Bird watchers in B.C.'s north asked to help track golden eagle migration
Twice a year, thousands of golden eagles weave their way through the Peace region.
"It's magical," Peter Sherrington, researcher and founder of the Rocky Mountain Eagle Research Foundation told CBC's Audrey MacKinnon.
"We've seen as many as 200 in an hour come through."
Because of the large number of birds flying through the area, Sherrington is calling on northern British Columbians to help count and age the birds, with the goal of getting more information about the breeding and mortality rates of the population.
Sherrington's interest in the birds started in 1992, while he was working with a friend in Alberta's Kananaskis Valley. Over the course of a single day he saw 100 golden eagles fly overhead. When he returned to the area a couple of days later, he counted 250.
Not only were the birds considered rare at that time, they were also believed to be non-migratory, Sherrington said.
"There was little evidence of their migration until then."
His discovery led him to form the Rocky Mountain Eagle Foundation. For nearly 27 years, the group has been monitoring and watching for golden eagles. It just completed its spring count at Mount Lorette, where researchers were at the site daily.
Volunteers in Alberta and have logged 4,700 days of golden-eagle watching over the last 27 years, and in that time have spotted nearly 250,000 birds of prey, 184,000 of which were golden eagles.
Currently, they're studying a group of what could be 6,000 migratory golden eagles.
Sherrington said he and his team have spent an average of about 10 hours a day, from sunrise until sunset, during spring and early fall watching for golden eagles, and he's hoping people in B.C. will do the same, noting the best time to view them in northern B.C. is in October.
With files from Daybreak North
