News and Blogs

How do Bald Eagles stay warm in cold weather?

January 23, 2023: HD sports eye-cicles on a frosty morning in Decorah. An icy fog left everything coated with frost

Each species experiences the world differently and eagles have capacities that are far different from ours. How do Bald Eagles survive an Iowa winter without adaptive clothing and central heat? After a very warm week, temperatures plummeted on Saturday! When I jumped into my car to begin our Golden Eagle Survey, it was 25 degrees. By the time I got home late Saturday night, it was 5 degrees and the temperature was dropping fast! I checked our camera operators’ logs,

Read more Decorah Eagles, Decorah North Eagles, Fort St. Vrain Eagles, News

January 17, 2025: The Week in Pictures!

January 16, 2025: DNF

Welcome to the week in photos! Today’s Friday photo album features some favorite captures from Decorah North, Trempealeau, and our Golden Eagle work, plus a throwback from the Flyway. Thanks so much to our camera operators and videomakers for finding such special moments and to all of you for watching, sharing, learning, and especially for caring! It was a rollercoaster week, weatherwise, at the Decorah North Nest! The week opened with what seemed like a polar plunge, but was really

Read more News

January 14, 2025: NestFlix and News from Decorah North and Fort St. Vrain

January 11, 2025: A stunning overhead fly-in by Mr. North, who expertly drops into the nest.

Kick up your feet, grab a favorite snack – maybe some leftover Christmas cookies? – and get ready for NestFlix! We have videos from Decorah North and Fort St. Vrain! Stay warm, everybirdie…egglets will be here before we know it! Decorah North Eagles January 13, 2025: The Norths visit the nest, looking really cozy – https://youtu.be/rOBeNDp1wBM?si=FISXol2PtxPiJHZI. The North Nest is looking good! I liked this whole video, but I especially enjoyed the overhead view beginning at about 1:11, Mr. North’s

Read more Decorah North Eagles, Fort St. Vrain Eagles, News

RRP’s Winter 2024 Newsletter: Research

Peregrine Falcon Rebecca on Assateague Island. We banded her at Greysolon Plaza in Duluth, MN.

Advancing Raptor Conservation: The Raptor Resource Project’s 2024 Research Highlights The Raptor Resource Project (RRP) has long been at the forefront of raptor conservation and research, and 2024 was no exception. From tracking Golden Eagles to documenting changes in migration patterns, we continued to deepen our understanding of raptors and their role in the environment. 2024 Newsletter: https://www.raptorresource.org/raptorresource/pdf/2024WinterNewsletter.pdf Golden Eagle Tracking: Transmitters Unveil New Insights In 2024, we fitted transmitters on five Golden Eagles (GOEA), expanding our efforts to track

Read more News

RRP’s Winter 2024 Newsletter: Message from the Director

RRP Director John Howe working on the North Nest rebuild in August

It is my pleasure to present the Raptor Resource Project’s Winter Newsletter! This year, the predominant theme has been the normalization of extreme weather events throughout the areas we monitor. The good news is that the Bald Eagles, falcons, and other raptors we work with appear to have hardly a feather out of place. Their ability to seek shelter and hunker down during storms is a testament to their incredible resilience. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for our equipment

Read more News

January 10, 2025: The Week in Bald Eagles!

January 9, 2025: DNF caught a nice trout for breakfast - https://youtu.be/X2GebRWdrYo?si=6g5qKAufUzY11AcH. While Bald Eagles eat a wide variety of food, their favorite thing is fish! Although the species change, fish make up from 68 to 88% of meals at our nests. We tend to see whatever is most common and easiest to catch: trout and sucker at the North nest and sucker, carp, and trout at Fort St. Vrain. We're still working on fish ID in Trempealeau, but we've seen gar come into the nest, reflecting its location on the Mississippi River. To learn more about what our eagles eat, follow this link: https://www.raptorresource.org/tag/menu/

Happy Fri-yay, everyone! Welcome to the week in Bald Eagles! 🦅 This week, the Norths perfected their nestorations, ramped up their courtship – albeit in a very eagle way – and enjoyed some trout tartare, the Fort St. Vrain Eagles shoveled snow and fed themselves and the local magpies, the Trempealeau Eagles showed off their magnificent river views, and HM and HD hosted some visitors. Is your egg clock ticking yet? If the Decorah North and Fort St. Vrain Eagles

Read more Decorah Eagles, Decorah North Eagles, Fort St. Vrain Eagles, News, Trempealeau Eagles

Eagle Eyes!

January 6, 2025: DNF's nictitating eyelid. This translucent third eyelid sweeps in from the side to moisten and protect her eye without obscuring her vision. More on eagle eyes here: https://www.raptorresource.org/2025/01/10/eagle-eyes-2/

Has anyone ever called you eagle-eyed? Relative to humans, bald eagles have larger, sharper eyes that see further, collect more details, and produce stereoscopic vision to greatly improve depth perception. A bald eagle’s visual acuity begins with its eye size and shape. Mr. North’s somewhat tubular eyes occupy over 50% of the volume of his skull, as compared with less than 5% in us spherically-eyed human types.  He can voluntarily adjust the curvature of his large cornea and lens (we’re

Read more Decorah Eagles, Decorah North Eagles, News

The Golden Eagle Diaries: Golden Eagle 417

Taiga Ecozone north, Baker Lake, Nunavut. The area is still very open, but conifers are beginning to appear.

GOEA 415, 417, and 695 are all back on their wintering grounds in the Driftless! What did their 2024 journals look like? Let’s take a look! We’ll start with Golden Eagle 417. Golden Eagle 417 417 began her 2024 spring migration on March 21st, covering an impressive 1,747 miles over 74 days to reach her summer home. She spent the season in Nunavut’s Qikiqtaaluk region, on what English speakers call Baffin Island, exploring the shores of an unnamed inlet. The

Read more Golden Eagles, News

Who’s that Bird?

January 7, 2025: Birdie Blair from WEPCO's Oak Creek Plant in Milwaukee, WI.

On Monday, I asked followers to email me if they got a band number at our US Bank La Crosse, WI nestbox. Lo and behold, Rosieann B came through! I’d seen this young peregrine previously and thought it was a local nestling we banded in 2024. But 30/AC isn’t one of our band numbers. Who was this? I looked the band number up and learned that Greg Septon banded Birdie Blair (love the name!) at the WEPCO Oak Creek Power

Read more News, Peregrine Falcons

January 6, 2025: Building and Beaking!

January 6, 2025: Building and Beaking at the North nest! https://youtu.be/5ZM5Pyfbvio?si=w9JWDXYzdExnakkL. It’s a great time to watch DNF and Mr. North flirt – albeit in a very eagle way! – as things ramp up. Look for beaking, body brushing, gentle nibbling, footing, and side-by-side perching. More on eagle courtship and bonding here: https://www.raptorresource.org/.../bald-eagle-mating

What are we looking forward to this week? Mr. North and DNF are busy testing and improving their new digs as they pile on husks, stalks, and grass. Shag carpets are back, baby! We recorded our first copulation of the season on December 7th, although we don’t really expect things to ramp up until the last week of January. But it’s a great time to watch DNF and Mr. North flirt – albeit in a very eagle way! – as

Read more Decorah North Eagles, Fort St. Vrain Eagles, News, Peregrine Falcons
« Older Entries