I can't chat on ustream.tv/decorah eagles!

People using Chrome may be experiencing some difficulty when trying to chat on ustream.tv/decoraheagles. no matter what you do with plug-ins, the chat tells you that you need to enable Flash to chat. This is frustrating, since you have enabled Flash in at least three different ways!

Chrome55 now disables Flash by default. Try this step to get it working on ustream:

• Open a tab in Chrome and type in chrome://flags/#prefer-html-over-flash
• Change the Run all Flash content when Flash setting is set to “allow” dropdown to ‘Enabled’.
• Press the Relaunch Browser button.

Click to enlargen

Oddly enough, we don't have to do this for the chat on our website, even though it is a plug-in from Ustream. On our website (http://www.raptorresource.org/birdcams/decorah-eagles/) setting a rule to allow Flash to run on http://www,raptorresource.org is enough to make it work.

More about plug-in issues can be found here: http://www.raptorresource.org/data-tools/technical-tips-and-tricks/. We hope to have an HTML5 version of the chat from Ustream soon.

Please donate to the Raptor Resource Project!

What does the Raptor Resource Project do? We are a 501c3 that specializes in the preservation of falcons, eagles, ospreys, hawks, and owls. In addition to bringing you the Decorah Eagles, Great Spirit Bluff Falcons, and other birds of prey, we create, improve, and directly maintain over 50 nests and nest sites, provide training in nest site creation and management, and develop innovations in nest site management and viewing that bring people closer to the natural world. Our mission is to preserve and strengthen raptor populations, expand participation in raptor preservation, and help foster the next generation of preservationists.

As a nonprofit environmental organization, we depend on donors, research, and our other programs for our entire budget. With your tax deductible contribution to the Raptor Resource Project, we can:

• Continue updating to high definition digital cameras in Decorah and elsewhere.
• Provide one of the world’s largest public wildlife education programs to countless classrooms through our unequaled Ustream channels, interactive chats, facebook page, and blog.
• Reboot our kestrel nestbox program. In addition to placing boxes, we plan to monitor, band, and report on kestrel populations as part of the American Kestrel Partnership. Eden Prairie Girl Scout Troop 14286 is providing 12 boxes for installation this year. 
• Begin a diurnal raptor banding and observation station. Master bander and board member Dave Kester will be in charge of this effort and he is raring to go!
• Partner with landowners, private businesses, and government agencies to monitor and band peregrine falcons at over 40 sites. This year we plan to add collection and identification of prey and prey remains to our work.

These things all take money. We have $188,700 budgeted for 2017. Our expenses look like this:

• Staff and contracts: $130,000. This includes salaries and compensation for camera installations, maintenance, and climbers for camera work and banding. Since September of 2016, we have had four major installation projects: one at Decorah, one at Decorah North, one at Fort St. Vrain, and one at Xcel Energy's Allen S. King plant in Oak Park Heights, MN. Our falcon surveys will start later this week, weather permitting. 
• Camera-related expenses: $40,500. This includes our new HD cameras, internet access, computers, video archiving equipment, and related supplies: installation and cable tools and hardware, cable, encoders, software, lumber, solar panels, wireless radios, and all non-staff or contract costs related to purchasing and installing camera systems. 
• Research-related expenses: $9,000. This includes transmitters, trapping supplies, and data costs, climbing equipment, banding equipment, bands, spotting scopes. permits, and autopsies. We also set some money aside to run a diurnal raptor banding and observation station. 
• Other/Miscellaneous costs: $9,000. This category includes gasoline, electricity, travel-related costs, equipment fabrication, and propane so we can heat the shed!

Our income is generated primarily by donations from viewers of our various cams, and we sincerely appreciate your generosity and support of the Raptor Resource Project mission. Would you please help us make a difference with your donation? You can donate via Paypal by following this link or mail a check to:

The Raptor Resource Project
PO Box 16
Decorah, IA 52101

Thank you so much for your support and we hope you enjoy watching in 2017!

Did we have a new eagle at the Decorah North nest last year?

Mom North rolling her egg

Hashtag this one #speculation! As Decorah North fans know, we had our first egg in that nest on March 11 in 2016. In 2017, first-egg timing retreated to February 19 - earlier than Mom and Dad Decorah! Why did it change so much?

Mom and Dad Decorah's first egg history looks like this:

• 2/18/16: First egg
• 2/18/15: First egg
• 2/23/14: First egg
• 2/17/12: First egg
• 2/23/11: First egg
• 2/25/10: First egg
• 3/02/09: First egg
• 3/08/08: First egg (note: this date is an estimation based on a photo of first hatch)

We know that Mom was laying for the first time in 2008. While we don't see a dramatic shift backwards, the first time she laid an egg also marked the latest time she laid an egg. Her nesting chronology slowly shifted earlier, yielding an average first-egg date on February 19 to date. 

Fort St. Vrain's first egg history looks like this:

• 02/14/17: First egg
• 02/16/17: First egg
• 02/14/15: First egg
• 02/21/14: First egg
• 02/17/13: First egg
• 02/16/12: First egg
• 02/16/11: First egg
• 02/14/10: First egg
• 02/17/09: First egg
• 02/27/08: First egg
• 03/03/07: First egg
• 02/17/06: First egg

Note that I didn't say Mom and Dad Fort St. Vrain's egg history. Looking at first egg dates, it appears we had a mate changeover in 2007, although we don't know whether it was Mom or Dad. As we saw in Decorah, nesting chronology slowly shifted earlier, yielding an average first lay date of February 15 to date.

How do peregrine falcons compare? Falcon nests experience a lot more turnover than any of the bald eagle nests we watch, making it difficult to develop data on partner nesting chronologies. For example, we've seen 11 mate changeovers in the 19 years we've banded at Xcel Energy's Blackdog plant in Eagan, MN. However, we can draw a couple of broad conclusions: 

• A change-over in the resident male or female falcon is often (but not always) accompanied by a change in nesting chronology. 
• Nesting chronology is somewhat more likely to move later in the first year of partnership and than move earlier as partners are paired over multiple years. 
• Return timing and territorial fighting both appear to influence nesting chronology, and territorial fighting is one factor in shifting egg-timing later. If a gravid female falcon is killed by an invading female falcon, the resident male will need to court her and fertilize her eggs, moving the nest's chronology later for at least the first year. 

A lot of people speculated that Dad North was new on site last year. While we don't know for sure, the remarkable shift in first egg timing indicates that one of the parents - possibly Dad North - was new. We don't know whether territorial interaction played a role, and we also don't know whether a new male could impact timing differently than a new female. But we will move egg-watch for Decorah North earlier next year. Will we also see a difference in parenting styles and outcomes in the North nest this year? We look forward to finding out!

Note: The Eagle Valley Eagles laid later in the one year we were able to watch them. I wish we could have had at least a few more years to take a look at their nesting chronologies as well, since some of their behavior and provisioning seemed more like what we experienced in the North Nest last year than in the Decorah nest since 2010.

What is a Brood Patch?

Debbie Fulton from the Fort St. Vrain Eagle fan group got this excellent capture of a brood patch while Mom did a little sunbathing yesterday! Feathers are great insulators, but unsuitable for transferring heat. Shortly before eagles lay eggs, the hormone oestrogen plus a secondary hormone (prolactin or progesterone) causes feathers on birds' bellies to loosen and drop off, creating a patch of bare skin. Oestrogen also controls the development of supplemental blood vessels that bring warm blood close to the surface of the skin, further aiding heat transfer. The brood patch helps eagles incubate eggs even in the coldest weather (a memorable -50F/-45C when egg #2 was laid in Decorah in 2014)!

In precocial birds, feathers begin growing back as soon as the eggs hatch. In altricial birds (including bald eagles), patches remain functional through early brooding (my guess would be 15-20 days, or about the time some of Mom's lethargy starts to fade). Then they gradually disappear, restoring the area to non-breeding function and feather cover about the time the young are fledged.

Why do eagles sunbathe? We believe it helps kill and/or prevent parasites in less-exposed areas like wingpits, and it also looks quite comfortable. Thanks for the great capture!

Links

• Brood patches: https://web.stanford.edu/group/stanfordbirds/text/essays/Brood_Patches.html
• Hormonal control of brood patch development: http://joe.endocrinology-journals.org/content/26/1/11

Endangered Species Act and Environmental Laws in Front of Committees This Week

There are at least two important hearings on Capital Hill this week for those who love wildlife and wildlands.

At 10am eastern time on Wednesday February 15, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works will hold a hearing entitled “Oversight: Modernization of the Endangered Species Act.” Information about the panel can be found here: https://www.epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2017/2/oversight-modernization-of-the-endangered-species-act. We are watching this issue closely. Although bald eagles and peregrine falcons are no longer endangered, they were nearly extinct by the time the ESA was passed and benefited greatly from its protections. We welcome changes that strengthen the Act, especially given the overwhelming evidence for its success, but at least some of the suggested changes seem to be less about improvement and more about rollback. For more about the ESA, read this blog.

On Thursday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee's environment subpanel will look at modernizing the environmental laws under its jurisdiction, including the Clean Air Act and the brownfields provisions of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act. Information about that panel can be found here: https://energycommerce.house.gov/hearings-and-votes/hearings/modernizing-environmental-laws-challenges-and-opportunities-expanding. Many species, not least of all humans, benefit from laws that protect air and water. We have come a long way since Lake Erie was dead, some rivers in the United States regularly caught fire, and smog was fatal. We welcome changes that strengthen environmental, but doubt the panel is truly interested in doing so.

If you follow us and are concerned about these issues, we encourage you to follow the American Bird Conservancy, which is deeply involved in protection for birds on all sorts of levels (including wind turbines, something we get a lot of questions about): https://abcbirds.org/. We also follow the Teddy Roosevelt Conservation Society, a non-profit hunting conservation organization that is deeply involved in expanding CRP and preserving public land: http://www.trcp.org/.

Who is that eagle with a transmitter?

We started to get reports in January of an eagle with a transmitter near Lock and Dam 14, which stretches across the Mississippi river between Le Claire, Iowa and Hampton, Illinois. Like most large lock and dam systems, LD 14 has open water even in the coldest weather, making it a popular place for wintering bald eagles. Of course wintering bald eagles attract photographers, and some of those photographers noticed that one of the eagles had a transmitter on its back. Could this be D1?

Bald Eagle ACE, photo credit Ted Thousand

A few things about the eagle: it was a mature adult, its backpack had no antenna and a clearly visible ID number, and it was left leg-banded. Our transmitters have an antenna and Brett tends to band the right leg, not the left (he made an exception for D25 this year in the service of easy ID). Brett suggested I talk with the Rock Island Fish and Wildlife Service to see if they knew anything about it. Bingo - they did!

Sara Schmueker is a USFWS biologist. She told me that mystery eagle #35959 is part of a Midwest Bald Eagle telemetry study conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, West Virginia University, and U.S. Geological Survey.  He is nicknamed "ACE" because he was caught right outside the Army Corps of Engineers - Mississippi River Project Office below Lock and Dam 14 in January of 2016, when he was six years old. ACE summers up in Ontario, Canada - not too far from some of the eagles Brett is studying - and winters at LD 14. Let's take a look at his map!

ACE's Travel Map

Two things stood out for me. Firstly, ACE's trip through Wisconsin is remarkably similar to some of D1's trips and fits the model we proposed here: https://raptorresource.blogspot.com/2016/11/where-did-all-these-eagles-come-from.html. Secondly, ACE's trip appears to have brought him near to the North Nest area, if not exactly at the nest. Sara told me that around 30 eagles are currently carrying units for this study. Had some of them gotten even closer? I decided to check the study's web page at https://www.fws.gov/midwest/rockisland/eagle/telemetrystudy.html to find out!

The answer to the first question was 'Yes'! Several eagles had passed directly through the area of the North Nest, which is a sort of bottleneck for eagles on the west side of the river, based on the map. I was also amazed by the flights of what I am going to call the Yellow and Blue eagles, which flew from East Central Iowa all the way up through Nunavut to the Beaufort Sea. According to Google Earth, this is a straight-line distance of over 1800 miles - and neither of these eagles flew in a straight line! And finally, a few of these eagles appear to have passed by Eagle Valley on the east side of the river. I like to think that Brett could have spotted them on one of his observational trips, even if he didn't see their transmitters.

Sara told me that team has an end goal of 50 or more eagles with transmitters, which will each provide about five to six years of data to inform management and conservation of the species. Their partners include some names that will be familiar to our followers: the American Eagle Foundation, Alcoa, ITC Transmission, MidAmerican Energy, the Avian Power Line Interaction Committee, the American Wind and Wildlife Institute, FWS, WVU foundation, and the Peregrine Fund. This is a fascinating project and I really encourage people to go to the FWS website to learn more about it. Again, the address is https://www.fws.gov/midwest/rockisland/eagle/telemetrystudy.html.

A huge thanks to everyone who contacted us about this eagle - it was very interesting to learn about and helped make some great connections! Another huge thanks to Sara Schmueker for her study and the information she provided. Bob would have found this absolutely fascinating. Please stay safe, D24 - we want to know what you do this summer!

We suspect that some people are wondering why our platforms use antenna given that ACE's platform doesn't have one. While we don't have details for all of the eagles in the FWS study, ACE is wearing a cellular platform that uses the same spectrum a cellular phone does. Our eagles are wearing satellite platforms that use a different spectrum, as described here: https://raptorresource.blogspot.com/2016/08/eagle-tracking-can-you-do-something.html. There are advantages and disadvantages to each system: the cellular platform doesn't require an antenna, but only provides data in areas that have a cellular connection. The satellite platform provides data from everywhere, but requires an antenna. We are continuing to research tracking technology as the technology advances so we can make the best decisions for the health and safety of our bald eagles. 

The Diction-Aerie!

We'll get to the fun stuff pretty quickly, but I wanted to write a quick note on abbreviations. Why do we call the active Decorah eagles nest N2B? What in the world is DN1? Do other nests use the same nomenclature?

In general, we use nomenclature to label eagles and nests. In Decorah, our first nest was never online and was not included in the initial nest count. Mom and Dad occupied N1 from the fall of 2007 to the summer of 2012. In the fall of 2012, they began building N2. They lived in N2 from the fall of 2012 to the summer of 2015, when N2 fell in a storm. If we were following the rules, we would have named the nest we built for them N3 (since three follows two) or N4 (since it is the fourth nest on their territory). But since Bob had just passed away, we named it N2B in his honor. Mom and Dad North are on DNN3, or the third nest built in the Decorah North territory.

Eaglets are given a territorial signifier and long count number. This makes it easy for us to differentiate between our nests and reminds of us of how many eagles have been produced at each territory. Unhatched eggs are not counted. Young that die in the nest are counted. So:

• The first eaglet to hatch in Decorah this year will be D26 (the 26th eaglet produced by Mom and Dad Decorah).
• The first eaglet to hatch at Decorah North this year will be DN4 (the 4th eaglet produced by Mom and Dad North since we started counting, and possibly the 4th, period).
• The first eaglet to hatch at Fort St. Vrain this year will be FSV34 (the 34th eaglet produced on this territory, although it appears we had at least one female turnover).

Other nests may or may not use the same nomenclature system. If the moderators use names, they probably don't. But if the moderators use numbers, the numbers are indicating a count of nests, eaglets, and/or adults. Names like D26, E9, and M15 provide context and information once you know how to read them! And now for the fun...

Presenting....The Diction-Aerie!
With Eggstraordinary Graditude to chatters, and many other EAs who contributed to our eggspanding vocabulary of Eagle-ese / Eaglish we proudly present the Decorah Eagles Diction-Aerie for you to print out, mantle over, and devour the knowledge presented by the Fledge-U-Ating Eagle 101 Classes of 2011-2016. A huge thanks to Sherri Elliott, who posted this for the first time in 2011, and has kept it up to date ever since!

Air-obics - Extending wings and catching a bit of air.
Anthropomorphism - projecting human characteristics onto animals.
Apteria - area on breast with no feathers; aka -brood patch.
Babylets – The fuzzball stage of baby eyas.
Balloon Mantle - a puffball of feathers exhibited by E3.
Bantling – A baby mantle … not a full juvenile mantle yet – coined by ElfRuler.
Beak-A-Boo – D14’s beak was often the only thing seen from his hiding spot.
Beak Bonk - depending on level of intensity can be a slight bump to a sibling or a one-two lead up to a TKO.
Beak Geeks - a term for people who avidly watch the eagles everyday!
Beak Kisses - ahh, one of our favorite spectator sports.
Beak Lips -  area of beak sides to corner of mouth.
Beak Off - eaglet beak joust.
Beakering - sibling disagreements.
Beakathon – 3-Way Beak contest of power.
Beakdown – A beak squabble resulting in a take down of a sibling.
Beakoff - eaglets fake fighting with their beaks.
Bedreagled Eaglets - raggedy look after bad weather.
Benihana Dad – aka Bunnihana Dad – No one can defurr and slice and dice better than Dad!
Big Gulp Protein Smoothies - swallowing a whole fish.
Bird Nerds -  another term for people who avidly watch the eagles everyday!
Birshimi - mystery prey of the bird variety.
Bling - unidentified accouterments brought to the nest from Nest Depot - usually brightly colored.
Bobbleheads - self explanatory, but especially adorable dressed in fuzzy white natal down.
Branch Office  -  Mom & Dad spend most of their time in this space adjoining the nest after the eaglets grow into juvies.
Branching - eaglets hopping from one branch to another prior to fledging.
Breakfish -  first meal of the day that is fish.
BreakFur – the first meal of the day that is furry.
Cameraflague – D14 was expert at hiding above the camera and cables.
Cameritisi Permanentitis Bugitis -  bug on camera lens, also known as camera bugs.
Camming – jumping on the camera.
Cere -  fleshy, membranous covering of the base of the upper mandible.
Claw Floss - name given to Pinky, the baling twine. from 2011.
Chef's Surprise - When eagle bodies obscure the meal being served.
Chicken of the Tree – not tuna … squirrel served in the Cottonwood.
Chicklet - affectionate name for our hatchlings ... see also Babylet.
Circe du EEEaglee’ – Feats of aerobic performance (or feets).
Cleaning Coma - behavior emulating Dad’s cleaning skills, but generally tiring quickly, lapsing into face plant.
Clown Clomp - comical eaglet first steps learning how to walk.
Clown Feet - oversized feet/talons that the eaglets haven't grown into yet, nor know what to do with.
Clutch - total number of eggs laid, or birds hatched during a single nesting period.
Convocation - group of eagles in tree or on ground.
Corn Husk - outer dried corn covering coveted in nest.
Corn Husk Pillow - said item used as head rest.
Corn Stalk - building material for nest crib rails.
Clutch - number of eggs laid in a nest.
Crittergetter – Mom & Dad’s wings used when combating an intruder.
Crop - area in neck where food gathers first before entering stomach if it is full.
Crop Plop - aka Crop Flop - falling over or laying down, usually proceeded by a food coma.
Crop Prop - the ability to use the enormous crop to prop up a bobblehead.
Crop rotation - food moving from the crop to the stomach for digestion (and filling up again).
Cuddle Huddle - all the e's close together for safety/warmth in a group.
Cuddle Puddle - horizontal E cuddle sprawl.
Cuddlelet  - one hatchling all cuddled up by itself.
DDD-ia Pets - just add water to little eaglets.
Decorah - the idyllic location in Iowa where our family set up its Home-Tweet-Home.
DecorahLand - A magical place at the top of a Cottonwood Tree.
Decorah Drop - nap flop.
Decorah Front Porch - our place to watch the EEeee's.
Decorah Shimmy - back and forth motion that Mom/Dad use to position themselves over the eggs/eaglets.
Decorahating - beautification of the nest.
EA'S - Eagle Addicts, aka: Eagle-holics.
E-Bots – hatchlings more ambulatory at age 4+weeks.
E-ddicts - those who watch eaglets and stay in pajamas all day.
E-Gulp - swallowing food whole.
E-Heap - pile of eaglets.
E-Lump - same as cuddle huddle.
E-Pology - Submission bow or another act of 'sorry' after a sibling altercation.
E-Team - long suffering worrywarts who love eaglets.
E-Ticket Ride - the Decorah Eaglet antics are the ultimate ticket to fun in DecorahLand.
EEE-Mail - self explanatory.
E.N.S. - Empty Nest Syndrome
EWOT - Eaglet Without Transmitter (believed to be D18 from  2014).
EWT - Eaglet With Transmitter (believed to be D19 from 2014), now known as Four.
Eagle Condo - eagles in penthouse, smaller birds in lower stories.
Eagle Kneivel - daredevil or showoff behavior.
Eagle Time - no time that has anything to do with human time.
Eagleholics Anonymous -12 step recovery program for eagle addiction.
Eagleholics - (Eagle-holics) people that are avidly watching them daily.
Eagleology – online camera course in eagle watching.
Eaglestock/Eaglefest - 300+ million viewers united on web cam broadcast.
Eagle-ese - our unique vocabulary, also known as Eaglish.
Eagleibrium - balance achieved only by eagle walking.
Eaglemaniacs - people who eat, drink and sleep eagles, with not much real sleep actually occurring.
Eagleicious Delicious - any delightful E behavior.
Eagletecture - construction skills used by Dad to create the nest.
Eagletude - any display of eagle attitude.
Eaglish - all the words we made up for this dictionary.
Eagulp - swallowing food whole.
Ealergies - involuntary sneezing reaction.
Eeelie Button – D14 gave us the first view of the protuberance at belly of the outtie left from yolk sac cord.
EEElympics - athletic feats of prowess.
EEEnsane - an affliction of most Eagleholics.
Eggnant - Mom's condition prior to egg lay.
Elebenty Billion – an enormous number .. coined by our ElfRuler.
Ellergy – eaglet sneezesEyas – eagle hatchlings
Eyas stage - fresh from nest.
Face Plant - off balance eaglet plopping into nest face first, perhaps going into food coma.
Feaking - cleaning a beak on a stick or branch.
Feathairdresser - wind redecorating Mom's hair.
Featherline  - the eee’s hairline feather growth giving them distinguishable identifiers.
Fish Fledge - result of food fight when intended meal accidentally goes off the nest bowl.
Fish Flops - any of the EEeee's wearing a skewered fish are said to be wearing fish flops.
Fishapalooza - a buffet bounty consisting of 4 or more fish brought to the nest in rapid succession.
Fishereagle - Dad, Dad, Dad!
Fishcicles - a serving of frozen fish nestovers.
Fjerky - fish jerky
Flap Mob – siblings rushing to mantle over new food item brought in.
Flapadoodle - Amusing flurry of wing flaps performed by Mom or Dad while sitting (incubating) the eggs.  Generally occurs in middle of night and scares the heck out of everyone watching.
Flappathon - endurance contest of eee 's getting pumped up.
Flatabit – aka Goodyear Rabbit – unmistakable steel belted rabbit roadkill.
Fleaping - flapping & leaping - aka hoppersizing
Fledge - taking the leap from branches to the air of the big beyond.
Fledge Fest - gathering of Eagleholics making road trips to witness fledging.
Fluffles – new tail feathers emerging in a ruffle pattern.
Fly-By - parent checking in, but not landing, and with or without food.
Fly-By-Fake-Out - parent flying by with food to lure E's out of nest.
Flying monkeys - teenlets similarity when wingersizing to the Wizard of Oz flying army. Hum the song: oh weeee oh...ohhhh oh when seeing this behavior.
Food Coma - state of suspension E's go into after eating too much.
Food Fledge – result of food falling/ going overboard from nest.
FOUR - our 3rd transmittered eaglet (believed to be D19 from 2014).
Fret of chatters - a group of chatters worried about the eagles.
Flapping Jacks - eaglets exercizing their wings.
Flash Chat – If something important happens on the nest, there is an immediate convocation of chatters and mods to discuss and view.
Fledge - when the juveniles are ready to leave the natal nest.  Unforunately, Eagleholics are unable to due the same.
Fledge-U-Ation - eaglets graduate to fledging.
Fritching - itching new emerging feathers.
Full-Feathered - a loving way to describe Mom Decorah's 'plus size'.
G.F.Z. - gnat free zone -- a mythical place in Decorah.
Gnat - larger than noseeums and especially fond of the eagle's head area resulting in eagle neck jerk twitching.
Gnat Gnat - a term of endearment used interchangeably for nite nite by EAs.
Gnat Off - miracle deterrent for gnasty gnats.
Gnat Scat Boogie – the eee’s headtwich dance.
Gnatercizing - shaking off the gnats.
Goodyear Rabbit – flat rabbit road kill.
Grub Buddy – sibling feeding food to another sibling … D11 did this often to its siblings.
Guest Nest - aka N1 as when FOUR (believed to be D19 from 2014) took over N1.  Kind of like having your kid move out ... but to the detached garage.
Guy-liner - one way to identify Dad is black liner around his eyes.
Hallux - rear locking talon, also known as eagle thumb.
Hard Penned - feathers firmly attached to bone.
Home-Tweet-Home – The nest.
Homeland Seggurity - mythical agency in charge of nest enforcement rules and regulations.
Hoo-Coos - soft little vocals from the eaglets.
Hoppersizing - up and down movement, usually in conjunction with wingersizing.
Hop-Squash - exhuberent nest hop resulting in a sibling step on. Usually E2 gets hop-squashed.
Hoppiness - what else would you do after a good feed and found you had wings?
Happy-Hop!
Hover Mantle - mantling behavior parallel to the prey of the day.
Hovering - catching air with outspread wings while staying in a fluttering suspended motion.
Hugbrella - wingstretch from one e to another.
Kettle - group of eagles in the air.
JuvEEE's - our beloved eee 's and ddd 's just before ready to fledge.
JuvEEE Court – Justice of the Peeece presided over the matter of D14 allegedly dislodging a cam mount screw and breaking the cam on Trunk Tower in 2012.  The case against the daredevil was thrown out by the EEE-Pellet Court and the darling was eeequitted.
Juvie Jump – another name for the game of leap eaglet.
Juvie sprawl - juveniles taking up extra nest space spreading wings out while napping.
King of Mulch Mountain - EWOT (believed to be D18 from 2014) defending city mulch pile, aka N3.
Leap Eagle - hopping over a sibling.
LEGO Eagle - pixilated image of our eagles.
Lumpasizing - E's staying close together or sleeping in a pile.
MODA - new acronym for is it Mom or Dad when a very rainy 2014 day prevented a positive ID by chatters and mods.
M.O.D.S  - Master Ornithological Data Searchers; also gatekeepers of the RRP FB page or chat.
Mantle - The action of a bird spreading its wings, fanning the tail & arching over prey, to hide it from other predators, including other birds or siblings. From Old English/Norse for cloak. (E3 delighted us with several distinct mantles: Balloon Mantle and Ninja Mantle).
Mantle Fluff ... not a mantle, not a bantle, but a puff of the feathers to intimidate and claim first noted by D18 at 6 weeks old.
Master Mantler - E3 showed extraordinary mantle diversity.
Mest – the nest in disarray from active juveee’s.
Moist Fowlettes - wet eaglets.
Momblock – Mom’s windbarrier for the babies.
Mombrella - Mom covering her eaglets with her wings, mostly in inclemate weather. (see also poptent).
Moonwalk - backup walk prior to a poop shoot.
Mousepad – off-season nest at night turns into a mouse pad.
Mulch Mountain - City of Decorah's mulch pile site.  It's where D18 was found a week after his fledge.  Also the place where D19 (EWT) (FOUR) was relocated to be with her sibling.  AKA N3 (Nest 3).
Muskrat jerky - poor thing which gets picked on by the eee’s when unearthed from the nest.
N1 – the original Cottonwood nest used from 2007/08 thru 2012.
N2 – the New Nest, aka: Yonder Nest used in 2013 and 2014. Subsequently destroyed 7-18-15 after a microburst toppled the top 20ft of nest tree.
N2B - (in Bob's memory = N2Bob) starter, human-built nest constructed and installed in a cottonwood tree just 75ft from the former N2 site, and has been adopted by Mom and Dad Decorah for the 2016 season.
N3 - temporary mulch pile nest taken over by EWT & EWOT in 2014.
N.W.Z - the state of zen Eagleholics try to remain in during each season.
Name That Prey - a favorite chat game of guessing what prey has just bee brought in by the P's.
Nare - nostril holes on the beak.
Neck Biter - D19 from 2014 wasn't a beak bonker as much as she was a back of the neck biter.
Nest Depot - wherever Mom & Dad can find new decor for the nest; ie- horsehair, corn husks, branches, straw.
NestFlix - the nightly video round-up.
Nest Bowl - the deeply insulated vault within the nest that corrals eggs and/or hatchlings.
Nest Guests - anyone watching the UStream video.
Nest Potatoes - eagles lazily lounging, usually after eating.
Nestcapades – any eee antics of a comedy nature.
Nestflix – the videos taken during the day of our famileee.
Nesterpiece Theatre – after dinner play antics .. sometimes accompanied by a food free for all.
Nestication - staying put in nest or branches; too relaxed to pack and fly off.
Nestogarbage - nest garbage or debris.
Nestoration - The act of rearranging or redecorating the nest.
Nestovers - uneaten food found in the nest.
Netiquette - a level of decorum expected on Decorah RRP Facebook page.
Nictitating Membrane - transparent inner eyelid, also known as the third eyelid protecting the eye.
Numb Butt - affliction caused by sitting at the computer too long.
Ninja Mantle -  heightened Zen-Like state of mantle & hover (first exhibited by E3 on 5-29-11).
O.C.N.D. – Obsessive Compulsive Nestoration Disorder.
Obstacle Occlusion - varying perspectives of the reality of the nest.
Outstinkt - eaglets knowing instinctively to PS out of the nest.
Owl - urban legendary creature purported to have attacked eagle nest; totally mythical.
P.I.P. – People In Panic waiting for impending pip.
PS - poop shoot - evacuation of the bowels.
Pancake - flat eagle in sleeping position.
Pantaloons - feathered leg eaglet britches.
Pantree – the nest storage locker where extra food is stowed.
Peaglets – piggy little eaglets clamoring for food.
Pet Pillow - using your sibling as something to rest a part of your body on.
Pffffftt! - the distinct sound coming from a PS.
Pickup Stalks - eaglet version of child's game played with cornstalks.
Pinky - the name given to the pink/red bailing twine brought into the nest that inadvertently wound around E2 (D1’s) foot in 2011.
Pip Squeek - a new emerging hatchling.
Pipping Toms – Eaglholics watching for pipping to start.
Pole Dance – D14’s wiggles on the Trunk Tower in front of the camera.
Piscivore - fish eater.
Poop Art - original whitewash gouache on the nearby trees; a takeoff of the 1960s  Pop Art Movement.
Poopcasso - PS artist.
Poptent - Dad standing over the chicks with wings spread keeping them safe from snow/rain/wind or predator.
Porch Peeps - The E's adoring EA's who sit on an evereggspanding porch overlooking the beloved cottonwood tree to pay homage to our eagles.
Post D-Epartum Depression - condition to what will happen to Eagleholics when eagles leave the nest.
Predicure - manicure for a predator.
Prey Buffet - whatever the parents happened to bring for dinner.
Prey Toy - meal tidbit used as plaything.
PSFS - Print Screen Finger Syndrome synonymous with copy, print and save web stream photo captures.
Puddle 'O Eaglet - description when too big for a cuddle puddle.
Puffmallows – the hatchlings first puffy and fuzzy phase.
R.O.T.N.S.O.L. - Rolling On Nest Squeeing Out Loud.
RWS - restless wing syndrome.
Raptor - a bird of prey, regal in the birddom. (Latin, one who seizes, from rapere).
Re-Decorahations - Eagles can redecorate, or nestorate, but only in Decorah can you Re-Decorate for the next nest season!
Raptortherapy - what all Eagleholics need after each season is over.
Reverse Sexual Dimorphism – In most cases when size differences exist between the male and female of a species, it is the male that is the larger of the two sexes. But in a few species, such as birds of prey and owls, it is the female is the larger of the sexes, and such a size difference is referred to as reverse sexual dimorphism.
Rictus - wide open mouth.
Riding The Rails – First perching times on the crib rails.
Rockem’ Sockem Baby Bots – Hatchlings pecking order squabbles with siblings.
Rug O’ War – A food item tugged between two eaglets trying to claim said item as their own.
Rumpicitis – Eagleholic affliction from sitting for 13+ weeks.
SED's - abbreviation for Sweet Eagle Dreams or Sweet Eaglet Dreams.
Screeching - sound associated with food frenzy.
Screech-fest - sound associated with food fest.
Screagling - screeches made by the eee’sScreeeeeeee - typed sound the eee’s make in one or multiple vocalizations; can interchangeable  with squeeeeee.
Scree-Geee’s – D12, D13, D14’s scree band.
Screeenami Siren – the screee alarm alert by juvies at an impending food drop.
Screeescendo – ear piercing frenzy of little eee vocalizations.
Separation Eagxiety - the anxiety that the last eaglet feels when it is left in the nest alone, sans siblings.
Shaking Juvie Syndrome - trying to get the gnats off ones head by shaking it.
Shell Helmet  - D20 emerged rolling out of its shell in 2014 and wearing a shell hat.
Snack Pack - another name for the eaglets crop, courtesy of "TeamCarnes 2nd grade class" in the 2015 season.
Snite - an eagle or eaglet sneeze.
Snuggle Huggles – simultaneous spooning and hugging while planted in a pile resting.
SOAR - Saving Our Avian Raptors - premiere rehab faciity in Iowa and present temporary lodging for injured eaglet D20 aka SOAR Baby.
Speggulation - wondering when those eggs will ever pip and hatch.
Spicules – knobby part of talons to hold onto slippery fish like suction cups.
Splish Splash -  three eaglets taking a bath in rainstorm 6-18-14
Sprawled Eagle - eaglet sleeping with wings spread covering a larger mass area than spread eagle.
Spread Eagle - eaglet sleeping with wings spread (see also sprawled eagle).
Squabbit - what we call the newest furry snack when we can’t  figure out if it is a squirrel or rabbit.Squeeep – babies vocalizations characterized as between a squeee and a peep.
Squeeeisnart – Mom & Dad’s fast and furious filleting of food at chow time.
Squeeesame Street - mythical play place for eaglets.
Squerky – unidentified leftover meal of either squirrel or rabbit jerky.
Squibetti - long entrail strands from mystery food source.
Squibbit – aka Squabbit – unidentified meal of squirrel or jerky.
Squirrel Slippers – fur bits taloned by the juveniles and worn around the nest.
Squish – unidentified meal of squirrel or fish.
StarBeaks – Eagleholics favorite corporate cawfee. Most popular blends: Decorah Decaf and Mocha Mantle.
Sub-Adult - juvenile eagle.
Sun Pose – aka Sunning – the regal eagle iconic horizontal wing drop stance associated with thermoregulation and E1, D12, D13, and D14 all D18, D19 and D20 offered their own versions.
Sun Pose Sundial - all 3 eaglets simultaneously in sun pose noted 5-20-14 by D18, D19 & D20.
SED – Sweet Eagle Dreams.
Sweagle Dreams - sweet eagle dreams.
Synchronized Switching - Mom & Dad's precisely timed incubation take-overs.
Syrinx - flap between esophagus and lungs for eagles vocalization sounds.
T.H.E. – abbreviation for ‘The Eagle Way’.
T.K.O. - Technical Knock Out -- usually preceded by eaglet beak bonking.
Tail Wiggle-Waggle -  movement of the eaglets tail after they realized they had one.
Tarsus - the section of vertebrate foot between the leg and metarsus.
Teeter Totter – using a stick on the side of the nest as a see saw.
The Beakerson’s – affectionate term of endearment given to Mom & Dad during their occassional tiff's.
Three Amigos – 2011 clutch of E1, E2 (D1) and E3. (see Tree Amigos for 2012).
Tippytalon - eaglets doing the ballerina thing.
Tree Amigos – 2012 clutch of D12, D13, D14.
Treeples – Eagleholics, aka Tree People.
Trunk Tower – the Cottonwood camera trunk that D14 ascended as its main lookout point.
Trunked – a vertical jump up to the tree trunk that D14 was most famous for doing.  D18 & D20 also utilized the cam tree trunk for vertical branching in 2014.  All three of these eaglets while "trunked" at the top of the cam, stayed long enough to give us some "selfie" photos.
Tweagles -  juvenile teen eagles.
Tweed Overcoats - when woolly down replaces white natal down.
Tween Preen - eaglets in their eee-awkard phase trying to get their feathers unfurled.
Twigging – going out on a twig prior to official branching.
Twiggs - playing with branches like Lincoln logs.
Twittering - calls made by young eaglets.
U-Branch – the U-shaped branch at the uppermost right of our screen frequented by Mom & Dad.
U.F.E. – unidentified flying eagle in background.
U.F.O - unidentified food object.
U.L.O. - unidentified laying object as when a well-intentioned but misguided fan dropped off a hay bale for extra nest warmth and seen in 2014 yonder field.
Whackdown - Wingwhack Wrestling takedown
Whatta - The best way to start a sentence!
Wilson - name given to the beloved cornhusk that resembled the volleyball in the film Castaway.
Windteruption - high wind day that causes the e's to lay low.
Wingercizing - excercizing the wings.
Wingertainment – new clutch fun in experiencing the joy of those little appendages.  The EA’s of course can be Wingertained by this action.
Wingpits - self explanatory.
Wing Nuts – Eagleholics, Beak Geeks or Bird Nerds … aka devoted fans.
Wing Smackdown - exhuberent wingersizing between two or more eagles resulting in a takedown.
Wing Whack - one eaglet stretching his wing while laying down and hitting his/her nearby sibling with it.
Wonderstruck - The overwhelming feeling produced by the EEeee's.
Y-Branch - the most beloved horizontal branch in N1, the old nest.
Yellow Suede Shoes - D20’s distinctive clown feet appeared to be wearing famous footwear.
Yonder Nest – name given to the new nest constructed by Mom & Dad in Fall, 2012.  Now known as New Nest or N2.

Endangered Species Act Under Threat From Congress

"When the last individual of a race of living things breathes no more, another Heaven and another Earth must pass before such a one can be again" - William Beebe

Dad Decorah near N2B

What is the Endangered Species Act? Signed into law by President Nixon in 1973, the ESA is the strongest and most important federal law protecting imperiled wildlife and plants. It has prevented hundreds of species from going extinct since it was enacted. Do you enjoy watching Mom and Dad Decorah or any other eagle families? Although they are no longer endangered - protections under the Act are supposed to recover species - the banning of DDT and the passage of the Endangered Species Act was critical to their survival.

Now the Endangered Species Act is under threat from some members of Congress, who see a chance to roll back its influence. “It has never been used for the rehabilitation of species. It’s been used for control of the land,” said House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop. “We’ve missed the entire purpose of the Endangered Species Act. It has been hijacked.”

Bald eagles, peregrine falcons, brown pelicans, California condors, whooping cranes, Puerto Rican parrots, and spotted owls beg to differ with Congressman Bishop's assessment, as do grizzly bears, several species of whales, southern resident orcas, sea otters, gray wolves, and manatees. Unfortunately, recently extinct Carolina parakeets, ivory-billed woodpeckers, passenger pigeons, eskimo curlews, and dusky seaside sparrows are gone forever and thus unavailable for comment.

Peregrine falcon at Xcel Blackdog power plant

I had the privilege of visiting Chicago's Field Museum during a peregrine conference three years ago. Attendees were given a behind-the-scenes tour of the museum, including a look at their vast bird collection - lovingly preserved corpses of birds kept for study and remembrance. It was there that I got my only look at the Carolina parakeet and the ivory-billed woodpecker. Gone forever from life, the two species now exist only as study skins in museums. Had the United States not banned DDT and passed the Endangered Species Act, it is highly likely that peregrine falcons, bald eagles, and many other animals would have joined them, existing only as museum specimens and curiosities on film. However cherished their memories or lovingly preserved their corpses, they too would be gone, dead, extinct, lost. Forever.

Imagine life without them. I can't stand the thought.

Looking for proof of the Act's success? The Center for Biodiversity conducted an exhaustive analysis of bird recovery under the Endangered Species Act and found it has been extraordinarily successful in recovering imperiled birds. Eighty-five percent of bird populations in the continental United States increased or stabilized while protected by the Act, and the average population increase was 624 percent. It was believed that listed bird populations would need 63 years to recover, but several populations (including bald eagles and peregrine falcons) have recovered far more rapidly than expected. As mentioned earlier, peregrine falcons and bald eagles have both been removed from the list.

Dan Berger's notes. All of the Peregrines east of the Mississippi in the
surveys he made in the 1950s and early '60s. Not an exaggeration...this was it.

Habitat/land has long been part of the argument against the Endangered Species Act. Those who oppose the act tend to cite the subjection of humans to land use regulation; the restriction of activities like farming, lumbering, construction, and mining, and the lack of compensation to landowners impacted by endangered species. But there are also many untruths in their arguments. Contrary to their arguments:

• The Endangered Species Act has recovered species.
• Landowners won't lose their homes because an endangered species is on their property. 
• Conservation groups and biologists do not just want money from the federal government. Folks, I have to tell you - conservation is the wrong field if your goal is money!
• It does not kill jobs. Section 7 of the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) directs federal agencies to help conserve listed species. One way it does this is by requiring agencies to consult with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service to ensure that proposed federal actions won’t threaten a listed species’ survival. Between 2008 and 2015, 81,461 projects advanced without protections for wildlife, 6,382 advanced requiring only minor modifications for wildlife, 2 advanced requiring protections, and 0 were stopped. This seems to indicate that ESA could work even more effectively than it does now.

I don't understand the argument against preserving habitat. Animals can't live without it and so much is already gone. Why is it considered bad to preserve the 10% of Iowa that isn't under till? Or the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, which covers just 1.9% of Minnesota's total area? Does it really all need to be mined, timbered, and torn up for profit?

I believe in public/private collaborations such as ours and this shining example - how could I not, with what Bob called our 'unique marriage between industry and conservation'? I've seen the power that these relationships can have to secure habitat, change perceptions, and help species. But legislation and enforcement are also necessary, and the reforms being proposed right now are aimed at the destruction of the Act, not its betterment. For the sake of the birds we watch and love, please stand up and say "No" to any attempts to weaken or repeal the Endangered Species Act. We will be following and blogging on this issue and the issue of public land transfer.

Things you can do:

• Sign a petition that the American Bird Conservancy will take to Congress. We signed and it endorsed it organizationally, the first time we have done so: http://bit.ly/2k9o2YL
• Contact your representative. Follow this link for contact information: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/. 
• Contact your senator. Follow this link for contact information: https://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/

You are welcome to take anything from this blog and re-use it in a letter, email, or editorial. Keep your tone respectful and remember that conservation is not and should not be a partisan issue.  But please comment! Bob always believed that we can make a difference. Let's prove him right.

---

Resources

• Scientific American: The five biggest myths about the endangered species act
• Live Science: Ten animals back from the brink
• The Effectiveness of the Endangered Species Act: A Quantitative Analysis
• A wild success: A systematic review of bird recovery under the Endangered Species Act
• Study on federal projects and the ESA: http://www.pnas.org/content/112/52/15844.full.pdf
• Section Seven Explorer: https://defenders-esc.shinyapps.io/section7/
• WaPo article on the Endangered Species act and jobs
• Scientific American's Extinction Countdown Blog
• I didn't use it in this blog, but Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring is perhaps more relevant than ever with the decline of bees due to neonictinoid pesticides.

Public land is understandably a far hotter issue in the western United States, where the federal government owns vast tracts of land. But even there, groups like Sportsmen's Access, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership are fighting for public land. I get upset email on our support for hunting and fishing, but I encourage people to take a look at what these groups and others like them are doing to support public lands. They are also an important reminder that conservation isn't, in the words of the Theodore Roosevelt Partnership, red or blue.

It has also been pointed out to me that bald eagles and peregrine falcons live pretty comfortably with humans. But not all species can live as comfortably with humans as bald eagles and peregrine falcons do. Do species that can't matter less than those that can?

And finally, the struggle to preserve wildlife and wildland is, in my opinion, an absolute necessity for our own survival. If they don't make it, we won't either. We aren't an exception to the requirements of clean air, clean water, and habitat, and humans and animals are in this glorious, lovely mess called life together.

National Save The Eagles Day!

How many readers remember their first sight of a bald eagle? I saw my first bald eagle flying along the Mississippi river near Minneapolis, MN. This was back before cell phones and cameras, so I had to wait to get home to tell my husband and call my Mom. I was so excited!

My children don't remember when bald eagles were rare. Like children will, they sometimes roll their eyes or sigh when I get excited about eagles today. When my middle son counted bald eagles and crows on a peregrine survey last March, he counted many more eagles than crows. They soared over Lake Pepin, perched on trees, sat on rapidly melting ice, and kettled over bluffs, driving the local peregrine falcons crazy. I pointed out how fortunate we were to watch one formerly endangered species duking it out with another on a sunny spring day: a moment that very nearly didn't happen since both species were perched on the brink of extinction just fifty years ago.

Persecution, habitat loss, and the pesticide DDT nearly wiped eagles and falcons out. From a population of hundreds of thousands, bald eagles were whittled down to 412 breeding pairs by the 1950s. The peregrine falcon declined even more precipitously. By 1970, the peregrine was extinct east of the Mississippi and there were only 39 breeding pairs left in the lower 48 states, period. What was going on? Researchers found that the widely used pesticide DDT was causing bald eagles and peregrine falcons to lay eggs so thin that they cracked under the weight of incubating parents.

While eagles were already protected by the Lacey Act, the Migratory Bird Treat Act, and the Bald and Golden Eagle Act (read about them here), it was clear that more was needed to save the eagle from extinction. The newly created Environmental Protection Agency banned DDT in 1972 (read more about that here) and Congress passed the Endangered Species Act in 1973. The Act was signed into law by President Nixon on December 28, 1973. I was seven years old and had never seen a wild bald eagle or peregrine falcon despite living and vacationing in what was once prime territory for both of them. I can't stress this enough: they were gone.

As Trip Van Noppen points out in his article on the subject, "Because of the act, today’s children are able to experience not only bald eagles but also orcas, alligators, condors, grizzly bears and myriad other creatures as living, breathing parts of our natural heritage — not as dusty museum specimens." While my children don't always appreciate bald eagles, they live in a world where eagles and falcons are a common sight. This wasn't the result of luck or accident, but rather the result of hard work, determination, and a great deal of personal courage on the part of people like Rachel Carson and Joseph Hickey. We celebrate bald eagles as a symbol of our national freedom, but they also symbolize the commitment we made back in 1973 to preserve wild life and wild lands.

• A few members of Congress are interested in repealing the Endangered Species Act. The American Bird Conservancy has an article about that here: https://abcbirds.org/endangered-species-act-facing-own-extinction/. 
• The Center for Biological Diversity has a report outlining the stunning successes of the Endangered Species Act here: http://www.esasuccess.org/2016/index.html
• Once DDT was banned and the Endangered Species Act put some real teeth into enforcement, bald eagle populations recovered largely on their own...but peregrines did not. Our founder Bob Anderson was deeply involved in the peregrine recovery effort. A little of that story can be read here: https://www.raptorresource.org/about-us/remembering-bob-anderson/ and here: http://www.raptorresource.org/pdf/mnbirding.pdf. We can't let the good work that he and so many others did go to waste! We will keep everyone posted on any effort to repeal the Environmental Species Act.

A trip down memory lane: Favorites from 2016, Decorah edition!

It is time for a look back at 2016! We asked the mods for their five (or more) favorite moments of 2016 from Decorah and Decorah North. We will feature favorites from Decorah today.

Several mods mentioned ‘firsts’: first pip, first hatch, and first feeding. A few favorite firsts from 2016.

• First feeding for D24: Mom Feeds D24 Sweetest Thing: https://youtu.be/hOdii7wjh_s
  It is reassuring and sweet to see an eaglet’s first feeding.
• First pip for D25: D24 & D25 pip with beak moving - super close macro zoom: https://youtu.be/lPjOHCLa4hA. A feeding for D24, one of our first glimpses of D25, cute vocalizations (I can’t help but think of baby talk), and birdsong everywhere.
• First glimpse of D25’s face: https://youtu.be/N49xo52cPOU. Does this video also show D24’s first PS? Wonderful if brief views of D25’s tiny talons and face, down still wet from hatching, and D24 gobbling down sucker roe!

Poopshoots remain a perennial favorite among mods and watchers alike. Two poopshoot moments really stood out for a few moderators…

• D24's poop shoot backsplash: https://youtu.be/cO3-m7kSzAI
• A good reminder that one person’s tear-their-hair-out moment makes another person’s day! Remember when D25 scored a direct lens hit with a wind assisted PS? I sure do! https://youtu.be/xfisKt1hDAQ

There were a lot of miscellaneous favorites – cute, interesting, or fun glimpses of daily life at N2B!

• D25 got tangled in Mom’s pantaloons and was pulled out of the nest cup. He eventually made his way back to the comfort of her feathers: https://youtu.be/RF5o9UbNd0w
• Who put the kettle on? Mom, of course! https://youtu.be/O-zkkqz5q88. 
• From Robin comes this question: Who wouldn’t like a grass clubhouse? Mom buries D25 completely under grass: https://youtu.be/jb8bIZQCMRI
• That point in the eaglets’ lives when they discover the camera: https://youtu.be/wIMcGMS3sEQ #selfie
• A favorite of mine – after a long perching session over the cornfield, D25 flies off. At least some of us weren’t ready for fledge yet! https://youtu.be/WNSTXx8sQzo

We all missed D24 and D25 after they left N2B. But the cameras at N1 and Robin Brumm’s videos gave us a glimpse of their post-fledgling lives.

• D24 and D25 belting it out with Mom on the maple tree: https://youtu.be/1fnTNw4U1MM
• D25 investigates the N1 nest hole: https://youtu.be/BSYkuM0NAO4

All of the mods mentioned followers, classrooms, and/or people at After the Fledge. They loved the chance to interact with classrooms, our guest moderators from teamcarnes’ class, the daily chats with followers, meeting and hanging out with eagle friends and family at ATF, and getting a chance to see Ambassador in Training Decorah (widely believed to be D20 from 2014): https://youtu.be/NZELDqr4OfQ

Judging from readership of blogs, your primary Decorah-related concerns in 2016 were:

• Will the last egg hatch?
• What happened to the last egg?
• Proposed 30-year take of bald and golden eagles
• Is N2B big enough?

Have a very happy new year and thanks for watching with us in 2016!

Nesting Chronologies

We were asked about the nesting chronologies of bald eagles. While nest timing can very from region to region (Florida, for example, is quite different from Iowa), mark your calendars as follows!

• In the nests we watch in Iowa and Colorado, bonding and copulating behaviors become more pronounced and frequent after the winter solstice. Female eagles begin laying eggs 5-10 days after productive copulation begins. This usually happens in mid-February at the Decorah and Fort St. Vrain nests. The Norths have a slightly later chronology and probably won't lay eggs until mid-March.
• Each egg is laid about 3-5 days apart, and incubation starts with the laying of the first egg.
• Eagle eggs begin hatching roughly 35 to 37 days after they are laid. This usually begins in late March in Decorah and Fort St. Vrain, and mid-April at the North nest. Hatch can take more than 24 hours for any given egg.
• Eaglets spend 75-80 days in the nest before fledging. This usually happens in mid to late June at the Decorah and Fort St. Vrain nests, and early to mid-July at Decorah North.

More on the subject! 

Eagles have been observed mating ten months out of the year, but they only produce eggs and sperm for a very brief period of time after the winter solstice (see this blog for more on that topic, or this blog for a graph of daylight length rate changes). Between solstice and egg-laying, watch for female eagles to foot and nibble males, vocalize at them, rub against them, and even mount them to indicate receptivity. Males will increase the amount of material they bring into the nest, work on the area that will underlie the nest cup, and vocalize at and with females as both sexes become more vocal. Listen for the unique and wonderful sound of the eagles vocalizing together!

A quick primer on egg fertilization in birds. Sperm needs to encounter an ovum at the infundibulum, or site of fertilization.  If sperm are too early, they will die prior to the arrival of an ovum. If sperm are too late, they can't penetrate the eggshell layers that form around the ovum in the female's oviduct. So how do birds assure fertilized eggs? They:

• Copulate regularly. Regular copulation helps assure a good supply of sperm - especially important in an animal that regularly clears its cloaca when eliminating waste!
• Store sperm. Sperm storage tubules maintain sperm viability, prevent stored sperm from being ejected, and continuously release sperm to the infundibulum.
• Concentrate sperm at the infundibulum. Released sperm are passively carried to the infundibulum. Their continuous release and relatively slow drift help ensure that sperm are present when an ovum arrives.

Incubation starts immediately after egg laying begins in mid-February to early March. Eggs shouldn’t get too cold, but they also can’t get too hot, or the embryos will die. Adults sit on the eggs when they need heat and get off them when they need to be cooled. Both parents have a brood patch, a natural thinning of the abdomen feathers caused by hormonal changes, where their skin is in direct contact with the eggs to transfer warmth. Since incubation starts from the time the first egg is laid, eggs will hatch about 3 days apart in the order they were laid. Both the male and female take turns incubating, but the female, being larger, takes the longer incubation periods overnight. It is believed that her larger body weight makes her a little more tolerant to cold - important during a long inactive spell!

Once eggs start hatching in late March to mid-April, it can take longer than 24 hours for any given eaglet to complete hatch, although it doesn't tend to take that long in the nests we watch. We will announce hip or Hatch In Progress watch on Facebook, Twitter (@RaptorResource), and our website (www.raptorresource.org).

Helping birds in winter!

After one of the nicest falls I can remember, winter has finally arrived. While the eagles are more than capable of handling snow and cold, I like to help (and watch!) smaller birds like chickadees, nuthatches, finches, redpolls, pine siskins, and other visitors to my yard. Here are a few tips to make winter a little easier for the birds and more enjoyable for you!

Like IHOP for birds. Looks like I need to fill the feeders again! 

• Feed the birds! Winter is a great time to feed high-fat, high energy foods like suet and sunflower seeds. I have five feeders right now - two finch feeders (which include sunflower chips, thistle, and millet), a platform feeder with black oil sunflower seeds, a square box feeder with 'cardinal food' (black oil sunflower seeds, sunflower kernels, safflower seed, and peanuts, which also bring in blue jays and red-bellied woodpeckers), and a suet feeder. With different styles of feeder and different food choices, everyone can find something they like!  Remember, it is important to feed regularly once you have started. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, little birds like chickadees can lose 25% of their body weight on a cold night. If birds come to rely on you for a constant supply of food that isn't available when storms hit or the cold really starts to bite, they might not survive.
  
  I had roughly 61 birds at my feeders this very cold morning, including a male cardinal, juncos, gold finches, chickadees, a sparrow, hairy woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, red-bellied woodpeckers, and a white-breasted nuthatch. A quick tip: more perches can mean more birds. If you can't set up feeders near trees, you can install additional perches near your feeders. And you can also...
• Plant and landscape for birds! We are fortunate to have a lot of trees in our yard. The feeders are set up near two cedars, which provide nice, thick cover; two elms, which provide a lot of branches for perching; and an oak woodlot. We left part of the woodlot unmowed this fall, which means plenty of vegetation for perching and additional seeds for small foragers. If you can, plant native shrubs and bushes and leave some tall vegetation standing to provide cover, food, and perches for wintering birds.
• Install roost boxes. Another suggestion from Cornell. Roost boxes will help protect any birds that nest in boxes or cavities, including bluebirds, chickadees, titmice, nuthatches and small woodpeckers. A good roost box keeps the birds' body heat contained, has interior perches, and can be placed on a metal pole or wooden post. They are available in stores, or you can make your own. Follow this link for roost box-building instructions. Note: I haven't tried this since we have trees, brush piles, and outbuildings. But I plan to build one over Christmas break - it looks like a great idea and I would love to monitor one during cold weather!
• Water birds. Let's get something straight: It is not true that heated bird baths kill birds. I don't know how many times I have been told not to water birds because they will get water on their feet or feathers and freeze to perches or become encased in ice. Not true! Flowing water is a valuable commodity in winter and heated bird baths will help birds while attracting more of them to your yard. Make sure to keep them cleaned and filled if you commit to watering.

Here's to a very happy and well-fed holiday to all of the birds! Looking for a holiday craft activity for children? My kids and I used to make these easy and inexpensive bird treats: http://www.education.com/activity/article/christmas-cookies-birds/. A little warning - this craft is fun, but be prepared for clean-up!

---

Did you know? Another bonus to feeding birds - you can join Cornell's Backyard Bird Count! Learn more about it here: http://gbbc.birdcount.org/. I plan on counting birds and watching for eggs in Decorah!

Report on the Unhatched Eagle Egg from N2B

Unhatched egg, N2B

We received the results on the unhatched egg from N2B. As watchers might recall, one of the eggs failed to hatch. We thought the embryo might have died early in formation, but according to tests run by Iowa State University, the egg was never fertile. How could that be?

A quick primer on egg fertilization in birds. Sperm needs to encounter an ovum at the infundibulum, or site of fertilization.  If sperm are too early, they will die prior to the arrival of an ovum. If sperm are too late, they can't penetrate the eggshell layers that form around the ovum in the female's oviduct. So how do birds assure fertilized eggs? They:

• Copulate regularly. Regular copulation helps assure a good supply of sperm - especially important in an animal that regularly clears its cloaca when eliminating waste!
• Store sperm. Sperm storage tubules maintain sperm viability, prevent stored sperm from being ejected, and continuously release sperm to the infundibulum.
• Concentrate sperm at the infundibulum. Released sperm are passively carried to the infundibulum. Their continuous release and relatively slow drift help ensure that sperm are present when an ovum arrives. 

After removal from N2B

It is good to know that egg number one didn't contain an embryo, but why wasn't it fertilized? Three suggestions based on a simple idea: sperm wasn't present at the infundibulum when the first ovum arrived. 

• While eagles have been observed copulating ten months out of the year, males don't produce sperm year round and they don't store it very long once production is underway. Perhaps Dad wasn't producing sperm in time for Mom's first egg. Sperm production is not required for pair bonding.
• Mom may not have had enough sperm stored to concentrate sperm at the infundibulum in time for ovum #1.  
• Age might be impacting reproductive success in either Mom or Dad. While free-living animals don't tend to have 'menopause' - a long stretch of time in which they do not bear young - age does impact fertility.

Some watchers have expressed concern that age might be a factor in the failure of egg number one. It isn't especially likely in Mom based on what we know. In general, a female bird that produces a healthy, intact egg is most likely fertile. Reduced fertility in our 'elderly' female peregrine falcons tends to be accompanied by changes in the amount of eggs laid, egg color, shape, and condition. Eggs might be unusually colored, pitted, or shaped - all things we saw at Xcel Energy's Sherco facility in 2014 and 2015. While we don't have a lot of data about senescence and egg production in bald eagles, wild eagles are generally assumed to live for 20-30 years. Given that Mom is just fourteen years old, age-related fertility impairment seems unlikely. 

So how about Dad? We believe he is at least 19 years old, although we don't know exactly how old he is. Senescence and sperm production in birds is a little complicated. Research indicates that aging impacts sperm quantity, quality, and motility in birds, and eggs fertilized by older males hatch at reduced rates when compared to those fertilized by younger males. But even with reduced motility, the sperm of older males tends to perform better than the sperm of younger males in a female bird's body. In short, older birds have less sperm than younger birds, and the sperm they have is less motile and of lower quality. But studies have found that older birds are more likely to fertilize eggs than their younger counterparts, even if those eggs are less likely to hatch.

Why are older male birds more successful at fertilizing eggs? The study Senescent sperm performance in old male birds found that obstacles to sperm movement in a female bird's reproductive tract affected older males less than younger males. I would love to see research on the role that skill and pair bonds play in sperm retention (I am defining 'skill' as actions taken by the male to assure a high degree of receptivity in his partner). We know that at least some female birds are able to preferentially reject the sperm of less desirable males, that female birds who mate with familiar males often produce more fertilized eggs with more egg mass than those who mate with novel males, and that the success of novel mating is highly dependent on male behavior. Reproduction is clearly much more complicated than we used to think, and it is obviously past time to drop the pejorative term bird-brained!

Having said that, we are back to the question of Dad's fertility. One infertile egg doesn't really give us enough data to come to any conclusions, but it is very helpful to know why the egg didn't hatch. We will be documenting whether or not nest production continues to decline at N2B. Thanks to John Howe, Kike Arnal, Pat Schlarbaum, Dr. Ensley, and Iowa State University for giving us more insight into the lives of the birds we follow. We are hoping for the best for our beloved Mom and Dad!

---

Did you know?

• Sperm competition can result in speedier sperm among animals that have multiple mates while ovulating. Female mice, for example, take multiple mates and can't reject or store sperm long, so speed is important! http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/04/scienceshot-how-make-speedy-sperm
• Why didn't the egg explode? A decomposing embryo rapidly produces gasses that can explode an egg, but this egg didn't contain anything except (presumably) Mom's blastodisc. It was also kept relatively cool and protected from direct sunlight by grass and nest detritus. John really had to dig for it! He told us that he dug through roughly a 5-gallon peregrine gravel pail worth of stuff to find the egg, including a squirrel's skull!
• Would a receptive female in a long-term pair be likely to produce more eggs? I had very little time to follow up on the question, but here is one study that touches on it:
  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2817173/

Things that helped me learn about this topic

• Senescent sperm performance in old male birds:
  http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1420-9101.2008.01650.x/full
• The sperm of aging male bustards retards their offspring’s development (I'm linking straight to the discussion, but the whole paper is available):
  http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms7146#discussion
• How to make speedy sperm!
  http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/04/scienceshot-how-make-speedy-sperm
• The risk and intensity of sperm ejection in female birds (this needs to be purchased for full access): http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/661244
• Learning enhances female control over reproductive investment in the Japanese quail (full article): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2817173/

So does this mean it is clearly the magic in Dad's many, many sticks? ;) All jokes aside, Dad spends a great deal of time working on the nest and providing food, although Mom is more than capable of building and hunting on her own. We tend to define the reproductive season as starting at the beginning of active copulation or egg-laying. But today's daily activities help cement the bond between Mom and Dad and may result in increased productivity months from now: more fertilized eggs with higher egg mass, more hatched eggs, and heavier weights in nestling eaglets during critical stages of growth. We are learning that eagle reproductive success depends on far more than the brief period of time they spend engaging in productive copulation.

2016 by the Numbers!

To help kick-off Giving Tuesday on Tuesday, November 29, we wanted to talk about what got done in 2016. Here are the things your donations helped us get done! Please donate to the Raptor Resource Project to help us continue our work in 2017 and beyond! 

Online Interaction and Education

Since January 1, 2016, we have:

• Provided 1,785 hours of chat on the Decorah eagles channel, including 449 hours of dedicated educational chat. Our Decorah North group provided 576 hours of moderated chat, including special coverage following the deaths of DN3 and DN2. 
• Posted 364 times on Facebook. Topics and photos included the Decorah Eagles, the Decorah North Eagles, the GSB Peregrine falcons, the Fort St. Vrain eagles, tracking D24 and D25, Robin Brumm's trips to Decorah, peregrine falcon banding, nest box work, and many other topics related to our nests and birds. Posts were shared from Neil Rettig Productions, SOAR, the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, and Jim Brandenberg's 365 Nature project. 
• Wrote 31 blogs. We addressed questions about the eagles, the nests (Is N2B big enough?), nest intruders, eaglet growth and development, the proposed 30-year take of eagles, and the deaths of DN2 and DN3, and much more!
• Expanded our online offerings to explore.org. This ads-free site is presently one of two that streams the Decorah Eagles North channel.

I need to give a shoutout to our amazing volunteer moderators. I have said it before and I will say it again - our volunteers make our pages the best on the web and we could not provide our online educational program without their help!

Monitoring, Banding, Trapping, Recovery, and Nestbox Maintenance
Since January 1, 2016, we have:

• Monitored over 50 peregrine falcon and bald eagle nest sites and potential territories in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, and Colorado.
• Banded 76 falcons at 25 sites in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois between May 20 and June 16 - a record for us! Our northernmost territory was in Cohasset, Minnesota and our southernmost territory was in Peoria, Illinois. As always, we reported all banding and follow up data to the Bird Banding Lab and the Midwest Peregrine Society.
• Installed 2 tracking platforms on D24 and D25 in July. Thanks to the platforms, we know that D25 was killed in a collision with a car in September, but D24 is still going strong! 
• Retrieved DN2's body from Decorah North in May, and the unhatched eagle egg from N2B in September. DN2's autopsy can be found here. We are waiting for a report on the egg. 
• Changed gravel at 3 peregrine nest boxes in October and November. The US Bank box in La Crosse also got a new top and we fixed the private camera at the Greysolon box in Duluth.

Thanks to our utility, industrial, and landowner partners for all of their help and support! A huge thanks to Brett Mandernack for including 'our' eagles in his studies and for sharing all of the data about their whereabouts and fates. Thanks also to David and Ann Lynch for their help with the transmitter project. We couldn't do it without all of you!

Camera Research and Installation

We focus on camera installation and nest box maintenance in September and October. Bald eagle cam work ends on October 1st, which is considered the start of the active season in our area. Peregrine falcon work can be done later since we don't tend to see much of them again until late February or early March. Even territorial falcons are less defensive of their nest sites this time of the year.

• John Howe, Kike Arnal, David Kester, David Lynch, Ann Lynch, John Dingley, Amy Ries, Bill Heston (Xcel Energy), and Pat Donahue (also from Xcel Energy) installed a total of six cameras and four microphones at N1, N2B, Decorah North, Fort St. Vrain, and GSB between September 17 and October 16. We also provided technical support for the Seneca Nation of Indians (a bald eagle cam) and the Marshy Point Nature Center (Marshy Point ospreys). The installations took roughly 900 hours total. 
• John Howe put in hundreds of hours researching, ordering, and testing cameras this year. While the majority of our installs are done in September and October, camera and streaming research take place year-round. In 2016, we began to move towards 4K at Decorah North and GSB - a big jump for us - and improved the audio at Decorah and Decorah North.

Other Stuff

• We threw our annual After The Fledge party between July 14th and July 16th. Almost 100 eagle fans and volunteers had a blast celebrating the Decorah eagles and Decorah itself!
• We provided ongoing technical support to followers who experienced problems watching our eagles, viewing Facebook, and participating in chat. Over 800 followers received support via our website, and an unknown number received support via our Facebook and Twitter.
• We partnered with Ustream to provide temporary ads-free viewing to 347 teachers and their students.
• John trained 4 volunteers to operate our cameras remotely - a new and very welcome step for us and our followers. 

Thank you for all of your support and for your donations. They make a difference and we couldn't continue to do it without them! 

A Reflection and a Thanksgiving

I found myself in an unusually reflective mood earlier this week. Today, November 23rd, was Bob Anderson's birthday. It seems like a good time to take stock of where the Raptor Resource Project has been, where it plans on going, and what I have to be thankful for.

Bob and Dave Hecht banding at Lansing in 2010

For those of you who don't know, Bob founded the Raptor Resource Project to propagate and release peregrine falcons. He was the first person to successfully breed peregrine falcons in Minnesota. MF-1, one of the first falcons he produced and released, became the first returned falcon to breed in the mid-continent following the species' extirpation in the mid-1960's. It took an incredible amount of work to keep the peregrine falcon from joining the long list of species that will be mourned on the remembrance day for lost species. I am thankful that the peregrine falcon is still with us. Where we have a will, we have a way.

I am thankful to have met Bob. He responded to an ad my little writing business was running back in 1994. I began by writing grants, but very quickly moved into field work. Did I want to attend a banding and take pictures? Yes! Did I want to hold falcons? Yes! Did I want to rappel? Yes yes yes! The writer William Least Heat Moon said in the Wonsevu chapter of the book PrairyErth that "I'm not sure what to make of it, but I think a dream can set you on another path." Bob's dream of restoring the peregrine falcon set many people's lives on another path.

Banding at Xcel's Allen S King plant in 2005

Believe it or not, we moved into internet cameras almost accidentally. Bob set up several local monitors so that power plant employees and visitors could watch peregrine falcons. If I remember correctly, Mike Miser from the Allen S. King plant in Oak Park Heights, Minnesota, suggested putting their camera online. 'Mae's Internest' hatched in 1998, making Xcel Energy's corporate website the busiest in the world for the first quarter of 1998. It uploaded a still image of Mae's nestbox every two minutes...a technical triumph at the time! That year, we also began a three-year study of heavy metals in utility falcons with the Electric Power Research Institute, Xcel Energy, and Dairyland Power. We worked with Dan Orr and Ken Mueller at Xcel Energy and John Thiel at Dairyland Power. All three men have since retired, but the paper can be found here: https://www.raptorresource.org/about-us/annual-reports-and-papers/. I am thankful to have worked with the fine men and women employed at America's power plants. The utility-peregrine program is an example of the ways in which humans can support wildlife even in the unlikeliest of areas. You guys are awesome...and great fun, too!

Bob was also working on his cliff release project. Back in 1994, he began to believe that nest-site imprinting was preventing the crossover of peregrines from power plants to cliffs. The Iowa DNR was very interested in working with Bob, so he picked up lock, stock, and barrel to move down to Bluffton, Iowa in 1996. He did a successful pilot release on the Upper Iowa river in 1997 and released a total of 19 falcons from Hanging Rock at Effigy Mounds National Monument in 1998 and 1999. The Upper Iowa hackbox can still be seen from the river, although the Effigy Mounds hackboxes are long gone. In 2000, our cliff-released falcons became the first falcons to return to the cliffs of the Mississippi. I remember going to see them quite well, since I was very pregnant with my last son. I did a lot of crazy things for and with Bob, but the only time I remember him being really worried about me was just after I huffed and puffed my way up the back of Queen's Bluff. Pat Schlarbaum's story about peregrine recovery includes information about our cliff releases. It can be read here: http://www.gladysblackeagle.org/project-ideas/longwings-return. I am thankful to have played a small piece in this story, and very grateful to the men and women of the Iowa DNR who supported Bob's work.

In 2006 and 2007, Bob was working with Neil Rettig on the movie American Bald Eagle. After the two wrapped up, Bob said "Wouldn't it be fun to put this nest on the internet?" We made Bob's dream a reality in 2009, when the Decorah Eagle Cam uploaded an image to Xcel Energy's website every two minutes. In 2010, Luther College hosted a live feed. In 2011, we moved to Ustream and the Decorah eagles became a worldwide sensation. While we celebrated the eagles, Bob also mourned the loss of his dear friend and fellow falconer Rob MacIntyre, the 'mad scientist' who was featured so prominently in the movie RaptorForce. Rob did a lot of the work on our earlier cam systems, and his death was a real blow both personally and professionally. I am thankful to have known him and his wonderful wife Jan. They brightened every room they entered.

John also likes to rappel!

While Bob never lost his drive to recover birds of prey, he suddenly had a new focus. He was deeply engaged in using our bird cams to reach learners and provide a palliative window to the outside for ill, injured, and bedridden people. Online education became a major focus, but cameras still needed to be researched and purchased, and HD was increasingly looking like the next step. Enter John Howe! John began working with Bob to research cameras and camera technologies, including solar/wireless technologies (Rob installed our first solar/wireless system back in 2003) and HD. The longer Bob worked with John, the more he was impressed. Shortly before Bob's death, he let us all know that John was to follow him as Director of the Raptor Resource Project.

This brings us up to the present. In the year since Bob's death, John has worked diligently to keep up with camera and streaming technology, deploy cameras, expand our online educational offerings, honor Bob's legacy, and secure funding (an organization doesn't run very long without money). He has more than proven himself as a director and a leader. I am thankful for John Howe and only wish that Bob was here to see the positive change that John has brought to the Raptor Resource Project.

So where do we go from here? We are sustained by our mission: to preserve and strengthen raptor populations, expand participation in raptor preservation, and help foster the next generation of preservationists. We follow our vision: to deepen the connection between people and the natural world, bringing benefits to both.

• Education: We are looking at ways to improve and increase our educational offerings. In addition to the online interaction we already offer through our unparalleled team of moderators, we are looking at curriculum, educational videos, Skype, short movies, and other ways to reach out to learners of all age and circumstances.
• Preserving and Strengthening Raptor Populations: We will continue to monitor our nests, band falcons, consult on nestboxes and habitat for a variety of species, provide input on conservation issues, and work with federal and state wildlife agencies to benefit of birds of prey. We are also looking at ways to strengthen existing partnerships and build new ones. How can we connect our passionate followers with organizations looking for volunteers? How can we work closer with our utility and industry partners on providing or improving habitat for the many birds that nest on or use utility land and water in other ways? How can we advocate for birds of prey? We have done a lot, but we can do more. We stand on the shoulders of giants!
• Fostering the Next Generation of Preservationists: In addition to our online educational program, we are looking at an educational endowment in Bob Anderson's name. We will have more information about that early next year. An educational endowment seems like an appropriate way to honor Bob's legacy.
• Connecting People with the Natural World: Researching and deploying cameras is a lot of work. Fortunately, we have a director who truly enjoys it! We will continue to do our best to connect watchers with the natural world using up-to-date, unobtrusive technology. A challenge for me: how do we develop quantifiable data from the thousands of hours of footage and anecdotes we've collected? Our knowledge has already changed since we first began watching the eagles (remember eagles are always monogamous?), but there is so much more to learn! 

So what else am I thankful for? 

• I am thankful for fans of the Decorah eagles and our other birds. Please, keep emailing and mailing your stories and art. You have deepened our lives an immeasurable amount.
• I am thankful for our amazing volunteers. In addition to your incredible work, my life is better for having known you. I've said it before and I'll say it again...your work makes us the best site on the web!
• I am thankful to our Board for providing direction and guidance. 
• I am thankful for an unexpected and unlooked for gift: the honor to be part of the Raptor Resource Project's work. My 1994 self - I was 28 years old! - had no way of knowing what saying 'Yes' to Bob's first request would lead to. Bob, we will remember and celebrate you until we join you.

Thank you, everyone. I'm going to close with a link to a favorite blog I did on Bob back in 2012: Watching Bald Eagles. The Raptor Resource Project wishes you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving!