Decorah eaglets’ odd behavior ruffles feathers
The newest Decorah bald eagles are acting foreign. A couple of weeks ago, the three eagles that hatched earlier this year left the nest for the beginning time, then went missing. It caused a touch among the thousands of devotees of the celebrated eagles who have monitored them online via a nest cam. “ They ‘re not behaving like any birds in the past, ” said Bob Anderson, the bird of prey research worker from Decorah who installed the first nest cam in 2008. “ They were constantly twitching. ”
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What ‘s causing this eccentric demeanor is obscure. The birds appear a workweek or more behind regular development, but he can only speculate what might have them agitated. One possible perpetrator ? Gnats. “ We ‘ve had a austere gnat infestation, and they were in a ageless twitch, ” Anderson said. “ You and I would have gone stark-raving harebrained. I ‘ve seen a fortune of other birds that were jumping out of nests to get away from gnats. ” Three days after the eaglets ‘ maiden over flight and fade, Anderson got a call from Decorah police. One of the eagles was in the in-between of Trout Run Road. It may have felt trapped in the nearby woods. Anderson gathered the dame up after a pursuit, but noticed it was both hungry and capable of flight. He fed the eaglet three quail, placed a satellite sender on the dame and released it. twice since then it became trapped in standing corn and had to be gathered up again. then Sunday, it was in tall eatage adjacent to a waver cable fence that it tried in conceited to burst through. He found the eaglet in the playing field. “ I thought it was all in at first gear, but when I touched it, it exploded ” with apparent motion, he said.
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It was asleep. Earlier last workweek, another of the three was located in a pour with a break in annex. The eaglet endured wing operating room Saturday and is now recovering at Save Our avian Resources ( SOAR ) in Carroll County. If everything goes right, it may take two months for the eagle to recover enough to be released, said Kay Neumann of SOAR. The early eaglet has been spotted at the city ‘s compost voltaic pile about a nautical mile from the Decorah nest, a favored lookout spot because it rises to 20 feet. The eaglet with a transmitter has now found its way to its sibling on the compost stack.
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Their new haunt has prompted a shift in their human fans ‘ travel, excessively. “ The compost site has immediately become the place to horizon eagles, ” Anderson said. “ People course up at the locate very early in the morning, as this is when the majority of the food is brought to the eaglets by the adults. This weekend, there were hundreds of people in town to see them. ” It ‘s been a crazy originate, but Anderson thinks the eaglets may be settling down. “ I think we are out of the woods, ” he said .
I am broadly interested in how human activities influence the ability of wildlife to persist in the modified environments that we create.
Specifically, my research investigates how the configuration and composition of landscapes influence the movement and population dynamics of forest birds. Both natural and human-derived fragmenting of habitat can influence where birds settle, how they access the resources they need to survive and reproduce, and these factors in turn affect population demographics. Most recently, I have been studying the ability of individuals to move through and utilize forested areas which have been modified through timber harvest as they seek out resources for the breeding and postfledging phases. As well I am working in collaboration with Parks Canada scientists to examine in the influence of high density moose populations on forest bird communities in Gros Morne National Park. Many of my projects are conducted in collaboration or consultation with representatives of industry and government agencies, seeking to improve the management and sustainability of natural resource extraction.
