Tracking TERF03

[JudyB]

Opening this topic for reports on TERF03's activities.

We don't know much about this eagle yet, except that he or she was probably tagged in December 2018 - the full report will be here when David Hancock has a chance to write it - https://hancockwildlife.org/our-project ... ge/terf03/

[JudyB]

Here (from the website above) is a map of TERF03's travels to date.

This is the same map in satellite view, which is easier to see.

It looks as if his or her tracker was turned on towards the end of December, 2018, and TERF03 promptly headed towards Delta, and was pretty focused on being in that area. This is a screenshot from the Animal Tracker app for smartphones - the app only keeps a year's worth of data, but it allows you to wind back through time, which makes it easier to see TERF03's first 6 months after getting a tracker:

[JudyB]

Continuing....

For the next month, TERF03 appeared to use Delta as a base, and did some exploring of the area; this is his/her travels as of July 3, 2019:

TERF03 took over a week to reach the Alaska panhandle area, and has been exploring up there since then. These pictures show his/her travels since around July 10, in map and satellite view.

[JudyB]

December 15, 2019

TERF03 has checked in - and he or she is heading to the Vancouver/Delta area - details and a map of where TERF03 spent the last 3 months are here - https://hancockwildlife.org/our-project ... ge/terf03/

[JudyB]

Here are a few screenshots from the map in the previous post showing TERF03's travels.

The first is satellite view -it's easier in that view to see the path and the dot that shows where he or she was when data was uploaded.

The other two are in map view so we can see the towns in the area; each one is more zoomed in.

[JudyB]

You can use the little calendar at the top of the map page to see where TERF03 was on a particular day. Clicking the little calendar icon opens the map so you can pick a day. Using that, I see that TERF03 was at the northernmost part of his/her journey from September 26 to November 9.

Here's a closeup of the area.

S/he then spent a week in this area, from November 12-19:

[JudyB]

Continuing to document TERF03's travels, s/he moved at a leisurely pace down the Alaskan panhandle until November 26.

And then made a long flight back into BC - here's the November 27 location.

And that does make me wonder why we didn't get any data until December 15. The tracking devices we're using are programmed to upload data if they are in range of a BC cell tower; I think they try to connect once a day - and they save their data until they can upload it, which is why we now know where TERF03 was between his/her previous upload on September 25 and this one on December 15. The devices generally don't communicate with US cell towers - but TERF03 was able to upload data occasionally after first arriving in the Alaskan panhandle, though the area where s/he spent a lot of time was out of reach.

And I suspect the areas where TERF03 was spending time while making his/her way South through BC may not have a lot of cell towers - but I'm surprised she didn't find at least one.

Here's where she was on November 30.

[JudyB]

Continuing the trip south....

She was near Ocean Falls December 1-3, then in Bella Coola December 4-5 (interesting side note - the 2019 eaglets from our Delta 2 nest were named Bella and Coola after the town).

He or she appeared to be following the same route heading south from Bella Coola that s/he had taken going north, until turning off on the 12th.

And as of the last data posted (on the 16th), TERF03 is back on the same route again.

[JudyB]

December 21, 2019

TERF03 didn't post for a couple of days, but checked in yesterday and today, and is now further South, near Sechelt - which is close to forum member Marg! I've sent her an email to let her know.

The map of TERF03's travels so far is in satellite view so it's easier to see the track, and then there are two closer looks at the area where TERF03 was earlier today.

[JudyB]

This is a closer look - and it does make me wonder if some of that is landfill - since I suspect TERF03 was originally captured and tagged at the big landfill near Delta, so sees landfills as a likely source of food.

[JudyB]

December 25, 2019

TERF03 is back in Delta! I'm not where I can do screen shots easily, so will add some map pictures next week.

[Marg]

When Terf03 was in Sechelt I believe that is the location of the Sechelt "dump" where lots of eagles go.

[JudyB]

Thanks for the info, Marg - and I'm not surprised, knowing that TERF03 is a fan of the Delta landfill!

He or she is still in the Delta area - here are a couple s'caps.

[JudyB]

TERF03 stayed in the Delta area through July 4th - here are two views of his/her activity:

And then he or she headed North; the most recent update was July 6:

Here's a closer look at where s/he was then:

There are lots of places where there's more salmon than cell towers - and last summer TERF03 was all the way up to Haines, at the top of the Alaskan panhandle, where most cell towers use US frequencies, rather than the Canadian frequencies our trackers use - so I'm not surprised that we haven't heard from TERF03 for a while. Last year it was mid-December before he was back within range of Canadian cell towers.