Well, we're getting some unexpected results of the golden eagle that was injured and released with a satellite transmitter. The bird is part of a population of golden eagles that spends the winter along the Mississippi River along the Minnesota/Wisconsin border. The speculation is that the birds breed in Canada, but we don't know for sure.

The golden eagle is supposed to be on its northward migration--but went south! Here's the report from Mark Martell:

"Data came in for the past 5 days and our golden eagle decided to take a trip to Iowa. We have a data gap for April 3 & 4 but by April 5 the eagle had started moving away from Nelson, WI where he had been the previous week and was in Minnesota. He spent the evening of April 6 just south of Houston, MN and the evening of April 7 found him near Lansing, IA. He wandered around Allamakee Co., IA on the 8th and spent the evening just west of the Mississippi River near the Yellow River IBA. On April 9 he started heading north and by 1pm, the last signal we have in this batch, he was back in Houston Co., MN

I hope this is just some pre-migratory wandering but of course there is no way to know if this is normal until we get a few more birds tagged."

I'm wondering too if this is normal, or since this eagle was in captivity recovering from a leg injury (from one of those awful leg hold traps, which I wish would be banned) is this bird is taking its time to get its bearings? Cannot wait to see where this bird ends up from the breeding season.