Kwidi

If you've been following my Instagram feed, you've probably seen the range of photos captured from the tree hide I constructed last month to observe a late-hatching Wailitj / Wedge-tailed Eagle chick in the Perth Hills, whose nest is pictured above. My first glimpse of this eaglet, which I would later find out was a female, was in November when she was a month old and her flight feathers had only just emerged.

When I did my first hide stint a few weeks later, the eaglet had made a rapid transformation from almost entirely white to about half chocolate-brown. Eaglets are normally very vocal at the sight of their parents, and virtually mute at other times, but even when her parents were absent (which, at the age of six weeks, was often), this girl called almost incessantly, her loud, two-noted yelps filling my eardrums. It was wonderful to observe her mother feeding her small pieces of Yoorn / Bobtail Skink (Tiliqua rugosa) that the male delivered early one morning, and I was very happy to obtain some video footage that will be useful for my next documentary.

Today's mission, however, was to ascend to this nest, remove the eaglet (who was now 10 weeks old) for a brief period to weigh, measure, colour-ring and satellite-tag her, then place her back as she was found. I was slightly nervous as I scaled a climbing rope high into the canopy to reach the eyrie, which was about 25 m above the forest floor. The juvenile eagle greeted me in the way that most do: with a 'threat display' that includes spread out wings and a gaping, sometimes drooling mouth, an expression that says: "I'm going to kill you, so stay back!"

"Welcome to my eyrie... now I keeeeel you!"

I was lucky to be joined on this 'eagle day' by a variety of helpers and onlookers, one of whom was my old friend and expert photographer Judy Dunlop, who managed to captured some great memories of how the afternoon unfolded, including this eye-level canopy shot of the 'capture moment'...

Back on terra firma, my partner Danielle did a wonderful job of calmly holding the eagle as I took measurements. It was a thrill to have Trish Fleming, one of my PhD supervisors, with me to help fit her with colour-rings. So much effort goes into planning and supervising doctoral research, so sharing moments in the field with those people who give monumental 'behind the scenes' support is especially rewarding.

Trish holds the colour-ring closed as I prepare to fix it with a pop-rivet.

Another person whose presence was a special blessing was Noongar woman Alison Murphy, who came along to meet the eagle and give her a Noongar name. Alison's father Noel Nannup named one of our 2016 birds 'Yirrabiddi', who is still flying around inland Western Australia, so it was great to introduce another member of the Nannup family to another member of the Wailitj one!

Alison Murphy attaches the final rivet to the eagle's colour-ring while Dani holds her.

Once we had finished taking measurements and fitting the colour-rings, it was time to accomplish the main aim of the mission and attach the satellite transmitter. If you've read other posts on this intricate procedure, you'll know it is done using a cardboard template which holds the Telfon harness straps in place while they are stitched. Dani continued her expert handling and seemed to give off soft, calming vibes that cast a spell on our subject, which made the tagging process straightforward and stress-free.

After observing the eagle's calm and placid behaviour during the ringing and tagging process, Alison decided the Noongar word 'kwidi', which means patiently waiting, would make a fitting name. Having spent so much time patiently waiting in my tree hide to observe her behaviour over the past few weeks, I agreed wholeheartedly! With the stitching on her transmitter harness complete, Kwidi was gently placed back in the handling bag and hoisted home.

Kwidi would be the 22nd and final juvenile eagle I had fitted with a transmitter for this current research project. What an amazing feeling to have completed a huge part of my PhD fieldwork! I plan to return soon after Christmas to make more hide observations, and spend more time in the canopy, patiently waiting.

It is always wonderful to be accompanied in the field by a bunch of great people.

Patiently Waiting

This beautiful Wailitj / Wedge-tailed Eagle is quite young (only 2-3 years old), and as most eagles do not enter the breeding population until they are about six, it is relatively unusual to observe a male of his age at a nest. I snapped the above photo from the top of a tree that I had scaled to see into his nest and age the chick, and by chance he suddenly landed on the nest for a brief moment, just long enough for a portrait. It was only seconds before he saw me and departed swiftly.

His mate had landed in a nearby tree and responded to my presence in completely the opposite way to her younger 'boyfriend,' perching in the sun and showing no apparent shyness. This is only the second time in over 15 years I have encountered a female Wedge-tail who is so bold; Aquila eagles are normally very shy indeed and fly away before you can get within 500 m of them!

 

The male's suspicious expression was a giveaway that I'd been 'sprung', and although the female seemed to tolerate me, I knew that to capture perfectly natural behaviour would require a much more hidden approach.

It only took a few hours to erect a platform in the canopy of a Marri sapling close to the nest, made by fastening two solid planks to the upright limbs and using a small tent as a hide. This was completed last week, then I left the eagles alone for a while to adjust to the new addition to their arboreal environment.

Last week I entered the hide and made my first attempt at photography. The first two days were super exciting, with the eagles having accepted the hide and carrying on with their amazing nesting activities right in front of me. There were very long periods of waiting, however, and on some occasions I suffered pretty severe back pain. Being 6'8" isn't very helpful for being folded into a tent that is less than 1 m² in area! You will have noticed from my Instagram posts though that the hide stints yielded some great moments. This photo of the juvenile eagle licking her beak in anticipation of being fed half a Karda / Gould's Goanna (Varanus gouldii) was by far one of my hiding highlights!

This afternoon's session, which began about 5 am and ended well after sunset, gave me some particularly big challenges. Strong winds have been present all week but the gusts that rose up after about 9 am today seemed to be intent on shaking all the trees off the hillside. At times I thought the whole tree might blow over! As the Marri leaves behind the nest began to glow brighter with back-light from the sinking sun, however, the wind slowly lost its breath. And just before sunset, the gorgeous male arrived at the nest with the hind-quarters of yet another Karda. It was beautiful to see a bird whom I knew was super shy feeding his fast-growing daughter, knowing he had no idea the same lens that focused on his youth not long ago was still present. I'm looking forward to more hide stints soon, and eventually to satellite-tagging this eaglet before she takes to the air.

Another Carnaby's Chick

It was a thrill today to see another Gnolyenok / Carnaby's Cockatoo chick peering up at me from inside one of the cockatoo boxes in a local reserve in Mundaring, the third of its kind to be successfully raised in the past three years. These endangered birds were first recorded breeding in 2015, when the Shire of Mundaring supported the installation of a suite of nest-boxes for a post-bushfire recovery program.

Earlier this week I was fortunate to visit the reserve with the WA Musuem, local Friends Group coordinator Ron Coloquhoun, Mundaring Shire Environmental Officer Jolene Wallington, and other community volunteers, to see this precious creature fitted with an ABBBS leg-band. This harmless tag will help researchers identify it in the future, maybe even when it is feeding its own offspring in a local nest-box! Fingers crossed we have many more moments like this to look forward to in the future!

Jolene holds the Carnaby's Cockatoo nestling during banding, while her daughter Emma watches on.

PorongurUpdate

It's hard to believe that 10 years have passed since I installed my first very large, 'top entry' nesting box on my friend Jeff's block in the Porongurup Range! Today Jeff and I celebrated this anniversary by paying a quick visit to the block and checking this box, as well as the five others that have been installed at the property since 2010, all of which have been part of increasingly successful breeding. by Ngolyenok / Carnaby's Cockatoo. We were thrilled to find Carnaby's Cockatoos in every box! The two most recently installed boxes, which went up in May this year as part of a Birdlife WA and South Coast NRM educational workshop, both had heavily chewed entrances, tell-tale signs of prospecting (and usually occupancy) by Black Cockatoos.

A large vertical box installed in May with a newly hatched Carnaby's Cockatoo chick.

These findings give me such a thrill because they prove the design of my large vertical nest-boxes is effective, and also that newly installed boxes can become occupied so readily when placed at known breeding sites.

Three cockatoo chicks were banded as part of an ongoing WA Museum study on their movements and survival, an exciting addition to the study that Jeff and I have been carrying out on the breeding of Ngolyenoks in the Porongurup range. It was amazing to see these birds so close, and heartwarming to think of the beautiful moment when they will make their first flight into the Karri canopy and beyond!

This Threatened cockatoo chick hatched inside a nest-box made from rubbish!

Djoorabiddi & The Project

Last month I had the privilege of taking a small group of people to visit a beautiful eagle eyrie in a remote part of the Perth Hills. This included Jo Manning from Murdoch University's public relations department, and Thom and Darrell from Channel 10's 'The Project', who (very excitingly!) were tagging along (pardon the pun!) to film some of my fieldwork to fit a GPS/Satellite transmitter to a juvenile Wailitj / Wedge-tailed Eagle. The bird I managed to catch on his nest was a very calm, placid young boy, who was given the name 'Djoorabiddi' by Noongar lady Alison Murphy. This word is derived from 'djoorab' = good natured/happy, & means 'go foward happily'. Alison's father Noel last year named my beautiful Parkerville eagle 'Yirrabiddi' (path/journey in the sky), so it was truly magic to have a journey theme connecting these two Nannup-derived names!!

The story of how we fitted Djoorabiddi with a satellite transmitter was played last night on the Sunday Project, who kindly gave me the below copy to post here. This clip features some stunning aerial footage shot by my friend Andrew Moore, who expertly showcases the Aerial Environment in which these majestic eagles dwell. Keep your eyes on the Wedge-tailed Eagle Tracking website for updates on Djoorabiddi's progress, and the movements of other juvenile Wedge-tails from the Perth Hills and further a field. Enjoy!

Sign of the Seasons

 
Today there was an official celebration of the completion of Sawyers Valley Primary School's Nature Play area, a project which has been coordinated and delivered by the school's Natural Resource Management team, thanks to a State NRM grant. I've been privileged to be part of this project and participated in recording local fauna, taking guided walks for students and parents, and contributing photographs for interpretive signs that emphasise the area's cultural and environmental values. It was great to see the above Noongar Seasons sign installed today (just in the nick of time before the project finished!), which featured a variety of photographs of Perth Hills wildlife from my photo gallery. Thanks to the NRM team for the invitation to be part of such a great environmental initiative.

Leonora Eagles

I've just returned from WA's Goldfields region where I completed the arid zone component of my Wedge-tailed Eagle Tracking research for 2017, satellite-tagging two more Matuwa-born Wedge-tailed Eagles. After this fieldwork had been completed, I was very excited to drive south and spend a day on country with a group of Leonora District High School students, an environmental educational activity arranged by the CSIRO's Science Pathways program. We found five eagle nests along some stunning breakaway country that I was privileged to be shown by teacher Fifi Harris. My friend Dave from CSIRO made a wonderful short film about the day which you can watch here. Also, local ABC radio presenter Rachel Day phoned while I was in town to chat about eagles - you can listen to the audio of the interview by clicking 'play' below.

What a busy week out bush it was! Now back to the desk to catch up on all the admin...

Baakininy the Tronox Eagle

Born on one of the highest Perth Hills Wedge-tailed Eagle eyries that I've ever had the privilege (or punishment!) of climbing, the female eaglet I am holding above was one of 18 that were captured and marked for my research this year. When I fitted her rings/bands and took measurements earlier in the season, I left a climbing rope in place in order to be able to access the nest again, and yesterday the time had come to do just that, to fit her with a GPS/Satellite transmitter. This particular transmitter was sponsored by Tronox, a titanium company operating on a mineral sand mine just north of Perth. I have fond memories of visiting the 'Cooljarloo' mine for fauna survey work with Bamford Consulting Ecologists, not long after I finished uni over ten years ago. Connections were again forged with Tronox through Bob Huston from the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, who has provided amazing support for my eagle research in recent years. Together with property owner John Ffarrington (who kindly gave me access to search for eagles on his Gidgegannup land), Ieva Tomsons from the Toodyay Herald newspaper, and my dear Dad (who was yet to experience an eagle banding activity), our little 'tagging team' set off on a fabulous Noongar Country afternoon to deploy the transmitter.

Beanstalk: scaling the 30m to a particularly high eagle nest.

After scaling the very tall Wandoo nest-tree and lowering the eaglet down in a handling bag, it was time to fit the transmitter using the 'backpack' mount method I learned from friends and raptor researcher mentors Ewan and Jenny in Scotland. I was very fortunate to have my friend and fellow environmental scientist Andrew Moore along to help by holding the eagle, who turned out to be quite a handful!

Andrew Moore, also an experienced drone pilot, carefully grips the juvenile eagle's talons.

Although she had been fitted with a falconry hood, which normally blinds (and subsequently calms) the bird, this eagle must have been able to see through a crack in the eye slots, as she persistently bit my hands and fingers while I carried out the attachment procedure. The main concern when handling eagles is their powerful talons, which in juveniles are pin-sharp, and together with extremely powerful 'ratcheted' toe/foot muscles, can inflict severe injuries. The bill is more of a 'tearing tool' and has far less power than a foot, but it does have a very sharp tip, useful for tearing apart kangaroo flesh, so it can still hurt!

Ouch! Not as bad as a talon though!

Fortunately Chris Bean from Tronox, who had been taking many wonderful photos of the occasion, stepped in to calmly support the eaglet's head which eased the beak-attacks on my hands! I could then carry on with the fitting the harness in relative peace.

That's a red fingernail you can see - not eagle (or Simon) blood!

After about half an hour of fine-tuning the transmitter harness fit, stitching it with a 'weak link' that will eventually fall off with natural decay, and taking a few updated measurements of the eagle's wings and feet, it was time to return her to the nest. I ascended into the canopy, gently removed her from the handling bag, and she hopped out in a slightly frustrated manner, but seemed relieved to be free to move about again.

Looking back at an eyrie and seeing a young Wedge-tailed Eagle safely back 'home' after it has been marked for research, and knowing we will be able to follow its journey, evokes a very unique feeling in me. It is mainly one of excitement and intrigue but also satisfaction (especially after such an adrenalin-induced tree-climb!) and a very strong element of concern for the bird, knowing it will soon leave the safety of its nest and venture further out into this dangerous world.

Baakininy, back on her nest wearing a new high-tech 'backpack'.

Although I'd been bitten by eagles quite a few times before, I certainly hadn't experienced a bird who bit so persistently, and this behaviour prompted me to suggest the name 'Baakininy', which in Noongar language means 'biting'. I was very pleased that Chris and the Tronox team also thought this to be appropriate. While I haven't traditionally been into naming wild animals, I believe it is important as a scientist to create an identify for the individual animals we are researching, particularly those whose progress we are able to follow in the close detail satellite-tracking allows. As an ambassador for Australia wildlife, the ecosystems of which it is a part, and the ancient cultural connection that Aboriginal People have shared with this amazing landscape, I have chosen to use indigenous language (Noongar in South-west Western Australia, and Martu in the Wiluna area) for Wedge-tailed Eagle names, because I feel it serves to remind us that these animals have been observed by people for thousands of years. These people are in some places in danger of losing their cultures, which are intricately linked with the lives of native animals and very much on the same page as 'western' values of biodiversity conservation (modernly referred to as 'Caring for Country'). Of course, such languages may provide us 'whitefellas' with new pronunciation challenges, but learning anything new always seems more difficult at first, and what better way to continue the use of an ancient language than by speaking out loud names given to charismatic, majestic birds of prey!?

The day was an extremely memorable one, and I am so grateful to all those who took part for their support, assistance and encouragement. We'll be excited to watch Baakininy's progress with eagle eyes!

Bob Huston, Ieva Tomsons and property owner John Ffarrington with Baakininy the eagle.

The team from Tronox enjoyed seeing a young eagle up close!

Sharing an 'eagling' experience with Dad was by far one of the highlights of my year.