Hanging near Home

The last time we heard about Kuyurnpa, she had just completed a giant journey from the Pilbara region of WA, into South Australia, then back to the centre of WA again. Her life since then has continued to be filled with high adventure! After crossing the Great Victoria Desert for the second time, Kuyu headed north again, and settled down on Roy Hill station in the Pilbara. We don't know if she 'met someone' or just stayed in an area of good food supply (perhaps with other young eagles of similar age), but the Roy Hill area and surrounds became her home for the next 10 weeks. Her tracking data showed a concentration of points with a total area of just over 10 000km² (about 2.5 million acres). Here's a map (click to enlarge):

As if it was in her diary to be 'gone by the end of the month', Kuyu left Roy Hill on 1st October, and once again headed homeward, roosting just 10km south of the south-eastern Matuwa boundary, 40km from her natal nest. She didn't stop there though, and continued eastwards as far as Lake Carnegie, where she has mostly remained for the past 3 weeks. However, it looks as though Kuyurnpa has made a couple of 'attempts' to get closer to home, with two roost sites being just 10km east of Matuwa's eastern boundary, and a few day fixes have shown her soaring over Matuwa itself. Below you can see the most up-to-date map of this amazing young eagle's movements.

Kuyurnpa's latest GPS fix is the point near the north-western extremity of Lake Wells.

In a few days it will be a year ago that Kuyurnpa left her nest for the first time, and 7 months ago that she left her parents' home range. Since fledging she has now travelled 14 800km around 2 states of Australia! It has been an incredible journey, both for the eagle herself, and for us as we've eagerly tagged along for the ride! I hope you've enjoyed follow her as much as I have. Where will she fly to next?