of her natal territory. This is the closest she's been to her 'home' since roosting 60 km away from it on 27th October last year. Will she stay here longer, or will she continue to move on? The only way to know is to check in again soon!

Don't forget to view the video to the Crowdfunding Campaign I launched just over 2 weeks ago, where you can pledge your support to help this eagle tracking project continue.

Kuyurnpa's journey south south-east, showing 4 days travel.

Wallu: 2 Year Anniversary

Here is Wallu, doing what he does best - flying high and about to launch into a dive, fast! Just like our eagles, time has flown fast since this photo was taken at the end of last year. We are now half way through this year and have rapidly got to today's important milestone: the 2 year anniversary of Wallu's capture. It seems like only last week that I experienced the exhilarating adrenalin rush and launched from the car toward the trap in which Wallu was caught, before fitting his PTT to see where this eagle would 'dare' (you can read all about that here).

This male eagle has now been satellite-tracked for 730 consecutive days and has roosted every single night in the same home range. A massive concentration of the GPS fixes recorded by Wallu's PTT has occurred adjacent to what is clearly this eagle's main food source: a highly active rabbit warren along the edge of a seasonal lake. Wallu visits this location virtually every day.

More than 10 000 GPS fixes have been recorded from Wallu's PTT during the 2 years of tracking.

Wallu's very concentrated home range lies just north of Lindsay Gordon Lagoon, a large seasonal clayplan on Matuwa.

  
It is quite fitting that today, on the 2 year anniversary of his capture, Wallu will for the first time be shown to a Blue Mountains audience at the Leura screening of the documentary 'Where Do Eagles Dare?'. I am super excited about showing the film to a different audience in what is certainly a beautiful part of Australia.

Crowdfunding Campaign Launched

I'm super excited to announce the launch of a crowdfunding campaign to continue with this eagle tracking project. Info below!

Kuyurnpa Sighted!

Today, after trekking over 2 km through water-logged country surrounding a Pilbara flood-plain on Roy Hill station, I was delighted to see Kuyurnpa, alive and well! She was satellite-tagged in October 2013 but has not been sighted since she began juvenile dispersal in March last year. The above photo was taken just before this gorgeous girl, now in her second year, took to the air and sailed away in a long glide, disappearing behind the shrubs.

After recording some information about her morning perch, I then investigated her overnight roost site, which was located in a tree a few hundred metres away.

Kuyurnpa's roost tree, where she spent last night, surrounding by flat, cattle-grazed floodplain.

This tree was one of the only eucalypts among an otherwise flat plain. Such trees are probably preferred because they provide a large raptor with easy access and a good view at dawn and dusk when potential prey might walk past. On the way to this location, I sighted three more eagles, two of which were adults. This suggests Kuyurnpa is perhaps hanging around other eagles, a tactic which probably helps her find food and increases her chance of forming bonds with other birds. Such behaviour has been observed with Golden Eagles in Scotland ('birds of a feather flock together'!). Here you can see the horizontal limb on which our girl spent the night, only about 2.5 m above the ground, as well as a fresh pile of whitewash below:

A closer look at the eucalypt bough showed very fresh imprints made by Kuyurnpa's talons. I smiled with excitement to think I was standing almost level with where this beautiful eagle had sat and gripped with those massive weapons, the same ones I had held firm when removing her from the nest to attach a PTT nearly 2 years ago!

Fresh talon imprints show exactly where Kuyurnpa sat.