Raiders of the Lost Eagle
-Same plan, different outcome-
Working with the crowned eagles requires a resolute spirit and the ability to overcome failure. Our first attempt of finding new breeding individuals was rather unsuccessful, however we kept exploring new areas using information from other years and local input.
Last week we focused our search in the deep West of the Pampa, where we explored different areas looking for active nests of crowned eagles (Fig. 1). This area is located about 100-200 kilometers north from Limay Mahuida, our field area during the first “raid”.
Figure 1: Our "hunting" area during our trip. Circled you can see the cities of Santa Rosa, Victoria, and Santa Isabel. The red dot correspond to an approximate location of Rulos outpost.
During our first stop, we camped in the outpost of “Rulo”, a local farmer and owner of a small tavern nearby a dirt road connecting Santa Rosa and “Paso de los Algarrobos”. We were in this area for two days, and we discovered a couple of crowned eagle active nests in a close ranch (Fig.2). The visit to this ranch was based on some local information obtained by the PI of the project, Dr. José Hernán Sarasola, emphasizing the importance of stablishing a good and fluent relationship with local people. This discovery was pretty exciting for me, and I really enjoyed it. We were able to see the nestling and both adults, one in the nest and the other one flying in the surroundings. In addition, this was not the only surprise of the day.
Figure 2: Left: a nestling of crowned eagle with an adult by its side. Right: The adult from a different perspective
When heading back to the main road, we found an old graveyard located in the middle of nowhere. This was a real surprise, as the closest town is more than 70 kilometers away, and there are no other buildings (i.e. old church) in the surrounding area. According to the dates written on the tombs, the graveyard has been there from at least 1929 (Fig. 3), a lot of time considering that, for example, Santa Rosa the capital city of La Pampa was founded in 1982.
Figure 3: Dr. Sarasola, with his PhD student Diego Gallego, reading the inscription of one of the tombs
After this, we headed to an area near Santa Isabel, a 2500 inhabitant city located at about 300 kilometers from Santa Rosa. We stablished out base in a gas station in the outskirts of the city, in a house used by the workers of the station (Fig. 4) equipped with several rooms, a meeting room and a kitchen (something rather fancy in this kind of trips). During two days we looked for crowned eagle nest in different ranches, using both local intel and information from previous years. Crowned eagles usually breed in the same areas each year, not necessarily in the same nest though. Thus, we used a GPS to reach the places where the eagles breed in the past and then we stated looking for the adults, and for platforms susceptible of being occupied by the eagles. In a breeding territory, one can typically find several potential platforms built by the eagles, in spite that they only use to lay the egg
Figure 4: Left: House where we stayed near the gas station. Right: The gas station at night.
In other to detect where the actual nest is, we used a drone to take pictures form above. In these two days of nest-hunt we discovered three more active nest with a nestling inside, something that can be considered a huge success (there are about 1000 breeding pairs in the whole Neotropical Region). One of these nests was located in a really beautiful ranch near to an awesome dune area (Fig. 5). All the newly discovered nestlings where rather grown and according to the pictures taken with the drone, they appeared to be in good shape. Therefore, we planned to return to them, in order to ring the nestlings and equip them with GPS trackers.
Figure 5: Some of the dune landscapes that can be found in The Pampa
Finally, in the morning of the last day we left the gas station and headed to another potential breeding area. Unfortunately, we did not discover any new nest in spite that the area looked really good for this species. Then, after a sparing lunch we headed to the city of Victorica, a 6000-inhabitant city is located between Santa Rosa and Santa Isabel. A really, bizarre fact I discovered is that in the 80 the Spanish singer and play-boy Julio Iglesias gave a concert there. I am still amazed with this. Our aim in Victorica was to talk with a local ornithologist that had some intel about potential new eagle breeding pairs in the area. We shared some mates with him and in addition to exchanging info about the eagles, we discovered that some weeks after a pink fairy armadillo (Chlamyphorus truncatus) was seen 200 meters away from his house. The pichiciego, as is known in Argentina, is a rare animal and is really difficult to see due to its nocturnal and solitary habits. After the meeting, we drove about two hours arriving to Santa Rosa in the evening. This trip was really amazing for me as I was able to explore the west of the Pampa where there are lots of incredible animals and breathtaking dune landscapes.
David López-Idiáquez 12-January-2019