StellerSeaEagle

End of the track

2011-06-13T14:04:00.001-07:00

Sadly the bird's last coordinates were heard on April, 24, 2011 from the ice floe near the coast. The temperature of the transmitter showed negative values, which means only one thing, the bird is no longer alive. The remote location of the last coordinates and ice breaking conditions excludes the possibiliy of human-caused death.

Ice floe move

2011-04-20T19:24:00.001-07:00

Today the adult eagle was transmitting from the area with broken up ice, at the edge of the open water. Next movement to the North is expected at any time now.

On ice again

2011-04-17T21:52:00.001-07:00

From 31 March 2010 the adult eagle stayed on ice some 100 km east from the Shantar Islands. This place has the most solid ice in the area, and it is remarkable that the bird stayed in roughly the same region and in the same time in the previous spring. Last year it departed from the ice on 10 April 2010. Guess that the next transmission will bring up similar track.

Spring migration 2010 and 2011

2011-03-25T10:24:00.001-07:00

It looks like the adult bird started it's spring migration in 2010 on March, 9, which is similar to the date of the onset of the spring migration of 2011. Although the starting point was a bit different, the pace of movement is somewhat similar. Perhaps the earthquake is was just a coincidence. Whatever the reason, the bird did avoid the massive and tragic quake.

Migration started

2011-03-23T20:14:00.001-07:00

After spending 4 days on the snowy east coast of Hokkaido (yes, up to 1.5 m of snow according to Japan Meteorological Agency Map), the adult eagle took off and headed North. Crossing to Sakhalin was done in the same place as last year. Interestingly, now (21 March 2011), the eagle is on ice in the Tatar straight. Last year it was in the same spot at the same time.

Japan Earthquake, part 2

2011-03-11T21:33:00.001-08:00

Just got the GPS data and cross-referenced it with the earthquake chronology. The data are very interesting. 9 March 2011, the eagle is at the top of a mountain ridge some 8 km SW from Ashbetsu town, Hokkaido. The fix is taken at noon, which is 2 am UTC. At 02:45:20 AM the global seismological network registers first earthquake of Hokkaido with magnitude 7.2 (source: http://earthquake.usgs.gov

Japan Earthquake and the Steller's Sea Eagle

2011-03-11T18:52:00.000-08:00

Although our payers go out to the people of Japan who face the aftermath of the massive earthquake and tsunami, I was looking anxiously at the data coming in from the adult eagle (the last we have on the air). The latest batch of the data came when the internet was flooded with scary images of the megaflood and huge amounts of damage to the east coast of Japan. The plot of the latest Doppler

Youngster's concerns

2011-02-09T19:24:00.001-08:00

It looks like the GPS positions of the youngster are coming from one location from January 17, 2011. The temperature of the PTT also does not look good, and is well in the negative zone. That can happen in a storm, as happen recently to the adult (on Hokkaido, on Dec, 8, 2010), but it could also be a singnal that the bird is down or the tag has been removed. Before settling at Point Balkan (or in

The Youngster has Re-surfaced!

2011-02-04T15:20:00.001-08:00

The bunch of coordinates received today has brought exciting news. The young eagle was heard from again and sent a signal from the Baklan Cape of the Sakhalin Island, some 25 km north of his previous transmission. So, it did not decide to cross the open sea after all. The adult remains in the middle of the Hokkaido (last transmission on 20 January), close to the areas it visited last winter.

Adult eagle news

2011-01-26T19:12:00.001-08:00

It looks as if the adult eagle has moved close to the area it was staying in during winter last year. However these areas were visited only in February 2010. Sadly, no news come from the youngster. Last fixes were on Jan 7, when the bird was at the southern tip of Sakhalin. We fear the bird may have attempted to cross over to the Kuril Islands, as it did last year.....

Early January

2011-01-11T11:29:00.001-08:00

Early January has brought some movement by the eagles. The youngster at the moment remains on the Aniva cape, the south eastern tip of Sakhalin Island (http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/12280835.jpg). Probably it can not see Japan, and is reluctant to cross the open sea, as in the past winter. The adult eagle, which crossed to Hokkaido at the beginning of the month has moved

New Year!

2011-01-03T23:37:00.001-08:00

The adult eagle moved from the Kuril Islands to the Shiretoko peninsula, Hokkaido, Japan on New Year's Eve. The picture shows only Doppler locations as the e-mails from Argos do not have the complete GPS sentences. Hope the youngster is doing well too.

Move continues

2010-12-23T19:01:00.001-08:00

The adult eagle (82163) has reached Kunashir Island. Today's e-mail has brought the last bit of the GPS data for the past days, so I was able to construct the GPS track. From Sakhalin Island the eagle went to Hokkaido, Japan, and then to Kunashir, and subsequently to Iturup Island. Interestingly the bird liked the same spots on the coastline of Hokkaido as it used last autumn migration.

New movements on the solstice

2010-12-21T19:16:00.001-08:00

Today the batch of coordinates brought some exciting news. The youngster (65629) moved south and is now on Sakhalin Island. We had feared the worst as it was not moving much and cold weather and ice was closing in on it. The adult is on Iturup. If you look back at blogs from last December 2009 -January 2010, you will see that both tagged birds were there at this time last year.

Kunashir!

2010-12-14T09:29:00.000-08:00

Today the adult eagle reported itself from the Kunashir island. The fixes were coming from the northern tip of the island, a low elevation cape with some lagoons. The youngster has suspiciously remained on the Kol River and has remained there depsite of very chilly weather (-15 to -22 C). Last GPS fix was taken on Dec. 7. We will have to wait for the next transmission cycle to see if there have

Youngster stays, adult goes!

2010-12-12T18:29:00.001-08:00

End of Novemrer and beginning of December was a stationary time for our two year old bird. It still remains near the Kol' river. There is complete snow cover now and there were some cyclones. I have checked on the temperature of the PTT on the bird, and it has remained within -7 to +10 C, while ambient temperature at the surrounding meteo stations were in the range of -18 -22 C suggesting that

Uneventful fortnight

2010-11-22T20:40:00.000-08:00

It appears that both the adult and young eagles have remained at the same place since the end of October. Both adult and young have chosen to stay on the Kol' river, where the adult visited in early November 2009, and the youngster passed through in May 2010 on his way north. I have to point out that the youngster come within dangerous proximity of the Belaya Gora gold mine tailing, which is

Meeting?

2010-10-31T20:07:00.001-07:00

It seems that our prediction was correct, which may mean that we are starting to understand the eagles' migration. The young eagle seems to have caught up with the adult. Yesterday a transmission from the younger bird was from the same region near Belaya Gora where the adult was a week ago. In the next few days we'll see if the adult moves ahead, or the two migrating eagles move synchonically. In

Youngster on the move

2010-10-28T09:20:00.001-07:00

The young eagle started migrating (again) on 16 October, and moved along the mountains. On 19 October it arrived at Ayan town, and has stayed in dangerous proximity of the Munuk airport. The airport is not a large one, but people are neareby. It looks that the eagle escaped the deathtrap of the Okhota river, but there are many perils ahead. Will it cut across the Tugur bay to avoid shooting there

Adult eagle: migration in Progress

2010-10-28T09:15:00.001-07:00

The adult eagle took off from the Okhota river on 18 October and flew along the coastline, some 15 km inland and on 20 October arrived in the Belaya Gora region of the Russian Far east. The place, judging from the Panoramio photos, is a magnet for the eagles. It was here last autumn from 28 October to 17 November (that is 2009)... the same place, similar time. Interestingly during spring 2010

Adult and youngster at a favorite location

2010-10-18T15:55:00.001-07:00

It looks like both the adult and young eagles prefer the same place on the Okhota river. In the past this place has been very attractive to some eagles, but it can also be death trap when eagles remain too long it this area and are cut off from reaching feeding areas along their migratory route heading south. Hope it won't happen to these ones.

Circlular movements of the young eagle

2010-10-18T15:53:00.001-07:00

Meanwhile the immature eagle (65629) demonstrated rather strange movements between the Chilchikan and Okhota rivers. In early July it moved from the Okhota river to the seashore around the Chilchikan and Tolmot estuary, where it stayed until September 5. Then it flew back to the Okhota river via the Urak river (September 6), where it stayed at the same place until September 10. Then it made a

Adult arrived to the Okhota river

2010-10-18T15:36:00.001-07:00

Our adult eagle started the migration on September, 13, 2010, and arrived on the Okhota River on September22, where it has remained up until now (18 October).

Adult started to move!

2010-09-30T07:16:00.001-07:00

If August was uneventful for both immature and adult eagles, the month of September turned out to be an action-packed time for the adult. On 13 September it started to move west at a leisurely pace, spent 3 days on the Lysyanskogo Peninsula, and 2 days on Ulbeya river, before arriving to the Okhota river. Where it stayed at the same spot as our immature eagle! They meet up again. Previously they

June-July

2010-07-30T19:55:00.001-07:00

Our young eagle (65629) after re-visiting the Okhota river (location identical to the one of the summer 2009), came out to the coast and remained at the estuary of the Chilchikan river, west of Okhotsk.The adult remains at the Motykley Bay. At the end of the month it moved to the famous hotsprings of the Motykley Bay. Lot of small fish there.This is the picture of this place taken in May 2005

June-July 2010

2010-07-13T16:57:00.001-07:00

It appears that the adult eagle settled on the Amakhton Bay and makes short flights to the areas of the bay which are exposed to low tide.The youngster (65629) stays at the Gyrby River, Khabarovsk District.

Ice and the eagles

2010-05-29T11:57:00.001-07:00

The data from the national Ice and Snow Center for 24 May are plotted together with the Steller's Sea Eagle tracks. The youngster 65620 is indeed icehoping and is currently at the ice edge, whereas the adult 82164 is moving along the ice edges. Which is a bit strange since the eagles have to be on the nests.

A floater?

2010-05-28T09:29:00.001-07:00

The adult brid makes a wide flights across the Motykley Bay. Is it a floater?

Ice hopping of the youngster

2010-05-26T13:00:00.001-07:00

Our young Steller's Sea Eagle spent early May ice hopping in the sea north-east from the Shantar islands. The latest trend based in the doppler locations is that he/she is moving north. The gps fixes are to follow.

Breeding decisions?

2010-05-26T12:55:00.000-07:00

The adult was exploring the Motykley Bay during end of April - beginning of May. It flew (seemingly) close to the ice edge, visited many nest sites in Motykley Bay, Spafarieva and Talan Islands and Onatsevicha Bay.However since 7 May the bird has been lingering on Talan Island about 400 m from the known Steller's Sea Eagle nest (which was the only occupied nest at the island in 2009). Talan

Breeding grounds reached!

2010-05-26T12:50:00.001-07:00

Our adult reached Motykley Bay (where it was captured in 2009) on 15 April! It is not clear whether it will breed at the presumed breeding site of 2009. Currently the bay is packed with ice, and it might be that this eagle spends time away from the nest site because it is foraging on the edge of the ice.

The adult eagle is at the nest site

2010-04-19T12:40:00.001-07:00

The adult SSE fitted last year with PTT(0)82163 has reached its nest site after some ice-hopping. It was evidently traveling along the open water clearly visible in the MODIS satellite image above. It travelled the length of the Sea of Okhotsk in 4 days!

Youngser went North

2010-04-14T15:17:00.001-07:00

After a minor problem with Argos data flow the missing data have been received. It looks like the youngster (PTT5629) left Hokkaido on 4 April 2010 and is now on Sakhalin Island. The adult female is ice-hopping sowewhat North of Shantar Island. More data to follow. Fingers crossed. Eugene

First eagles at the Balagannoe

2010-04-10T20:30:00.001-07:00

Meanwhile the first adult Steller's have arrived at Balagannoe in our study area on 6 April 2010. Photos by Olga Mochalova

Adult eagle is ice hopping

2010-04-10T20:27:00.001-07:00

Since 18 March our adult eagle has been living on the ice, ice hopping at least until 22 March. Meanwhile, the Argos system started adding a "0" in front of the PTT numbers. Hope our automatic system will not loose any data.The youngster PTT62629 is not sending good signals. The battery probably is approaching the end of its life. There are some fairly low quality signals indicating that the bird

Spring migration has started

2010-03-17T15:13:00.000-07:00

On 9 March our adult eagle went along the foothills of the Hokkaido, and on 12 March has crossed La Perouse strait and after staying one day at the Cape Crillon, Sakhalin she continued to fly along the Sakhalin Island. Interestingly her path is not quite following the coastline, was one could expect. She certainly preffer to stay at the foothills of the mountains. The Doppler locations suggest

Wintering updates

2010-03-15T02:25:00.001-07:00

At the end of February - beginning of March our eagles moved a bit. The youngster (Ptt 62629) moved from the Kunashir Island to Hokkaido, crossing to the Shiretoko peninsula, then evidently staying at ice in view of Hokkaido for couple of days moved to the Abashiri-shi Lake, where it remains now. The adult female (PTT 82163) turned into a specialized highliander. It wend into a concealed valley

Adult is on the move again

2010-02-17T13:22:00.001-08:00

The adult female was re-tracked her route throug the mountains of Hokkaido, tending to stay at the edges of the forests overlooking fields.

Adult female goes inland

2010-02-14T18:35:00.001-08:00

On 18 January 2010 the adult female crossed from Kunashir Island to northern Hokkaido. Rather than remaing on the sea coast, it moved immediately inland where it stayed in the alpine zone of the mountains. Last location we got was 2 Feburay 2010.

December-January at the fisheries

2010-01-25T19:06:00.000-08:00

During the end December and first half of January both birds spent on Iturup Island. The island has several salmon runs and several fish hatcheries. The adult female (yellow line) spend her time in the southern part of the island, near the part known as Dobriy peresheek (Good isthmus), at the lake Dobroe and at pinnacles along the coast of Dobroye Nachalo Bay (Good beginning bay).The immature

November 2009 moves

2010-01-14T18:47:00.000-08:00

Both adult and immature eagles went south in November, both crossed the Tatar strait between the Sakhalin and mainland on 17-18 November, and by the last week of November reached the Kuril island chain. The routes of the last stretch was a bit different. The adult female went along the Sakhalin island and crossed over to Hokkaido, and then, demonstrating a steady pace of migration crossed over

Encounter of our instrumented birds

2009-11-02T12:39:00.001-08:00

To my amusement I see that our 2nd year old bird and the adult eagle have met each other at an estuary of a small river in the Russian Far East. The GPS parser still does not pick it up (see red and yellow lines in the pix), but the automated system does (in lower picture, both lines are white).The river is not on the Steller's Sea Eagle maps, but it not far from the Belaya Gora village with its

View of Magadan

2009-10-19T23:30:00.001-07:00

Here is the web-cam's view of the Magadan. Currently there is some snow on the mountains.http://89.28.252.218/view/index.shtmlBelow is a graph of temperature.gmtbl {background-color: #ffffff; border: 1px solid #18b8f9;}.gmtdttl {font-size: 110%; font-weight: bold;color: #ffffff; text-align:center; background-color: #18b8f9;}.gmtdtext {font-size: 100%; font-weight: normal; color: #000000;

Adult eagle start migrating

2009-10-19T22:15:00.001-07:00

The adult eagle has started it s journey away from the first snowfall on 12 October 2009. In one day it managed to cross over from the Motykley Bay to the Okhota river valley (over 300 Km). For 3 days (and counting) it stayed at the Okhota river valley.

Young eagle is on the move!

2009-10-19T22:12:00.001-07:00

The second-year old Steller's Sea Eagle has left the treacherous Okhota river and went south to the Nurki Bay, and currently is near Ayan town. Hope he will pass this place safely.

Adult and young eagle had the same stopover place, but in different time

2009-10-19T22:11:00.001-07:00

The adult Steller's Sea Eagle stopped over on the Okhota rive, at the same place, as the young Steller's stayed. The departure of the young eagle coincided with the arrival of the adult eagle. A coincidence?

New Yamaha outboard

2009-09-12T07:58:00.000-07:00

By mid-June the new outboard Yamaha-30 hp, purchased thanks to the funds of the San-Diego Zoo was broke into full extend. Break-in period required to ride the outboard on "not-very heavy" boat with half-trottle. Both conditions are difficult to meet. In addition the gas/petrol has to contain double amount of 2-stroke oil. After the Odyan trip it was time to reduce the oil to the normal level.

Odyan trip, day 2

2009-09-11T22:56:00.000-07:00