• Home
  • About
  • Calendar
  • Plant Database
  • Contact
  • Careers
  • Board of Trustees Login

Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest

Become a Member Donate
  • Plan Your Visit
  • Trails and Maps
  • Programs and Events
  • Learn
  • Get Involved
You are here: Home / Actions Beyond Our Borders / Harper is establishing his winter range

November 26, 2018 by Andrew Berry

Harper is establishing his winter range

Golden eagles are present throughout central Kentucky during winter months, but seldom seen by people. Data on the winter range of Harper, the golden eagle tracked by Bernheim, show a strong aversion to people and the places they live. A nice example of that was seen on November 24, with an area used encompassing 2,500 acres. Several houses were avoided, and flight direction was rerouted when he became within half a mile of the residential area.

This pattern has been seen throughout our tracking of Harper. While at Bernheim he does not visit public areas such as the Arboretum or Forest Hill where we have hiking trails and picnic areas. He also does not fly over the Crooked Creek Boy Scout Camp and prefers to stay on the backside of their large lake. It has been shown over the past few years that with the exception of migration he almost never flies over residential areas while on his winter range. During summer in northern Manitoba he resides in an inaccessible area probably as remote as it gets in North America. This tracking project has shown that our golden eagle is not willing to share his territory with humans.

The fact he does not wish to reside near humans brought about two larger questions:

  1. Large interior forest blocks seem to be critical winter habitat for eastern golden eagles. What is the status of large forest blocks of several thousand acres in central Kentucky?
  2. What is more important, large forests or the lack of people, or a bit of both? How have interactions between humans and golden eagles led to the current habitat partitioning we see with Harper?

The next three pieces will focus on these questions, specifically:

  1. Large forest habitats for golden eagles in Central Kentucky
  2. Natural history of golden eagles in Kentucky
  3. Golden eagles and the history of interactions with humans

Filed Under: Actions Beyond Our Borders, Bird Research, Golden Eagle, Homepage Blog Feed, Research Tagged With: golden eagle, harper, migration, winter

  • Let There Be Light, George Grey Bernard

Thank you to our Corporate Partners!


Thank you to our Corporate Partners!

  • Kindred
  • GE Appliances
  • WMB
  • Beam Suntory
  • Quest Outdoors
  • Luckett & Farley
  • Brown Forman
  • Westrock
  • Patagonia

Sign up for our newsletter

  • Sign up and receive special information about our programs and events.
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

FOLLOW US

Copyright © 2019 Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest    |   Bernheim is an Arbnet level 4 certified garden
Privacy Policy | Policies and Guidelines | Research | Press Room  | Site Map

The Millennium Trail is closed today due to a heat index above 95 degrees. Elm Lick Trail hikers must be on the trail by 11 a.m.