Over the summer, two eastern golden eagles, Athena and Hermes, flew through the Hudson Bay in central Canada. The two raptors traveled 800 miles apart from each other before embarking on their fall migration route.
According to new tracking data, Athena has returned to Bernheim, and conservation director Andrew Berry said she’s likely to stay until early March. He said visitors should be able to see Athena and other eagles flying around Bernheim during the winter.
“She's coming back down because she likes the large forest,” Berry said. “It gives them good opportunities for soaring and also just being away from humans and being tucked away in the forest. They feel safe there, and it provides them with what they need to get through the winter.”
Athena’s migratory patterns have been consistent since Bernheim started tracking her in 2019.
The last year of tracking data and research also indicated that Athena may have had at least one chick during the summer. Bernheim works with Parks Canada to collect more data as the eagles leave the United States.
“It's pretty cool that the partnership with Parks Canada has been able to tell us a lot about [Athena’s] nesting habitat,” Berry said. “We got images of the nest in a tree, and so we get to see what that habitat looks like.”
Athena left Bernheim last March and took her 1,750-mile flight to Wapusk National Park in central Canada. Athena spends most of her time around lakes and wetlands there near the Hudson Bay.
By October, the female raptor flew south to Ontario then toward the west side of Lake Superior near Duluth, Minn. This is one of two of Athena’s fall migratory routes. The other takes her east of Lake Superior near Michigan. She then flew along the Mississippi River, then through Iowa and Illinois before heading back to Kentucky.
Athena’s journey is a stark contrast to Hermes, a younger male eastern golden eagle that Bernheim started tracking in late February.
Hermes migrated to Canada slower than Athena, Berry said. He spent the summer months traveling between the United States and Canada, along Lake Huron.
“I think part of the difference in the two eagles is that [Hermes is] a male, and he seemed like he may be younger and may not have a mate that he's going back in a nesting territory,” Berry said. “Whereas Athena is a little older, has a definite nesting territory, and so she's a little more structured about what she does in terms of migration, and then her summer and winter habitats.”
Berry said it will be difficult to track a pattern in Hermes’ migration route since Bernheim has less than a year of data on the younger raptor.
Toward the end of the summer months, Hermes stayed in Nunavik, a northern section of Quebec, Canada. He was still there as of November, despite temperatures that were well below freezing. Berry said he suspects Hermes is sticking around the area to follow the caribou herds.
“There have been some studies that have shown that golden eagles were really dependent on caribou,” Berry said.
It is unclear whether Hermes will return to Bernheim, Berry said.
Tracking Athena and Hermes is part of a larger effort to learn more about eastern golden eagles. They are federally protected, but not endangered.
Due to their migratory patterns, this subspecies faces unique threats like wind turbines in the upper Midwest and lead poisoning from bullet fragments left in their prey by hunters.
Bernheim is part of the Eastern Golden Eagle Working Group, which created a conservation plan to protect the raptors from environmental and human-caused threats.
Conservation also includes manicuring places like Bernheim that eastern golden eagles frequent, Berry said.
“Just keeping the forest healthy and protected and providing those habitats for these species, and that's what keeps them coming back year after year,” Berry said. “They like the sense of safety and reliability that Bernheim offers them. And I think that's why we see Athena come back every winter.”
