TERF26/Annie (tracked since 7/26/22)

TERF26 is a female bald eagle who has been nesting west of Lighthouse Park in West Vancouver, BC, since the fall of 2018; the pair had been nesting in Lighthouse Park for a number of years before that. She and her mate had two chicks in 2019, 2020 and 2021; one of the chicks died fairly early in 2019 and happily the other 5 fledged successfully. Observers noted that there was one chick in 2022, but sadly it died at an early age. As sometimes happens after an unsuccessful year, the pair then built a new nest nearby.

On June 25, TERF26 got into a territorial fight with another female, and both ended up on the ground with talons in each other. They were taken to OWL (the Orphaned Wildlife rehab center in Delta, BC), received stitches and antibiotics, and then spent a month or so recovering. TERF26, nicknamed Annie by the local nest monitors, was released on August 1st. (The other female also recovered and was released around the same time, though hopefully in a different area.)

A local nest monitor who was present at the release reported:
She seemed a bit unsure at first after bursting out of the cage before flying up into a Douglas-fir. She did not fly to the nest tree or any of the other favourite perch trees. After an hour or so she was not seen. There are several people keeping an eye out for her. The mate had been in the area up until yesterday.

Please visit our Hancock Wildlife Forum thread for more information about what TERF26 has been doing. [This is a work in progress – we need to have the pages in place before we can create the map – so everything is mostly an outline right now (August 4) and we’re hoping to fill in a lot of the blanks soon. At this point the map needs to be added, but we’re setting it up now so we’ll be able to see what TERF26 is doing as soon as that’s complete.]

Here’s a picture of Annie shortly after her release, showing the tracker in more detail and the determination in Annie’s eye, with big thanks to ECeaglevideo, used with permission, all rights reserved.

Updates

October 21, 2022 – Annie has checked in! She headed north and out of easy access to cell towers almost immediately after her release on August 1st, so we are only now discovering where she spent the late summer and early fall. It looks as if her tracker may not be uploading data daily, but we should get more frequent updates once she’s back in her territory in West Vancouver. And it looks as if she made it back to her home territory on the 19th, arriving on one of the Grebe Islets first, then near her nest on the 21st or 22nd!

July 10, 2022 – catching up:
– Observers think Annie laid her first egg on or near March 16, and she and her mate Sam produced two chicks, the first of which was seen April 25th.
– On June 16, Annie’s next territory neighbor Harbour Sun received a tracker, giving us a great opportunity to compare the activities of the two females; Harbour Sun is designated TERF31.
– June 18, Annie was injured in a fight with another eagle (not Harbour Sun) and was taken to OWL where she quickly recovered and was released back to her territory on June 21st.
– Also on June 21, one of the two eaglets was found on the ground and taken to OWL; the youngster is doing well, and they are hoping he or she will be released back in the territory before the eagles disperse.
– The remaining eaglet fledged July 5th.