| Patuxent Science Meeting 2006 Poster Abstract |
| | Routes, timing, and stopovers of migrating sub-adult Florida Bald Eagles |
| | Mojica EK (WSFNR), Meyers JM, Millsap BA (FWS), Haley K (FL F&WCC) |
| | Florida Bald Eagles migrate in summer throughout the Eastern United States and Canada. We |
| | describe routes, migrating distance, length of time, and stopover areas of 59 sub-adult eagles |
| | fitted with satellite transmitters (1997-2001). Nine eagles did not migrate. During their first |
| | year, the migratory eagles flew north in summer along the Coastal Plain (n = 24) and |
| | Appalachian Mountains (n = 26). We hypothesized that there would be differences in distance |
| | traveled by eagles for route, sex (size), and calendar year. We analyzed distance traveled |
| | using 3-way ANOVA (sex x route x year). We found no differences in main effects or |
| | interaction terms for sex or year; however, route distances did differ. Coastal migrants traveled |
| | less ( = 1397 km) than mountain migrants ( = 2112 km; F1, 31= 9.11, P= 0.005). Length of |
| | migration time was longer for southward movements ( = 34 days) than for northward movements |
| | ( = 22 days; paired t-test: df = 38, t = -2.2, P = 0.03). Eagles visited stopovers 0-3 times |
| | during migration, staying 6-54 days ( = 14 days, SE = 0.98, n = 59). Identification of these |
| | stopovers may be important for their future conservation, which may serve to replenish energy |
| | reserves for eagles during migration. |
| | Friday, September 22, 2006 |