It's never pleasant to find dead animals killed by vehicle collisions along our roads, but taking the time to investigate a carcass can lead to important scientific data being gathered. Peter Jephcott, who was recently crossing the Nullarbor, had stopped to take a closer look at a dead Wedge-tailed Eagle when he noticed it had a yellow ring/band on its left leg. He then took the time to locate the second stainless-steel ring on the bird's other leg, obtain the contact details of the ABBBS, and report the recovery. As it turns out, this bird (#003) was one I ringed as a nestling 15 months ago in the Avon Valley east of Perth, a location ~960 km away from where Peter found it!
While it is sad that the bird was found dead, it is wonderful to have obtained the information about it travelling such a huge distance, considering this was only the third wedgie marked as part of the current colour-banding study. This recovery is now the longest movement recorded (by ringing/banding) for a Wedge-tailed Eagle, with the previous longest distance of 821 km being recorded in 1965 after an eagle banded in Canberra during 1964 was recovered in Cunningham, Queensland, after being shot. It is truly amazing to continue learning how far juvenile birds can move over such (relatively) short periods of time. Thank you so much Peter for your fantastic contribution to eagle research! I'm hoping that this discovery will inspire others to sharpen their 'eagle-eyes' and make more reports of banded and colour-banded wedge-tails - dead or alive!
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