Posted on 07/07/2009 4:14:45 PM PDT by SJackson
Researchers are tracking a golden eagle found in southwestern Wisconsin to learn if this western bird is broadening its range.
Golden eagles are relatively unknown in Minnesota, infrequently seen, counted in small numbers and for a long time thought to be lone wanderers from the west.
These huge brown birds do winter here, however. They hunt for prey on the steep grassy slopes in the driftless area. Any given winter, about five dozen golden eagles cross the Mississippi River from Minnesota to Wisconsin and back.
Goldens are essentially birds of western North America. They nest all the way up to the Arctic coast in Alaska and Canada. Their range maps show nothing along the western edge of Hudson Bay. But that's where Whitey is.
Whitey is the name given to a golden eagle by Scott Mehus, education director of the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Minn. Mehus kept seeing a light-headed bird in a Wisconsin valley. He called it Whitey. When Wisconsin game officers delivered an injured golden eagle to Mehus last November, he knew he was looking at the bird he'd nicknamed.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
When he was released in late March, it was with a tiny, solar-powered transmitter.
Only in AMERICA do we have solar powered GPS transmitters for birds.
LOL!
They are year round residents here in the Black Hills; we see them from time to time around the ranch or on the way to town.
What was odd was seeing an osprey hunting over the cattle pastures a couple of months ago. No mistaking one of them; we had them all the time in Oregon.
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