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.

Ten Thousand Fixes

Yup! TEN THOUSAND is the number of GPS fixes we have obtained from Wallu's PTT, which, as of today, has been tracking this very sedentary adult male wedgie for 700 consecutive days. The last time we checked in with Wallu we saw how he had not moved from his home range since the beginning of this tracking study. Not much has changed, and as you can see from the above 3D image, we have a very concentrated cluster of points clearly defining 'home'. As part of the process of publishing this preliminary research, I am now starting to look at this data in finer detail to analyse the points and look for patterns in daily behaviour, determine favourite roost sites, and search for other patterns in this eagle's behaviour. Watch this space for news of upcoming publications.

Settling In?

Has Kuyurnpa found a new home? It would seem so, for it has now been over 6 months since she settled in the one place in Western Australia's Pilbara region. Last year Kuyu visited Roy Hill station several times, spending about 10 weeks there in September, before heading back through Lorna Glen for another walkabout. But by the end of October, it was back to Roy Hill again, and that is where she has remained ever since.

The above map shows the collection of GPS points (nearly 2000 of them) which we have obtained this year. The cluster to the south-east occurs across a large area of relatively flat spinifex plain, and this is where Kuyurnpa has spent most of her time (i.e. all of February and March this year). Finer detail shows her movements in this period have often been very short, sometimes only travelling 1 - 2 km between roosts, which appear to be random with no favoured roost site selected. But throughout April she has ventured to the north west much more, moving 55 km between roosts on occasion.

This is the longest period our immature eagle, who is now approaching 2 years old, has spent in one location. Although it is much larger than her natal home range, which lies about 430 km to the south, and that of neighbouring eagles on Lorna Glen, it is still interesting to note this more sedentary behaviour after an initial wandering journey which covered about a quarter of WA's area (as shown on the map below - click to enlarge). I am hoping to find out more about Kuyurnpa's behaviour, and hopefully see what she looks like, when I visit Roy Hill Mine in early June this year to screen 'Where Do Eagles Dare?'. More soon!

Kuyurnpa's dispersal path in 2014. Roy Hill is shown with a green arrow. (Note that the northernmost and southernmost fixes are GPS errors.)