Adult started to move!

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 met in November 2009, at the Belaya Gora village, in Primorye.

What is unusual is that this autumn the adult, which was not breeding this summer, started to migrate almost 1 month earlier than in the previous year (when it was presumably breeding). Compare: 12 October in 2009 and 13 September 2010.

June-July

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

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

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?

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

Ice hopping of the youngster

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?

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 Island is a huge breeding place for seabirds including (amongst other things) gulls, kittywakes, puffins, auks, and murres.

Breeding?