[MASSBIRD] Adult Bald Eagle with Gold Color Band Photographed at Horn Pond, 8/26/22

[phaw...@comcast.net]

On Friday August 26 Laura Sisitzky photographed an adult Bald Eagle with a gold color band at Horn Pond. We are not able to read the band number, so are inquiring if anyone else photographed a Bald Eagle with a gold color band at Horn Pond in recent weeks. Massachusetts used gold color bands on juvenile Bald Eagles from 1987-2006. The first character was always “W” followed by a letter and number, vertical, repeated 3x around band.

     This means the eagle was at least 16 years old and possibly significantly older.  Relatively few Mass eagles have been known to live as long as 20 years, so this individual is of definite interest. If you have photographed an eagle with a gold color band that is legible at Horn Pond in recent weeks, please send the photo to me (jpeg only, under 20 MB in any one email), along with the date taken, location, and your contact information. Thanks in advance for your help..    

     Please note that juvenile eagles (hatched this year) are beginning to disperse, and that many eagles, including floaters (non breeding birds) and breeding adults (many from farther north) are already beginning to migrate. We had a year-old immature that had only recently begun to molt pass by the Mystic Lakes on Wednesday, and have had 13 migrating Bald Eagle at Wachusett the past two days.

Best,

Paul.  

Paul M. Roberts
Medford, MA 
phaw...@comcast.net

[phaw...@comcast.net]

Thanks Mark,

The Bald Eagle band color database from the CBC I was using indicated that Mass. used a golden band on juvenile Bald Eagles from 1989–98, so I was assuming the Horn Pond bird was at least 24 years old. That database was recently modified to indicate that Mass had used a gold band from 1987–2006, so a 16-year-old bird could have a gold band. That means it is quite possible that the Saugus male was the bird photographed at Horn Pond. However, with all the movement of Bald Eagles occurring now, it would be nice to determine the specific band number of the Horn Pond bird.

     People should remember it is an adult eagle with a gold band. The current Mass band color (since 2007) is a (reddish) orange, not a (yellow) gold.

Gratefully,

Paul 

  

Paul M. Roberts
Medford, MA 
phaw...@comcast.net

On 09/02/2022 8:18 PM MARK RESENDES <res...@aol.com> wrote:

Hi Paul,

   Point of interest is that the Saugus River this past spring was a 16 year old banded WV1 Bald Eagle. It was being watched by locals but disappeared for this summer. It was confirmed last Thursday that he has reappeared…… so maybe this might be the same bird.

Thanks,

Mark Resendes 

Sent from my iPad

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