Bald Eagle Survey
by Wyoming Game & Fish
January 11, 2006
(Jackson) This Saturday, January 14, volunteers will be searching the Jackson and Pinedale area to count the number of Bald Eagles wintering in Teton and Sublette counties.
This is the second year a local survey has been conducted. Last year 42 bald eagles were found in Jackson, mostly along the Snake River, and 67 bald and 13 golden eagles in Pinedale along the Green and New Fork Rivers. Observers drove, skied and floated open rivers to document the number and ages of eagles.
The Midwinter Bald Eagle survey is a nationwide effort coordinated through the US Geological Survey’s Snake River Raptor Field Station in Boise. Data have been collected for many years at sites throughout the country where eagles concentrate in large numbers. Because of the relatively low numbers occurring in western Wyoming, surveys were not run prior to 2005. Due to increasing development along river corridors and increasing number of wintering eagles, local wildlife biologists wanted to collect some baseline data to compliment surveys being conducted elsewhere in the Greater Yellowstone area and other locations in Wyoming and eastern Idaho.
Interested volunteers should contact Susan Patla at the WGFD Jackson office (307-733-2321) or Lisa Solberg at the BLM Pinedale office (307-367-5340) for route assignments, data forms, and information on eagle identification.
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