>>997745We're tracking them, hoping they nest, and then trying to get a count on the babies by putting out cameras and capturing them on video.
She was my bird for a few months now. I caught her, collared her, tracked her every week and today I heard the dreaded mortality signal on my receiver.
She was a bit of an adventurer. Almost all the other birds we are tracking stay pretty close to the roads, but she struck out and explored. It made her a pain in the ass to find, but she led me to some interesting areas in the reserve that I wouldn't of seen else wise.
It felt a bit like I knew her like an old friend. That she was a kindred spirit with all her wandering. Maybe that's just me being sentimental, but I got to "know" who she was as a bird and got a little attached to her.
She was about to settle down because I found her pile of feathers and her collar in the tall sage brush where they like to nest. Typically a sign of a mammalian predator kill.
I kept one feather as a memento.
