Decorah Eaglet Soaring The Skies

By Jillian Petrus, Reporter

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By Jaime Sharer

Story Created: Feb 13, 2012 at 12:11 AM CDT

Story Updated: Feb 13, 2012 at 12:11 AM CDT

DECORAH, Iowa – They captured the hearts of 200 million people across the country.

Three little eaglets hatched live on the internet from a nest in Decorah last April, but only one is being tracked using satellite data.

The 10-month old female, known as D-1, is the only eaglet being tracked using a solar power transmitter. ‘D’ is used to identify the eaglet as one of the Decorah eagles and the number one identifies her as the first to have a tracking device.

The man mapping her every move is Bob Anderson. He’s watched her progress ever since leaving the nest, but in December, he saw she might be heading back toward Decorah. Since then, he’s been going out every morning to look for her using GPS tracking.

“Every morning is like a Christmas present,” he said, “because I get to look at those launch coordinates and see where she is.”

Anderson cherishes the time he can go out looking for D-1, because for a time he wasn’t sure if he would follow the eaglet.

“Some people were really upset when I put the transmitter on,” he said, “but I knew we were going to learn something, and boy we were really surprised.”

Surprised, because the eaglet did not follow the path Anderson and others assumed she’d take after leaving the nest. Anderson said they guessed she might stay near Iowa or Illinois and follow the Mississippi River.

Instead, she flew thousands of miles spending time in Northern Wisconsin and northern Minnesota before eventually returning near her original home.

“For her to go on this huge walk about, 1,000 mile trek, then back to this natal area is just fascinating it really is,” Anderson said.

He suspects D-1 might be staying in an area near Highland, Wadena and Decorah, because of the close proximity to the Volga River at Volga State Park.

Although he doesn’t always catch a glimpse of the eaglet, he says it’s reassuring to watch her progress using satellite mapping even when she’s not in the Hawkeye state.

“The first year of life for any bird of prey is the most dangerous,” he said, “she’s made it through that, ten-months old now, I think she’s a survivor.”

Because of the success he’s had tracking D-1, he’s hopes to put antennas on two eaglets this year to see if the siblings might stick together.

D-1’s parents are back in the Decorah nest. To watch them and check out more tracking data for D-1 click here

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