Bald Eagle Migration Update: March 24, 1997

To: Journey North
From: Peter Nye, New York Department of Environmental Conservation

"#N 98 may be on the move! I only got one fix on her yesterday (3/23, see below), and it wasn't one of high quality, but if it is to be believed, she has moved almost directly north of Wellesley Island into Canada. She appears to be on the Ottawa River just west of Ottawa City. She must have departed 03/22 or 03/23. What were the winds/pressure systems then? Students might want to figure out how far she moved also. I should get more fixes tomorrow night, and will keep you posted.

"Below find latest movements of our two eagles. Until yesterday, our adult, #N 99, was still holding tight to the general area of capture around Wellesley Island in the St. Lawrence River, which is still quite frozen.. Last week I was actually getting a little concerned about this bird/radio as it has been transmitting from the same fairly small area since February (especially given the imprecision of the Argos data). I was going to have our eagle field person up there, Blanche Town, try to track it down on the ground using a conventional, short-range radio transmitter we placed on a tail-feather, to get a "visual" on the bird. I hoped nothing was wrong, but wanted to check to be sure. It may simply have been that this was her favored roosting location, since most of the data I'd received on this eagle were from roosts; In the past week, the data did show some movements during daytime, which was encouraging. Keep watching those weather systems!"

• Go to Today's Satellite Data for Eagle #N 98.
• Go to Today's Satellite Data for Eagle #N 99.
• See Classroom Lesson, "Weather Forecast for the Birds".

  Challenge Question # 5:
  "If the satellite reading for 3/23/97 is accurate, how far did #N 98 move from her roost at 44.332 N, 76.016 W? (For extra credit: Were the weather conditions favorable for eagle migration on March 22 and/or March 23rd? Describe your answer.)"

• Link to weather maps for March 21, March 22, March 23

To respond to this Challenge Question please follow the instructions at the end of this report.

"As for our 3-year old #N 98, he's been doing some site-seeing! As you know, he traveled down to the northern Chesapeake Bay via the Susquehanna River and stayed there a while. Then, beginning in early March, he headed east into New Jersey, spent a few days in southern Jersey, then seemed to have followed the Delaware River back up into New York and all the way up to near Binghampton, where the Susquehanna River comes near. From there last week, seems he headed north toward and through Syracuse (NY) and seemed to be along the Oswego River along the east end of Lake Ontario. After lingering awhile in NY, he now appears to have gone straight north into Canada north of Wellesley Island. It will be interesting to see where this bird spends the bulk of its summer, and hence provide a clue into where it was born. 'Brings to mind some interesting questions:

• Why move?
• Why go where he has been going?
• What do you suppose he is looking for?
• What kind of weather conditions allowed him to make some of these substantial daily moves?
• What cue's do you suppose he is responding to?
• What kind of weather system on 03/19 or 03/20 do you think allowed/aided this north movement?