An interesting eagle and encounter this past weekend. My friend initially spotted this female last month with a GPS tracker hanging from her neck.
We corresponded with Colorado Parks & Wildlife and learned the eagle had been outfitted with the unit in October 2020 in Weld County, not too far from where she was seen last month and this past weekend. Since then, she has managed to work the GPS off part way, leaving the solar charging cell dangling around her neck.
They would like to catch her again to remove it but the tracker is an old device that connects to cell towers via 3G and there aren’t many of those left so they can’t really follow her. The hope is that she will eventually chew through the harness and get it off herself.
It does present a danger to the eagle with it hanging like that should it get snagged on something. With any luck she can get it off on her own soon. It should be noted that the tracking devices they put on eagles now are much improved lasting longer, are more rugged, are less likely to do this and can connect to more modern cellular networks.
