Sandveld field work with Meg Murgatroyd of the Black Eagle Project

On the 16 of June I decided to join Meg with her bi-weekly mission to the Sandveld to check the breeding status of the Black Eagles. I needed nest monitoring experience and I decided to draw from the three years of eagle monitoring that Meg has. There are all sorts of subtle behavioural changes exhibited by eagles when they are breeding. These behavioural changes can be used to determine if an eagle is incubating, whether it may have a chick or is ‘nest warming’. Black Eagles and Martial Eagles are different eagles, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the eagles exhibited similar behaviours when breeding. Next year I need to be able to determine the breeding status of about 60 Martial Eagles pairs from helicopter ‘fly bys’ which is incredibly difficult, so I decided to get a head start.

I took a leisurely drive up to the Sandveld checking on the two Martial Eagle nests I had checked with Gigi, Dennis and Chris earlier in the year. At the first nest check I saw an eagle on the nest, but the eagle left as soon as the other eagle flew in and perched above the nest. The eagle which was on the nest had flown off to perch on the lower reaches of a neighbouring pylon. From the perch the eagle would periodically dive into the undergrowth. No eagles were on the nest for about half an hour, which suggested they were not incubating. 

At the second nest where I had not seen an eagle at all,on my previous visit, I saw an eagle perched in the nest and another eagle perched one pylon away from the nest. This is a positive sign that they may use the nest this year. 

I got to Meg just after dark. We “kuiered” at Donkieskraal luxury tented camp which in the Sandveld. We had a lovely evening filled with questions about dreadlocks and eagles. In the morning it was back to business. I went with Meg to check a Black Eagle nest and then I was off to look at a Martial Eagle nest near Leipoldtville(the nest Meg had found while looking for Black Eagles). I approached the farmer’s house to introduce myself and a young man came out to greet me. I asked for permission from the farmer to be on the farm and before I knew it the young man had invited himself along, full of questions. It was really great to share my passion for Martial Eagles with a young mind, a sponge for new information about an incredible bird he had never seen before.Together we sat watching the Martial Eagles mate. After this an eagle left the nest and soared above us for a while before disappearing high into the sky. I left the farm to meet up with Meg and check up on another two Black Eagle nests. On the stretch from Cape Town to the Sandveld, Meg has 35 Black Eagle nests (she doesn’t monitor all of these) and I have four. It really is quite incredible that these two eagles operate on different spatial scales. 

We stayed at Redelinghuis in a beautiful cottage, with two lovely families from Cape Town who had come up for the long weekend to enjoy the waves at Elands Bay. We had a lovely evening filled with questions about eagles and eagle biologists. We left in the morning to check three Black eagle nests as I didn’t have any nests I knew of between Redelinghuis and Piketberg.

We had checked two Black Eagle nests and while driving towards the last Black Eagle nest of the day,Meg’s eye caught something. I was far too busy concentrating on the road to have noticed. Meg stopped suddenly in front of an ostrich. She quickly got to work setting up her scope. 

I shouted at Meg from my car “are you mad and why are you stopping for an ostrich?”

To which she had replied “No there is a spoon bill here!” all the while killing herself with laughter.

I walked up to her and said “Cool, But aren’t we looking for eagles?”

She looked at me and said “Just look through the scope.” What I was looking at was no ostrich and it was most certainly was not a spoonbill, but a new nest on top of an electricity pylon.

Excitement filled my body as I flagged a tractor down. The man in the tracker looked very confused and I asked him in the most brilliant Afrikaans(something which I am not able to do under normal circumstances) where I needed to go to get closer to the power line. Meg and I were pretty excited;we jumped into our cars and drove off in the direction of the farm where the power line was situated, to ask for permission to have a look at the nest. Permission was granted and we wasted no time marching our way up to get a better view of the nest. 

We were undecided as to whether the nest and it‘s occupants belonged to a Black Eagle or a Martial Eagle and the heat haze was really making it difficult to decide. We got a bit closer and the waiting game began. We could only see a head out of the nest. Then suddenly the Eagle stood up in the nest for a brief moment and I saw the flash of a very white chest and the shape of a head that could only be a Martial Eagle. Meg and I were overjoyed, but not for the same reason. Meg has been killing herself trying to get to all the Black Eagle nests in the Sandveld and to have another nest in the middle of her study site was not going to be easy.

After all the excitement, we were exhausted, but there was still a Black Eagle nest to see too. We were able to see the Black Eagle incubating not too far up the mountain, which was great for our tired bodies. We stayed with Patrick and Karin; managers at Wagenpad farm. They welcomed us into their home with sweet babies (a hot drink of coffee/ Milo and Amarulaand chocolate liqueur). Thanks go toTillia& Lawrence at Donkieskraal, Gary, Lizzy& Chris in Redelinghuis and Patrick & Karin at Wagenpad for welcoming Meg and I into their homes!

 New Martial Eagle nest in the Sandveld

Checking out the new nest

Martial Eagle with prey - new nest in the Sandveld

Both Martial Eagles - new nest 

Prey remains collection from a pylon near the nest 

Last Black Eagle of the trip - perfect eagle watching position with Jengo

Martial Eagle nest checks with Gigi, Dennis and Chris Laidler

I checked my first Martial Eagle nests in April this year. I had no money to pay for petrol to get there, but Gigi and Dennis offered to drive me to the two nests on their way to Aurora, Mountain Mist. They had been planning to spend the weekend there. I initially thought that checking two nests in one day would be a piece of cake and we would have plenty of time to check the nests and get to mountain mist way before dark. I guess what none of us had accounted for was how long it would take to find out which farmers owned the land either of the nests where on. I needed to chat to countless people in Afrikaans (which really is not a strong point of mine) to find out whether they knew who owned the land. Once I acquired the farmer’s number it was then a matter of finding his house and introducing myself and telling him about my project and acquiring permission to have access to the land. This resulted in much driving around and little time to see the eagles. Thus far I have had no problems with permission. I have only been greeted by curiosity and enthusiasm.

First nest- the view was obstructed with heat haze which is often a problem for eagle observations

Watching Martial Eagles - Chris and I

First nest -Male Martial Eagle Perched on the pylon

First nest - Male getting ready to fly 

First nest- female left male right just after mating

second nest 

second nest- weather had cleared no eagles around the nest 

second nest- Prey remains

Black Eagle trapping with the Black Eagle Project

I am very interested in the movements of large raptors and I am pretty sure that one day I will use the skills Meg Murgatroyd has taught me when it comes to trapping eagles. I won’t have time to trap any eagles for the Electric Martial Eagle Project which is unfortunate, because it can be very rewarding. So I decided to join Meg from the Black Eagle Project to catch some of her eagles.

In April Meg invited me to assist her and Rowen van Eeden in catching two Black Eagles in the Sandveld. This was to be part of Rowan’s training as he needs to catch and GPS tag 25 Martial Eagles in the Kruger National Park. Meg traps Black Eagles to compare their movement in the Sandveld, an area stained by potato farming, and the pristine wilderness of the Cederberg.

Luckily for us, we caught both big Black Eagle females within an hour of waiting, which any eagle biologist will tell you, is outrageously lucky. 

After the successful trapping in the Sandveld, I knew we were lucky and trapping large eagles is never that easy. So I decided to join Meg for trapping in the Cederberg. Why did I go along when I knew the trapping wouldn’t be easy? Simply to see how hard it can get, so that one day when I need to trap eagles, I know what I am in for.

 

Meg and I really got to know each other in the cramped space of our Cederberg hides. We spent a little over a week dressed in a many layers attempting to trap two Cederberg Eagles. We wouldbehappy to just catch one, but when we realised that the pair we had been trying to trap, may be trap-shy. We moved on to trap a new pair at a new site. We waited for a couple days before realising we had put the trap too far away from the eagles’ perching site and the breeding season was upon us, so we would have to stop trapping anyway. 

Catching eagles is amazing - there is nothing quite like holding that powerful predator in your hands and once you are finished tagging it, sending it off. Watching it soar above your head and going back to its routine, as if nothing had happened. The glory is short- lived and well worth the effort but man a lot of blood, sweat, tears and disappointment goes into the process of trapping an eagle.

 

The first two Sandveld Eagles - Favourite perch

Some Eagle measurements - second Sandveld female Black Eagle

Weapons - second Sandveld female Black Eagle  

 The Team - Rowan, Meg and Myself