Sunday 2 August 2015

Fly-past


Kuyurnpa remains in close proximity to her birthplace! A month ago she completed a 230 km 'home run' across her natal territory, starting and finishing at a roost site located about 40 km north-east of Matuwa. Not long after that, the young eagle headed west again, spending three nights at the edge of a large claypan, as shown by the green cluster of GPS fixes in the above map. The 15th July saw her cross her natal nest site again, and this time continue further east. Kuyurnpa has spent the two weeks since that date skirting Lake Carnegie, a giant inland claypan situated in the middle of the West Australian desert.

During the latest journey east, Kuyurnpa travelled very close to our resident adult male Wallu. GPS fixes from 15th July at 3 pm show these two eagles were only 15 km apart - but both birds have different priorities in life right now. While Kuyurnpa is still very much in her juvenile wandering phase, traversing the country widely on her own, Wallu is seemingly very busy providing food to his mate Wurru (and perhaps a new chick) at a new nest site in the woodland area. Will we find later this year the first successful hatching of a Wallu eaglet since satellite tagging?  I can't wait to find out!