Eagle Tracking

Today I had the THRILLING news that I received a DEC Community Grant for an eagle tracking project at Lorna Glen!! In previous posts, I’ve mentioned beginning research at this DEC reserve in WA’s arid interior - click here to read about my first field trip in 2011. Now this project has kicked into full swing with the injection of valuable funds!

Later in 2012 I plan to conduct an Australian first and fit adult Wedge-tailed Eagles with satellite transmitter units, which will provide me with daily fixes on their location. This information will be used to achieve some of the following aims:

1. •   What is the average daily movement of an adult breeding Wedge-tail?
2. •   How often to eagles resident at Lorna Glen prey on reintroduced mammals from the fenced enclosure?
3. •   What is the home range of breeding eagles in this habitat?
4. •   How far to the fledgling eagles born in the Murchison region travel, and where do they go?

Such questions have been partially answered before but not in this region of Australia. Also, research conducted in this field occurred at a time when technology was not very advanced, so methods of determining territory size and habitat use were far less accurate.

I am very excited to be involved in this project, and must thank Keith Morris from DEC for being so encouraging and supportive of the work. I also need to thank the many people who have helped me along the way, including Gill Basnett, Judy Dunlop, Colleen Sims, Rowena Connolly, Neil Hamilton, Mark Blythman, Tegan Douglas, Allan Kuffer, Stephen Davies, and anyone else I’ve forgotten!