Eagle Encounters – Filming of the video invite for the fundraising event

I was approached by a wine maker at Eaglevlei Wine Estate. Her name was Clarise Langeveld and she knows Dawie Burger the manager of the Driehoek farm where Meg Murgatroyd has accommodation. The world is a small place and luckily Clarise found me on FaceBook. She asked if I would be interested in having a fund raising event at Eaglevlei and I jumped at the opportunity. Later Marinda from Socially Unforgettable joined the fund raising team and we had an event planned.Wines and art would be auctioned off with the proceeds going to the project. We needed an invite for the event and Clarise wanted something that would catch the viewer’s eye, something impressive. We decided to film an invite with a Martial Eagle on my arm. It would give the viewer a feeling of how big, beautiful and bold these creatures are. 

I called Hank Chalmers from Eagle Encounters to see whether the idea could become a reality. Hank is extremely supportive of students doing studies on birds of prey. He has allowed both Meg and Rowan to practise placing GPS tags on eagles at Eagle Encounters. I have received as much support from him and Eagle Encounters as both Meg and Rowan have.

We would film the invite with Goliath a powerful Martial Eagle at Eagle Encounters. Goliath is a 6kg eagle, with a wingspan of 2.3 m. Female Martial Eagles are bigger than males and Goliath is not exception. Goliath is not a timid eagle and she doesn’t hesitate to let you know who is boss and so naturally I was pretty nervous about the whole affair. I went for a visit before the shoot to test the waters with Goliath. Hank took her off her perch and immediately she started to bait (she was flying away from Hank’s glove hard and fast). It takes a lot of strength to tire out a Martial Eagle in order to get it do obey you.Luckily for me when Hank placed her on my glove she was calm and tired. I held her nervously, as far away from my body as I could. She looked at me as if she would eat me. She was very well behaved and after 5minutes of holding her I had to put her down. She was heavy!

My mother came along for this visit and she was in awe of Goliath. She soon realised the reason I had wanted to study Martial Eagles so desperately.

A week later I came back with my dad, Marius de Vos and his son from Socially Unforgettable to film the video invite. This time I was confident holding Goliath because she was very well behaved when I first held her. Hank placed her on my arm and then thefilming began. I had to tell the world about my project and why it is important and also keep things concise. It was really difficult giving an “elevator speech”, while holding a 6kg eagle that was moving about on the glove.

Holding Goliath was a special moment for me. I looked into her eyes and I felt like the luckiest person alive to be studying such a beautiful and powerful predator.This project is an absolute dream-come-true.

I would like to say a big thank you to my mom and dad for supporting me, Clarise for recognising my passion, finding me, helping to raise funds for my project and working tirelessly behind a computer organising sponsors for the event and handling ticket sales. I also want to thank Marinda Holtzhausen and Marius de Vos for recognising my project as a worthy cause to support, advertising it and for organising artists to donate works to the project.My thanks also go toHank and Tracy Chalmers for advertising my project, letting me hold Goliath and for their support. Another surprise for me was Janet Forrest of Radical Raptors offering to do a painting of a Martial Eagle at short notice. It has turned out really stunning and I am so grateful to her.

In the end unfortunately the event was cancelled, but we are putting our minds together to plan a new fund raising event.

 Goliath

 Goliath and I - filming the video invite

She is as big as my torso

Large wingspan

Hank and his Eagle

 

Invite

Laingsburg nest checks with my mom

Most mothers are curious about what their children get up to when they are not around and my mother is no different. My mother was curious about the field work I do. Common questions I was asked were “Where do you go to look for nests? How hard is it to find nests?How close do you observe the eagles? Where do the Martial Eagles build their nests? Are you going to climb up those electricity pylons?”She had seen pictures of Martial Eagles, but had never seen one up close. She wondered why I chose Martial Eagles in particular to study and what made them so interesting.

My mother is a grade 1,2 and 3 teacher, a nature enthusiast and it gives her joy to pass on her love of nature to her students. To satisfy her curiosity and relay to her student what studying eagles was all about, she proposed a trip to find Martial Eagle nests, that I had never seen.

We were in Knysna for the 50km mountain bike race my mom had entered and so it made sense to drive up through Oudtshoorn into the Karoo. We drove for hours and eventually ended up at the first set of nests near Laingsburg. We arrived at the farm where we were supposed to see our first Martial Eagles nest but unfortunately the farmer was not around. It was getting dark at this point and we soon realised that we would not have enough time to check the nests anyway.

We drove through to Sutherland where we battled to find accommodation. (Not surprising when you know that mid-winter is the most popular time for a visit to Sutherland!)Finally we settled in the Sutherland Hotel for a warmer than expected stay. The following day we left to go back and check for nests. We took a turn off,opposite to the farm we had visited the previous day. As we approached the farm house we met a very enthusiastic farmer, who knew exactly where the nests were I was looking for. He checked the nests every so often when he travels on that section of the farm, just to make sure they are still there. Map to the nests in hand we drove down a muddy dirt road with my mom’s prize Polo Vivo and two bicycles on the back (in case the nests where far enough from the road that we would need to cycle, not my idea).

After 27kms of dirt road we reached the position which the farmer described the nest to be around. We hiked over a small Koppie to see the nests and saw nothing. We were both pretty despondent at this point because we had come so far. Despite this I kept searching, determined to find a nest and eventually I spotted a nest hidden by the spikes on top of a distant pylon. It was a Black Eagle nest with no sign of an eagle near.

It was 16:30 by this point and the day seemed to have run away. We needed to get back home, my uncle had passed away and my mother needed to be with my aunt. We retraced our tracks and headed home. On the drive back I checked every pylon for nests. I found a nest that Martial Eagles had been using in 2005 and 2006. The pylon was far away but I managed to get a photo of the nest. The photo revealed a head in the nest, unfortunately I was not able to check because we were on a tight schedule.

I am planning a trip out there again with Koos De Goede, a man who dedicated a huge portion of his life to the conservation of Martial Eagles. I know exactly where to look the next time I am in the area and the trip allowed me to orientate myself. I think my mom left humbled by the experience. She said to me later that she thought that I would drive to the nest co-ordinates, find the nest see the Eagles and go home. There is far more that goes into the process of nest monitoring and it was nice for her to gain some perspective on the work that I do. She did however, leave with an unanswered question“why Martial Eagles, if it is so hard to find these nests, why put yourself through that? She soon found out in the presence of a Martial Eagle....

 Eskom Power lines

 New 765kV lines on the Beaufort West to Cape Town stretch of line

 Mom and her dirty car looking for eagles in the Karoo

 Black Eagle nest we hiked to 

Martial Eagle in a nest used in 2005 and 2006

The end of the field work day