The Electric Martial Eagle Project : First new Martial Eagle nest for the project

When I first met Meg Murgatroyd of the Black Eagle Project it was to do some field work for her. I think it was when Chris Laidler and I abseiled into one of her Black Eagle nests to retrieve one of her nest cameras. Meg inspired me to follow my passion and never give up even if your supervisors tell you that your project is impossible and what you want to accomplish with a master’s thesis is ridiculous, you need to persist! I don’t think she realised it at the time but a seed was planted that day. I would go on to develop a master’s thesis with Andrew Jenkins (a co-supervisor on Meg’s project) and I honestly think he took me on because he saw another Meg, someone with passion who is willing to go to every length to make a project work.

The best example of Meg’s passion not only for Black Eagles but for large eagles in general, was shown by her excitement in finding a Martial Eagle nest on a power line in the Sandveld. Despite the nest being a Martial Eagle nest and nothing to do with her project, she watched the eagle for an hour. She went home and reported it to Andrew Jenkins and was not sure what would come of her finding.

Later in the year, Rowan and I went to assist Meg with her Eagle trapping in the Sandveld. She asked us if we would like to have a look at the Martial Eagle nest which she had found earlier in the year. Rowan and I were so excited to see our first Martial Eagle, having both just started new post graduate projects focused on Martial Eagles.

The three of us each took turns looking through Meg’s scope at the Martial Eagle in its nest. We were approximately 700m from the nest. We decided to see how close we could get to the nest because the heat haze clouded the vision of the scope. At about 500m the eagle flew off the nest and soared high above us. This taught me that large eagles like their space and should be observed at a fair distance. I really need my own scope!!!