Tracking TERF24

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JudyB
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Tracking TERF24

Post by JudyB » Thu Feb 23, 2023 12:51 pm

Link to TERF24's Tracking Map
Link to The Vanier Park Nest thread


BAEA22-19 - TERF24
Banding Date: June 7 2022
USFW Band #: 0829-01876 (right leg)
Banded: Blue marker S over 5 on left leg
Location: one of two eaglets banded by Myles in a nest in Vanier Park, Vancouver (second eaglet was banded as Blue S6 but didn't get a tracker)
Age: pre-fledge (about 2 months old)
Eye color: not recorded
Sex: Female

Earliest data from the tracker is January 12, 2023, so at this point we don't know where the youngster was for the first six months or so after fledging.

This eagle was one of 34 eaglets Myles banded as part of a project he was involved with, and the only pre-fledgling this year to get a tracker. (TERF10/Parksville was part of the same project last year.)

TERF24 is from the same nest as TERF11/Vanier and as far as we know, the adults were the same as last year, but the eagles seem to be taking different paths - at this time last year (February 23), TERF11 was exploring Vancouver Island (and is back there this winter), while TERF24 is in Washington State.

Update - March 3, 2023 -
TERF24 was banded and equipped with a tracker on June 7, 2022, while she was still a nestling in the Vanier Park nest in Vancouver, BC. She has USFW band number 0829-01876 on her right leg and a more readable blue band on her left leg with the characters S over 5. There were two chicks in the nest and both were banded, but only one got a tracker; both appeared to be female. The sibling fledged a couple of weeks later, but TERF24 stayed on the nest for another week and then had an accidental fledge when she fell from the nest. She was rescued soon afterwards and taken to OWL be checked out and provided with the opportunity to get comfortable with her wings in a safe setting. She was released from OWL on July 11th, but we didn’t start getting tracker data for the map until January 12, 2023.


TERF24 waiting for release on July 11, 2022; photo by Diana Seear
TERF24_20220607_DianaSeear.jpg

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Re: Tracking TERF24

Post by JudyB » Thu Feb 23, 2023 12:51 pm

More pictures! This is TERF24 and sibling in the nest on June 23, 2022, a couple of weeks after being banded; not sure which is which, but one of the adults is perched above the nest keeping watch; this photo is by Mike Seear.
TERF24_20220623_P1050513_MikeSeear_smaller.jpg

TERF24's release on July 11, 2022, captured by Diana Seear:
TERF24_20220711_IMG-7142_DianaSeear.JPG

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Re: Tracking TERF24

Post by JudyB » Thu Feb 23, 2023 12:51 pm

Added January 10, 2024

I was sorting through my email, and realized I never posted these pictures that Diana Seear sent me back in March. They are from TERF24's rescue after falling from the nest, I think on June 27, 2022. These click much bigger - and when you click on them, they should be right side up.

This shows TERF24 in the bushes before they caught her:
TERF24_20220627_IMG-4780_DianaSeear.jpg

This is Mike Seear holding TERF24 - I am occasionally surprised by just how big an eagle is at the time of fledging!
TERF24_20220627_IMG-4783_DianaSeear.jpg

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Re: Tracking TERF24

Post by JudyB » Thu Feb 23, 2023 4:15 pm

reserved

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Re: Tracking TERF24

Post by JudyB » Thu Feb 23, 2023 4:16 pm

reserved

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Re: Tracking TERF24

Post by JudyB » Thu Feb 23, 2023 4:30 pm

February 23, 2023

Here's an overview of TERF24's travels from January 11 to today; I've saved a couple of reserved posts in case we eventually get some of the data points for their travels from when they likely fledged between mid-June and mid-July.
20230223_TERF24_006.jpg

I think our earliest data point is currently here in Whonnock, north of the Fraser River, on January 11, 2023; the time stamp reads 19:01, or 7:01 pm, but I'm pretty sure it's really from about 4 pm because the map program shows the local time for the person viewing the map, and I'm in the eastern time zone, three hours later than BC. (While that gets confusing for the purpose of documenting an eagle's travels, if you're in the same time zone as the eagle, you would immediately know if you should rush to the window!)
20230223_TERF24_007.jpg

Here's a wider view of the map with the dot in the same place - you can see Harrison Mills at the upper right, where we have one of our eagle cams.
20230223_TERF24_008.jpg

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Re: Tracking TERF24

Post by JudyB » Thu Feb 23, 2023 4:38 pm

TERF24 moved up the Fraser River to Hatzic Lake, arriving there on January 25
20230223_TERF24_009.jpg

They then headed back west and a bit south, ending up below Whonnock on January 28
20230223_TERF24_010.jpg

And by the next day, they had crossed over into Washington State.
20230223_TERF24_011.jpg

And that's where they've been for the last few weeks.

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Re: Tracking TERF24

Post by JudyB » Mon Feb 27, 2023 3:34 pm

Continuing the story of TERF24's travels....

TERF24 explored the corner of Washington from a bit south of Blaine to Sudden Valley on lake Whatcom from January 29 to February 24 or 25; the distance between the two points is only about 41km/25mi, but naturally TERF24 took the scenic route.
20230227_TERF24_003.jpg

I'm going to start with a brief video of their travels - I'll click from day to day on the map, and you'll see the red dot move, giving a sense of how long the young eagle stayed in each spot.

...well, I was going to do that, but am having computer issues...

I'll reserve a couple of posts then restart.


Added - here's the video:

:vid: TERF24 South of the Border (51 seconds)

I'll try to catch up with the rest of it soon.


Adding on March 8:

Here's a closer look at the area where TERF24 was exploring from January 31 - February 6, from Map and Satellite view:
20230308_TERF24_019.jpg
20230308_TERF24_020.jpg

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Re: Tracking TERF24

Post by JudyB » Mon Feb 27, 2023 3:35 pm

Added on March 8:

5 pm on February 8 - here's the southernmost point in her recorded travels so far (though she may have gone further south before her tracker began providing data).
20230308_TERF24_021.jpg

She was just a bit further north at 5 am on the 9th, near the town of Victor on the 10th, and back in another area of increased activity by 5 am on the 11th.
20230308_TERF24_022a.jpg

She spent about 2 weeks, from the 11th through the 24th exploring along the Noonsack River,
20230308_TERF24_024.jpg

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Re: Tracking TERF24

Post by JudyB » Mon Feb 27, 2023 3:35 pm

Added on March 8:

From there, she headed back into British Columbia, passing fairly close to our Surrey Reserve nest and I think a bit inland from the White Rock nest, and was on the shore of Boundary Bay at 5 am on the 24th. By the morning of the 25th, she was in Delta, near the Landfill.
20230308_TERF24_026a.jpg

She stayed there through March 6; not sure what the attraction in that particular area was, but obviously there was one!
20230308_TERF24_027.jpg

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Re: Tracking TERF24

Post by JudyB » Wed Mar 08, 2023 5:52 pm

It looks as if TERF24 was tired of the landfill by March 6, and by 7 pm that day, she was on the northeast side of Vancouver:
20230308_TERF24_028.jpg

Looking a bit closer:
20230308_TERF24_029.jpg

Switching to Satellite view, the red dot shows where she was as of 8 am today.
20230308_TERF24_030.jpg

And I'm remembering that a quirk of the program is that is shows the times in the time zone of the viewer, rather than the time zone of the eagle - so most of my times in the last few posts are off by three hours since I'm on the east coast and eastern time, rather than the pacific time used in BC - but generally speaking, it shows where the eagles were within a few hours, which is not bad in the grand scheme of things.

And I wonder where TERF24 will head next!

Also, I've added several more photos of TERF24 to the opening posts, and we now have more information about her, including the fact that it's believed she is female (there wasn't a blood test, as far as I know, but the size of her and her sibling led observers to conclude that both were female).

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Re: Tracking TERF24

Post by JudyB » Sat Mar 18, 2023 1:39 pm

Saturday, March 18th

It looks as if TERF24 has been quite busy in the last 10 days!

As you can see from the previous point, on March 8 she was near Admiralty Point Park; here's a map of her travels since we've been tracking her, with the sign showing where she was at 2 am pacific time on March 8 (the time stamp is in eastern time because my computer is on the east coast).
20230318_TERF24_002.jpg

She stayed in that area through the 9th, then headed over to West Vancouver (where the red dot is) on the 10th.
20230318_TERF24_003.jpg

On the 11th, she was back down in Delta, checking out the landfill.
20230318_TERF24_004.jpg

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Re: Tracking TERF24

Post by JudyB » Sat Mar 18, 2023 1:52 pm

Zooming in for a closer look, on the 11th she was at the body of water north of the airport where all the red lines converge from her previous visits. The next day she was a bit nearer the bay.
20230318_TERF24_005.jpg

On the morning of the 13th she was back by another corner of the landfill; I've switched to satellite view to make it easier to see the landfill.
20230318_TERF24_006.jpg

Later on the 13th, she was up above Websters Corners, and by late morning on the 14th she arrived at the Fraser River, a bit east of Mission.
20230318_TERF24_008.jpg

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Re: Tracking TERF24

Post by JudyB » Sun Mar 19, 2023 8:38 am

At 1 am on March 15, she was fairly close to our Harrison Mills eagle cam nest - the red dot shows her location.
20230319_TERF24_001.jpg

Here's a closer look - the eagle cam is at the Sandpiper Golf Course on the far left - and it seems unlikely that she flew all the way up to the far point on the right to get some natural cheese - but I suppose one never knows! :) She was there at 5 pm on the 14th, and was headed back when she may have paused for the night near Harrison Mills.
20230319_TERF24_002.jpg

Going back to the wide view, she continued southwest along Fraser River the next morning, then turned southeast towards Chilliwack around 11 am on the 15th. It's likely she spent the afternoon of the 15th and part of the morning of the 16th in the area where her path has a little loop to the right of the dot, and by 11 am on the 16th, she was at the place with the dot, preparing for another longer flight.
20230319_TERF24_003.jpg

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Re: Tracking TERF24

Post by JudyB » Sun Mar 19, 2023 8:54 am

TERF24 headed southwest. crossing back into Washington state and arriving near Marietta-Alderwood around 11 am on March 17th.
20230319_TERF24_004.jpg

The distance from Atchelitz BC to Marietta-Alderwood WA is about 57 km/35 mi, so not a long flight for an eagle. I will note that she almost certainly doesn't fly in the straight lines shown on the map, and may make side trips between the times the tracker records her location; you can generally get a timestamp if you click on a place where the line turns.


Here's a closer look at the place she checked in from.
20230319_TERF24_005.jpg

Definitely interesting to see what this young eagle is doing!

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