Howdy,

I'm sharing with you the interesting reply I received to a short question.

Dan Victor, Seattle, Washington <dvictor at u.washington.edu>


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 30 Apr 1994 12:25:29
From: WHITLOCK. PETER L. <WHIT0522 at varney.idbsu.edu>

Dear Dan,

I'm afraid I don't keep up much with satellite tagging, but it's
always interesting to hear about it. Two current projects I'm aware
of: one with Peregrines (in the Northwest Territories I think) and
one with Golden Eagles (app. six eagles tagged in Quebec by a McGill
U. grad student named Serge Villaroel two summers ago). It's
fascinating to think that there are so many large northern birds that
we know where they breed, but even with all these birders here in the
States we don't know where they winter so we have to track them with
satellites to find out. Villaroel turned up a golden that spent a
considerable amount of last winter in Alabama whereas typically they
are thought of going no farther south in the East than West Virginia.
And it was only forty years ago that the American Birding
Association still did not believe Maurice Broun's reports of Golden
Eagle sightings at Hawk Mountain in Pennsylvania because that was too
far south. Now Hawk Mountain reports 20-40 reliable golden sightings
every year, and they all look like they're going through to somewhere
farther south. There's been a lot of speculation that something
similar is going on with Gyrfalcons. My M.S. research in Raptor
Biology is concerned with laboratory research on the visual abilities
of raptors aimed at reducing raptor mortality at wind turbines
through visual modification of the turbines.

As for falcon or raptor discussion groups online, No, I don't
know of any, but if you hear of one, please let me know. Actually, I
have been thinking about finding out what it would take to start a
general avian biology group. BIRDCHATers always seem a little
uncomfortable with anything other than sighting and identification-
related postings, and I don't care much for that kind of stuff at
all. Say, if you see UW Biology grad student Mike Smith at all,
please tell him I said hello.

Cheers,

Peter Whitlock
Raptor Research Center
Boise State University
Boise, Idaho
e-mail: whit0522 at varney.idbsu.edu