Steve Lewis, Raptor Management Coordinator, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (left), and Rachel Wheat, a graduate student at the University of California Santa Cruz, cross the partially frozen Chilkat River to remove the traps they set to catch bald eagles. The countless footsteps in the snow are testament to their pre-sunrise trips onto the gravel bar to set the traps under the cover of darkness and the late afternoon removal of the traps each day. Wheat is conducting a bald eagle migration study of eagles that visit the Chilkat River for her doctoral dissertation. She hopes to learn how closely eagles track salmon availability across time and space. The bald eagles are being tracked using solar-powered GPS satellite transmitters (also known as a PTT - platform transmitter terminal) that attach to the backs of the eagles using a lightweight harness. During late fall, bald eagles congregate along the Chilkat River to feed on salmon. This gathering of bald eagles in the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve is believed to be one of the largest gatherings of bald eagles in the world.
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