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OutdoorMN News - Wildlife experts band eagle chicks on tax day


Rick

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

The three eaglets featured on the DNR’s popular EagleCam had metal bands placed on their legs today as part on an ongoing research project. Today was chosen to band the eaglets because they are about six weeks old, which is the perfect age for banding. 

In addition, today is tax day.  Why is this significant for banding eagle chicks?  Because the generous donations to the Nongame Wildlife Program on state income tax forms provided the funding for EagleCam. The live video feed will be available during the entire nesting season.

  • The chicks were measured and weighed and were fitted with light-weight silver U.S. Wildlife Service bands that will help identify them throughout their lives.
  • The sex of the chicks was determined to be one male and two females.
  • Chicks are banded at about six weeks because they are old enough for the band to fit their growing legs, but are too young to jump out of the nest when approached.
  • The chicks were not harmed and the parents will not abandon them; they have invested too much time at this stage to leave their chicks and are not bothered by human scent.
  • The adult female eagle has been wearing a band since 2010.
  • A private bander, Mark Martell, and staff from DNR Nongame Wildlife Program did the banding.
  • The chicks will leave the nest or “fledge” sometime in mid-to-late June.
  • Xcel Energy provided the bucket truck and crew to retrieve the chicks. Xcel provides this service to the DNR each year without a fee. The DNR and the Nongame Program extends sincere appreciation to Xcel Energy for providing their excellent staff and resources.
  • This research is paid for by donations to the Nongame Wildlife Program.

Photos, stories and updates are available on Nongame’s Facebook page.

Discuss below - to view set the hook here.

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It is truly amazing the comeback that Bald Eagles have had.  During spring and fall, rarely does a day go by where I don't see an eagle.  Especially on those days when I am  at work with a window facing the Minnesota River.  In fact, I saw 3 of them just about an hour ago.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • smurfy
      Looks to me like Leech brought his chair home!!😅😆
    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
    • leech~~
      As I get older it's really not just about sending bullets down range.  Some of it's just the workmanship of the gun and the wow factor. The other two guns I have really wanted which I'll never have now because of their price, is a 8mm Jap Nambu and 9mm German Luger.   Just thought they always looked cool!  
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