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Link to TERF26's Tracking Map
BAEA22-57 - TERF26
Banding Date: July 26 2022
USFW Band #: 0829-01712 (right leg)
Banded: Blue marker X over 0 on left leg
Location: at OWL, injured fighting with another eagle
Age: adult
Eye color: not recorded but appear light yellow
Sex: Female
TERF26 is a female bald eagle who has been nesting west of Lighthouse Park in West Vancouver, BC, since the fall of 2018; the pair had been nesting in Lighthouse Park for a number of years before that. She and her mate had two chicks in 2019, 2020 and 2021; one of the chicks died fairly early in 2019 and happily the other 5 fledged successfully. Observers noted that there was one chick in 2022, and sadly it died at an early age. As sometimes happens after an unsuccessful year, the pair then built a new nest nearby.
On June 25, 2022, TERF26 got into a territorial fight with another female, and both ended up on the ground with talons in each other. They were taken to OWL (the Orphaned Wildlife rehab center in Delta, BC), received stitches and antibiotics, and then spent a month or so recovering. TERF26, nicknamed Annie by the local nest monitors, was released on August 1st.
(The other female also recovered and was released around the same time, though hopefully in a different area.)
A local nest monitor who was present at the release reported:
She seemed a bit unsure at first after bursting out of the cage before flying up into a Douglas-fir. She did not fly to the nest tree or any of the other favourite perch trees. After an hour or so she was not seen. There are several people keeping an eye out for her. The mate had been in the area up until yesterday.
She also let us know that the local monitors had nicknamed the eagle Annie.
We do have a picture of her shortly after the release, with big thanks to ECeaglevideo: (used with permission, all rights reserved)
Here's a closer look at Annie, cropped from the high res version of the pic above so it clicks much bigger, showing the tracker in more detail and the determination in Annie's eye! This is also thanks to ECeaglevideo, used with permission, all rights reserved.
Thanks to the North Shore eagle nest monitors for their work over the years keeping track of the eagles in the area - and for providing the background information for this post!
Added February 25, 2023 -
Myles recently provided us with a few pictures of Annie while she was getting her tracker; I suspect she might not consider this the most flattering picture ever taken of her - but it certainly shows that she's a large, feisty full adult!