Kazakhstan Raptors
by Todd Katzner
August 11, 2003
Page 1
: About the Project
My research is on eagles at a Nature Reserve here in Northern Kazakhstan. This area is steppe—dry grassland—with patches of trees in a few places. The patches of trees form most of the protected area of the reserve, and they are also the important areas where eagles nest. The area is called the Naurzum Zapovednik (Zapovednik is the Russian word for Nature Reserve).
There are four species of eagle that live and breed at the reserve: Imperial Eagles (Aquila heliaca), Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos), Steppe Eagles (Aquila nipalensis) and White-tailed Sea Eagles (Halieaeetus albicilla). For the first four years I was here, I studied the ecology of these birds (where they nest, what they eat, how they relate to their prey) with the intention of finding out how these four species that are otherwise so similar, manage to coexist. Now I am interested in studying the demography (population fluctuations) of these species, trying to identify why these populations change. That type of information can be crucial to developing effective conservation management plans for species and regions. More information on my work can be found in an article I wrote for Wildlife Conservation Magazine.
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Naurzum Forest and Steppe
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Storm on the Steppe
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Imperial Eagle Taking Off
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Imperial Eagle Taking Off - Modem
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Imperial Eagle in Flight
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Steppe Eagle
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White-Tailed Sea Eagle
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Page 2
: Two Days on the Train
It is a two-day train ride from the airport in Almaty to my study site in northern Kazakhstan. This is the seventh year that I’ve made this trip; early on in my research I’d try to fly north. However, one year I was on an old Soviet-era airplane that filled up with smoke before take-off. When, using my broken Russian, I asked the stewardess what was going on, she said “Don’t worry, this is normal. It will clear out once we get airborne.” She was right—we were fine, the air cleared once we got off the ground, and I’ve tried to avoid flying internal flights in Kazakhstan since then.
I flew into Almaty a few days ago from London. I was there working out details of a job I’ll be starting in the fall. At Heathrow, the London airport, I met up with Jamie Rudnick, a graduate student from Purdue University who is doing genetic research on the eagles I study. Jamie has never been to Kazakhstan, so she is understandably a bit nervous about the whole experience. We fly via Baku (in Azerbaijan), and arrive in Almaty at 6:00 AM. We are met there by Sergei Sklyarenko, a colleague and friend from the Institue of Zoology. Sergei finds us a hotel (a former dormitory where the “deluxe” room is the one with a private toilet and bath that costs $10/day) for the 14 hours that we will be in town. We relax for a few hours and then go to find some food, both to eat right then and to bring with us on the 38-hour train ride coming soon. In the afternoon we do a little shopping with Sergei and then he leaves us to do some of his own errands.
At about 6:00 PM Sergei picks us up and we load our bags into his little four-wheel drive. On the way out of town we stop for a bite to eat (this time it is shashlik, a central Asian version of a shish-kabob: meat only, marinated in a vinegar-based soup for a day, cooked on an open fire and sold at stands throughout most cities in Kazakhstan and every other central Asian country I’ve seen). We go from there to the train station, where we eventually meet up with another friend, Anatoly Taran and his wife Julia (they have been married only 8 months), and we get on the train. Jamie and I are sharing a cabin on the train with the two of them for two reasons. First, on a personal level, Anatoly worked for me for 3 summers when I was doing my dissertation; he is a good friend and I like spending time with him. Second, on a more practical level, cars on the train are divided into four-person sleepers and all four of us would prefer to spend 38 hours with people we know and trust than with strangers.
Our ride takes us from Almaty, around Lake Balkash, through Karaganda, Astana, Aman-karagai, and into Kostanay. We start the trip at about 8:20 PM on Saturday evening and we finish at about 10:00 AM on Monday morning. We bring food and water for the train ride, and we spend our time talking, leaning out of the window, and getting to know each other a little better. After working with me for three years in northern Kazakhstan, Anatoly got an internship at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Pennsylvania, then he eventually got a job in the science department of a park near Lenninagorsk in northeastern Kazakhstan and worked his way up to head of the science department. However, as is sometimes the case in the former Soviet Union, conservation jobs pay poorly, and often not at all. ‘Toly quit that job after too many blank paychecks and he now has a non-conservation job that pays regularly. It is a real shame that hard working people like him are unable to find a job that will allow him to have a family.
After two days on the train, we arrive in Kostanay, in northcentral Kazakhstan, where we are met by Dr. Evgeny Bragin, another friend and colleague. Evgeny and I have worked together for all seven of the years that I’ve been in Kazakhstan and we now know each other quite well. Evgeny is one of the best field natural historians that I’ve ever met—he knows the name, habitat and behavior of just about every animal and plant that I’ve ever encountered in northern Kazakstan. He’s also a really funny guy who I find easy to work with.
We spend all of that day in Kostanay, based at Evgeny’s apartment, but running errands to go shopping for food and preparing for the research that we will be doing. Kostanay is a pretty modern city, with great public transportation (most of the former Soviet Union has better public transportation than most places in the USA) and about 250,000 people. The bazaar there is something to see—stands packed in together, vendors selling everything from apples to underwear, and people packed in shoulder to shoulder trying to buy and not get their pockets picked.
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Jamie Rudnick
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Hotel Room in Almaty
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Anatoly and Julia Taran
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Kazakh Kids
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Wild Horses on Steppe
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Wild Horses on Steppe - Modem
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Theatre in Kostanay
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Evgeny Bragin
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Page 3
: June 2 - To Karamendy
On Tuesday morning we load up Evgeny’s little red LADA Niva four-wheel drive and head down the road from Kostanay to Karamendy (Karamendy was formerly named “Dokuchaevka” for Dokuchaev, a famous Russian agronomist; the name was recently changed in part of an attempt to shed vestiges of Russian and Soviet control of Kazakhstan). On the road we see numerous birds that most bird-watchers would consider “life birds”—species they have never seen before. Included among these are Pallid, Montagu’s and Marsh Harriers (a different species than the Marsh Harrier found in the United States), Demoiselle Cranes, Black Lark, Lesser Kestrel, and Sociable Plover. One of the most spectacular things we saw was a prey pass from a male marsh harrier to a female. The male comes in low over the nest with freshly caught food; the female, seeing him coming in, flies off the nest to meet him. Once below the male, he drops the food item and she, seeing this, turns sideways or completely upside down, catches what he drops, and heads back to the nest. All this takes place in about five seconds and, in this case, it all occurred directly above the road, 100-250 yards in front of our vehicle.
Once in Karamendy, we get to Evgeny’s house there, unloaded our things from the car and immediately went to the police station. In Kazakhstan, when foreigners arrive at their final destinations, they are required to register with the local police. We do that and then head back to the house, where we cook some dinner and prepare for tomorrow’s trip to the field. The most intensive part of this is making wing tags—we are wing-tagging eagle chicks for studies of eagle populations.
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Niva Four-Wheel Drive Vehicle
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Rainbow Over Karamendy
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Sociable Plovers
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Sociable Plovers - Modem
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Montagu Harrier
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Demoiselle Cranes
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The Bragins' Home
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Page 4
: June 4 - Naurzum Forest
Early morning is beautiful. The sky is clear, the weather is cool but not cold, and the wind is not too fast. Good weather for raptors and good weather for raptor biologists. The first thing we do is to go to the office of the Zapovednik. Every year I must meet with the reserve director, to discuss what I’ve been doing and what I will do for the next few years. Last year we discussed problems the reserve was having and the director asked me if it was possible to bring some binoculars for the park rangers. This year I am bringing eight pairs of binoculars—four purchased in Almaty with research funding and four which were donated by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. The director is pleased with this support and we talk about trying to find a way to purchase a radio for the Zapovednik. Right now they have a very old radio system that they desperately need to replace. I agree to try to write a grant to fund purchase of a new radio. In September I will start looking for grants.
After about two hours of discussions and other meetings (including a chat with the director of the Science Department at the reserve) we are finally ready to leave. We go to Evgeny’s home, eat a quick bite, load up his Niva and head into the field. Today we go south, to Naurzum Forest, where we will visit a few White-tailed Sea Eagle nests. In the course of the day, we visit four sea eagle nests, see three Imperial Eagle nests and also see about five juvenile Imperial Eagles. The sea eagles breed a little earlier than the imperials, so they have chicks already and it is OK to visit their nests. The imperials have eggs or young chicks, and disturbing the birds at this point can have negative consequences, so we generally try to stay away from their nests during this vulnerable period. We climb to some of the sea eagle nests and take some feather samples from the chicks for DNA analysis. However, the chicks are too young for wing tags, so we do not tag any birds today. Late in the day it starts to rain and we drive home through a pleasant shower. The forest is beautiful in this bad weather. It rains all evening, and we catch a rat in the kitchen in the rat-trap.
Thursday - 05 July 2003
Rains all day today. We spend most of the day doing busy work in the house. Evgeny works on data, Jamie reads books and organizes the feather samples we collect from eagles, and I am working on the computer.
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Naurzum Forest
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In the Naurzum Forest
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In the Naurzum Forest - Modem
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White-Tailed Sea Eagle Nest
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Found Beneath Eagle Nest
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Found Beneath Eagle Nest - Modem
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Found Under White-Tailed Sea Eagle Nest
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Page 5
: June 5 - Rained Out
Rained out again. We thought that perhaps the sky would clear after rain at night and a grey morning, but it was not to be. After some discussions we decide to head back to Kostanay for a few days to sit out the rain and to try to accomplish some things up in that region. We load up the Niva and head back. The ride back is uneventful, although it is grey and a little scary, riding in the rain on a narrow road full of potholes. Road repair in Kazakhstan is not quite the same as in the USA and the roads are often not as flat as we find in North America.
Saturday, 07 June 2003
Saturday is another rain day. We wake at 8:00 AM and in the morning I help Evgeny to enter some of his data into the computer. Evgeny has been monitoring eagle nests in Kazakhstan for the past 25 years. This type of long-term data is rarely collected, and nobody in the world has a similar data set for eagles. We are entering these data and soon I will help him to analyze them as well. Specifically, we will look for patterns in eagle territory occupancy and nesting success and their relationship to factors like weather and nest location.
In the late afternoon we head over to the house of Anatoly’s parents. Anatoly, his wife, his brother and both his parents are there. After chatting for a few minutes, we sit down to a fantastic feast. Toly’s mother is a wonderful cook, and she prepares fantastic mashed potatoes, and two meat dishes. Other highlights of the meal are the home-brew whiskey that Toly’s father makes (the equivalent of moonshine, called samagong in Russian), the homemade tomato juice, with tomatoes from their dacha, and the laughter and fun always present in the Taran’s house.
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: June 8 - Kazanbaisi Forest
It didn’t rain last night! Finally. We spend the morning walking around Kostanay with Anatoly and Julia, letting the steppe dry a bit. After lunch we load up the Niva and head into the field with Evgeny. This time we are going to some forests closer to Kostanay, so that Evgeny can check these nests, so that I can get a sense for the different types of forest habitat that eagles in north Kazakhstan use, and so that we can get more eagle feathers on which Jamie can do genetic analyses.
We drive about 50 km south of Kostanay to some forests there and, although the roads are wet and muddy, they are not impassable. We manage to visit three imperial Eagle territories. One has been taken over by a Sea Eagle, and we find feathers and new nest construction, but fail to observe any birds. The other two territories are still occupied by Imperial Eagles, and in both cases one bird (most likely the female in the pair) sits very tightly on the nests when we visit. When eagles do this, it can indicate that the birds have very young chicks and they don’t want to leave them alone in the nest (young chicks are unable to maintain a constant body temperature (thermoregulate) and so are vulnerable to heat and cold they can encounter if a parent does not protect them at all times). We observe these nests from a distance and collect feathers from roosts near the nests. The most remarkable thing about the day though is not the eagles, it is the mosquitoes. They are numerous and aggressive. Evgeny and I are not particularly vulnerable to them, and we each only get a few bites. Jamie, however, seems to be a prime mosquito target, and by the end of the day her face is puffy with mosquito bites. We resolve to get her a head net and some bug spray for the next trip to the field. At the end of the day we head back to Kostanay.
The Kazanbaisi forest (where we were) is of a different type than at the Naurzum Reserve. Here there is also often sandy soil, but this soil is often black and of a different type than any we see at Naurzum. The forest is patchy—Evgeny says that this is a type typical of what is seen in forest steppe transition zones in central Asia. Additionally there has recently (five years ago) been a massive forest fire in this area and a large proportion of the trees were burned. When trees burn in this area people follow the fire and cut the dry wood to use as fuel. This is occurring on a large scale right now, and at all three of the eagle territories we visited, the original nest tree had been cut down and the eagles had built new nests in new trees nearby. While this seems like a good solution, the problem we face is that there are not so many big trees remaining and the eagles require those big trees in which they can build nests. At a fourth territory that we visited the nest tree had been cut down and there were no more big trees anywhere in the area. We were unable to find an eagle nest in that territory in that year.
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Imperial Eagle Near Nest
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Imperial Eagle Nest
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Kazanbaisi Forest
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Page 7
: June 9 - Barovoe and Karagai Forests
Rained again during the night, so we didn’t go to the field today. Evgeny and I did some data entry, which was good—one of the most important parts of the whole process is data entry. In the afternoon we went to an internet cafe; on the way home we ran into Anatoly and his family. They invited us to come to their dacha for dinner, which we did. We had shashlik (like shish-ka-bob, but no vegetables, just the meat). Their dacha is a small house out about 10 minutes from Kostanay. It is set in an area with many other similar places and they have a great little garden there. Dachas are a Russian/Soviet tradition and are an important part of the lives of many people here.
10 June 2003, Tuesday
Finally a 24-hour period without rain. We spend the morning attending to computer issues, in the afternoon we head north from Kostanay, about 80 km (50 miles) to a forest called Barovoe where there are a couple of eagle nests that Evgeny knows about. This area is much different than any I’ve been to before. The forest is much thicker and it seems more like classic Russian pine forest. Trees are bigger and everything is much wetter here. Imperial eagle density is also much lower than it is in other places—probably due mostly to the lack of open space for prey to use. When prey density is low, eagle density is low.
We visit two nests. In both cases the ground is too wet to drive near the nests. The first time we walk about 1.5 km to get to a nest that is completely unoccupied. We spend our time fighting off mosquitoes—Evgeny states that he must have killed at least 1 kilo of the little buggers. Some of the worst mosquitoes I’ve faced in many years. At the second nest we get to about 3km from the nest and the road is too wet to continue. So we hoof it from there. Thankfully in this case we were able to follow a road most of the way, the mosquitoes were not quite as bad, and the eagle nest was active. Under the nest I find remains of a recently hatched egg, probably only a day or so old. The adult eagle stays close to the nest as we search for feathers and she returns to the nest when we are only about 250 m away from the nest. That is one of the best sights in the world to see—an adult eagle quickly returning to a nest that you have disturbed. We return home to dinner and bed.
11 June 2003, Wednesday
Jamie is sick today, so she stays in Kostanay while Evgeny and I head to the Aman Karagai forest, about 80km south of Kostanay, to check eagle territories. This is a beautiful forest, composed of a large central forested area with many patches and fragments surrounding it. Eagle density is relatively high; in many places nests are 2-5 km apart. This is a big change from Baravoe, where nests were 20km apart. Driving around we eventually manage to see seven eagle nests, five of which were active. The birds are on eggs or have young chicks, so they stay close to the nests and we get some great looks at adult eagles. We also don’t stay long at any nest, to ensure that we don’t disturb the birds too much.
Our goal on these trips is two-fold. First, we are checking whether the nest is active or inactive. Second, we are trying to collect moulted feathers for Jamie so that she can do her genetic analyses on them. In most cases we manage to verify the status of the nest and also get a few feathers for genetics. In the evening, Evgeny and I head back to Karamendy. Jamie will join us here when she feels better.
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Baravoe Forest
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Karagai Forest
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Karagai Steppe
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Page 8
: June 12 - Sip-sin Forest
Spent the day in Sip-sin forest. We got a late start today, due to several “at-the-office” things that Evgeny had to do. Left the house at about 10:30 or so. The sky was cloudy and there was a threat of rain. Consequently, we decided to head to Sip-sin forest today. Sip-sin is to the west of Karamendy and the soils there are mostly sandy. Tersec and Naurzum, the other two forested areas that compose the park, both have clay-type soils in at least some places. These clay soils turn into a sticky gumbo when they get wet, and it is better to avoid them at those times. So we stay in the sandy soils of Sip-sin when it gets wet.
Last year there was a large fire in Sip-sin and most of the trees in the eastern part of the forest were burned. There are about seven Imperial Eagle nests in Sip-sin, one White-tailed Sea Eagle nest and one Golden Eagle nest. We visit nearly all of them today (skipping only one Imperial Eagle nest). Evgeny climbs the first Imperial Eagle nest, just to check the age of the chicks. They are young: 2-4 days or so. We leave quickly, so the parents can return to the nest. Many of the eagle nests in Sip-sin are in burned trees, and we both fear that within a few years, many of these large trees will fall down, leaving fewer suitable nest trees for the eagles. At the end of the day it has drizzled a few times, but not really rained much. We’ve seen all three species of eagles at active nests, and we return pretty content with the day's work.
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Sip-sin Forest
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Sip-sin Forest After Fire
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Sip-sin Forest After Fire - Modem
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Clay Hills in Tersec Forest
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White-Tailed Sea Eagle Nest in Burned Tree
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Page 9
: June 13 - Back to Naurzum Forest
The sky looks pretty good when we start out today, so we decide to head to Naurzum forest. Our goal for the day is simple: to visit a few eagle nests and to check a roost of juvenile Imperial Eagles that Evgeny has recently seen. Jamie is still sick in Kostanay.
We head out and first search for the juvenile roost. After visiting a few old sites, we come to one place where we see one, then another, then finally at least seven juvenile Imperial Eagles. It is pretty neat to see that many large eagles together, and this park is probably one of the only places in the northern hemisphere where a person can see so many eagles during the breeding season (in winter many eagles bunch up and large number can be seen at once). We search a few trees for feathers and find little. Frustrated, we drive off.
However, we get about 200 yards and we see another eagle take off from a tree, so we check this site out. Turns out that we have hit a mother-lode of feathers that we can use for genetic analyses. All told, we collect about 150 feathers from this one area. We have genetic material from every chick produced in the population in the last four years, so we are pretty sure that if any of these birds that are roosting at this site were also hatched here, we will be able to identify where and when they hatched (it is important to understand that eagles take five years to reach maturity). Since one of our goals is to understand the way the eagle population replenishes itself, our find today is a really important one. Jamie will have a lot of work to do when she gets back to the USA. We then go on to search a few more nests and we also try to identify a good place to trap eagles. We do both of these things and head back home in pretty good shape.
14 June 2003
We wake early with a specific goal in mind. We want to go early in the morning to south Naurzum, where the ground squirrel colony is, to watch eagles go from their nesting territories and to see where they hunt. Once we have done this, we intend to try to trap in these areas where birds forage. Neither Evgeny nor I has great hopes for success in this, but we both feel that it will help our trapping if we can manage to identify places where the eagles are familiar with hunting.
We leave the house at about 06:20AM and head south. We find a good spot, near both an Imperial Eagle nest and near a White-tailed Sea Eagle nest. We sit and wait. After about 45 minutes, we see a White-tailed Sea Eagle fly about and then disappear. After a few minutes it returns, carrying food. We follow it on its return journey; it turns out that it goes directly to the nest closest to us! We have already identified a place where one bird forages.
No sooner is this done then we see one of the Imperial Eagles take off (at about 08:39AM). We watch this bird fly out, away from the nesting territory, to almost the same spot that the Sea Eagle came from. Total distance it travels is about 3 km (about 1.8 miles), and as it is flat here, we can see the entire flight. Every minute of the way it is attacked and harassed by smaller birds—magpies, crows, rooks and jackdaws, as well as a few other species. However, as it is being attacked, it is flying low, probably about 10 feet above the ground. Suddenly it swerves into a sudden stoop and lands on the ground. Clearly it has caught something, and it begins to eat immediately, even as it is being continually attacked by the smaller birds. The time is 08:42. This was amazing for us to watch: three minutes from take-off to food capture. No wonder there are so many eagle nests in this area.
After a few minutes, it takes off and flies back to its territory. At 08:50 it is back at its home. In eleven minutes, this eagle has found and eaten a meal. It takes me longer to cook dinner! At about 09:30 we watch a Sea Eagle head out from the forest. It perches on a power pole; then, after about 8 minutes, it flies to the ground. This time the bird apparently misses and does not appear to eat. However, five minutes later it too takes off and within three minutes makes the same maneuvers as the Imperial Eagle did, and apparently lands on a ground squirrel, because it too begins to eat. After about 20 minutes on the ground, the Sea Eagle flies back. Although it takes a very circuitous route, this bird flies back to the nest near us. Total elapsed time between when we saw the bird and when it returned to the nest was about 40 minutes.
What an amazing morning this has been. In about three hours of watching we’ve seen three prey deliveries and two hunting attempts. We now have a pretty good idea where these two birds hunt! After all this we drive to another area and watch a few other eagles. These birds do not appear to be hunting—they just stay in the general area where they are roosting in the steppe. After a while we drive out and scare these birds. Interestingly, they fly up, then go back to a territory we know about. So we have managed to identify another eagle hunting territory (probably). After all this we check a few other eagle territories for activity and then we head back to Karamendy. It has been a really remarkable day. I don’t think that I’ve learned so much about eagles in any 12 hour period in my life. This could be a great start for several other research projects!
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Field Audio: Observing Eagle Hunting Behavior
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: June 15 - Naurzum Forest
Today we took the Niva apart. We were having troubles with it all week, and the problems just kept getting worse and worse. Every so often the car would just die and we would have to prime the fuel pump and restart it. So today we took out the gas tank, cleaned that out and then Evgeny replaced most of the parts in the fuel pump. Finally the thing seemed to run well. In the late afternoon, Jamie returned from Kostanay, feeling much better. The day was generally a success, but we didn’t get a lot of research accomplished.
16 June 2003
It was rainy last night so we got a late start to the research to let the steppe dry out a bit. Evgeny also had some office work to do. After some time, we headed to the west side of Naurzum forest to try to visit some eagle territories and see some falcon nests. The first eagle territory we visited had a nest that was being used by falcons. Evgeny climbed the tree and it turned out that these falcons were old enough to process. By this, I mean that Evgeny takes measurements on the birds and then inserts a PIT (passive integrated transponder —like a bar code that can later be scanned by a bar code scanner) under the skin in their breast. This doesn’t hurt the bird, but if it is later captured and ever taken to a veterinarian, the vet can scan the bird to identify where it came from. It started to rain while we were doing this and so we decided simply to search for nests for the rest of the day. We searched a few eagle territories with little luck, finding almost nothing new at all. Eventually we drove back through the forest to Karamendy. It rained a bit today, but was generally successful.
17 June 2003
We woke up to a clear and beautiful day. At about 9AM we headed out to the field (Naurzum Forest), mainly to work on falcon chicks. We started in the north part of the forest at an old Imperial Eagle nest. Four falcon chicks there, we measured and PIT’d all four of them (see video of that also). These chicks were a bit younger than the ones from yesterday and they were really just on the edge of where you would want to do measurements like this on the birds.
From here we went to another nest and repeated this process. However, this time while Evgeny climbed the nest and took the birds down, Jamie and I walked about 600m (nearly half a mile) through the forest/steppe to a nearby eagle nest. This was the new eagle nest in this territory, while the old one was occupied by the falcons. We wanted to check if this new nest was active and also try to collect a few feathers there for DNA analysis. We were able to see the adult bird near the nest, but we were unable to find any feathers.
The trip was not a complete loss though, as we saw a roe deer (Capriolus capriolus) while we were walking. This is a beautiful red-colored small deer, and they are really nice to see. Upon returning, we found Evgeny almost finished with the birds. He put them back in the nest and then we drove to a nearby hill to eat lunch. From this hill it is possible to see almost all of the Naurzum forest, so it is quite a nice place. After eating we decided that the falcon chicks were still a bit too young to continue this work, so we searched a bit for an eagle nest in a nearby territory and then headed home early for the day. So far it has not rained today, which makes it unusual, at least in comparison to recent days.
In the evening on the 17th, at about 9:30PM, we drove out to south Naurzum to set a trap for Imperial Eagles. We finished setting the trap at about 11:30 and we drove back to Karamendy to spend the night.
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Fixing the Niva
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Eagle Nest Now Used by Falcons
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Eagle Trap
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Measuring Saker Breastbone
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Measuring Saker Breastbone - Modem
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Ringing Saker Chick
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Ringing Saker Chick - Modem
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PIT Tagging Saker Falcon Chick
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PIT Tagging Saker Falcon Chick - Modem
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Preparing Needle with PIT Device
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Preparing Needle with PIT Device - Modem
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Finishing PIT Implant
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Finishing PIT Implant - Modem
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Roe Deer
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Roe Deer - Modem
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Page 11
: June 18 - Sip-sin and Tersec Forests
Long day in the field!! We woke up at about 04:30AM and headed out to south Naurzum to watch our trap. We spent the whole morning sitting on a hill, about 1 km (0.6 miles) from the trap, watching eagles fly around it, but never even acting interested in the bait that we had set out there for them. Frustrating.
At about 12:30 we went to the trap and pulled the entire set and drove back to Karamandy. We unloaded all our trapping equipment and Evgeny went and got us some gas and then we decided to go out to Sip-sin to pick up the frame of a blind that Evgeny had left there. I climbed to a White-tailed Sea Eagle nest—turned out that the nest was not active. What made the whole climb interesting was that the tree had burned the previous year in a fire, so it was a really dirty climb. When I came down I was covered in soot and ash.
After that we realized that there was a falcon nest nearby and we went and processed those chicks pretty quickly and then headed home. We returned at about 7PM, cooked some dinner and went to bed quickly, as we were all pretty wiped out.
One of the neat things that happened today involved the Sip-sin gamekeeper. Earlier this year I gave eight pairs of binoculars to the Zapovednik, so that they could be distributed to the gamekeepers here. Without these binoculars, which were donated by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), there would be no way for these guys to have such equipment. At Sip-sin I met the gamekeeper and was able to take his pictures with the binoculars that I donated. A really important part of the research and field work that I do is helping the park in its management activities. So I was quite pleased to meet this fellow and to have the chance to take his picture.
19 June 2003
A shorter, more reasonable day in the field, but all told a pretty good one. We got a fairly late start to the day because Evgeny had to run a few errands in town. We headed off to Tersec, the northern-most forest of the Zapovednik, to look for eagle nests. All told, we visited about eight Imperial Eagle nests, one Sea Eagle nest, and one Steppe Eagle nest. I had another chance to climb to one of the Imperial Eagle nests—also not active—and we had a good time with most of the trip. This was the first day of the year that I’d seen marmots, and they are always fun to watch.
The most notable thing that happened during the Tersec part of the trip was that the starter on the Niva started to act strange. As a consequence we had to head home a bit early (we had trouble starting the car, and the starter would go often with no turn of the key). On the way home we saw a young Steppe Eagle feeding on a dead marmot. We watched this (and I took video) for about 10 minutes, all the while afraid to turn the Niva off, since we knew it would be tough to start. Near the end of the drive we happened upon a Steppe Eagle sitting on a sign and we were able to get some very good photos and footage of this bird as well. So we ended up having a pretty good day, seeing lots of birds and having an exciting time wondering if we’d be walking home from Tersec, or riding!! Such is field-work in Kazakhstan.
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Gamekeeper with Binoculars
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Tersec Forest and Steppe
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Burned Area in Tersec Forest
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Spirit Grave in Tersec Forest
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Marmot Family
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Fixing Starter on Niva
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Steppe Eagle on Sign
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Steppe Eagle on Post
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Steppe Eagle on Post - Modem
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Steppe Eagle Protecting Food
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Steppe Eagle Protecting Food - Modem
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Page 12
: June 20 - Saker Nests
Spent the day trying to help Evgeny fix the Niva and did little else. A pretty boring day. At the end of the day Evgeny went back to Kostanay and Jamie and I stayed in Karamendy. We want to give Evgeny a chance to take care of his personal business and to get some time away from us.
21, 22 June 2003 (Saturday, Sunday)
Did no field work, spent the time in Karamendy, relaxing and passing time reading. Slow times like these are a part of field work. In my spare time I worked on a couple of papers that I needed to work on and Jamie and I prepared a pile of wing tags for eagles. 60 tags for 30 birds, in total.
23 June 2003 (Monday)
The morning and early afternoon were spent waiting for Evgeny to return from Kostanay. He is bringing a Spanish biologist and a Spanish film crew that is interested in doing natural history journalism. They report on both the interesting place, as well as the biology of the area, and finally on the research that we are doing in this place. This crew does not arrive until about 4PM. We immediately go and get some food and then take them to the small hotel where they are staying. Drop their bags and go to a nearby eagle nest to begin filming. This is a place where the bird tends to spend most of its time near the nest and often will stay close by when people disturb it. So this time we stop about 250 yards away from the bird and it sits on the nest. This film crew breaks out their awesome camera and films—it seems like we are right next to the bird (they have a small tv that you can watch the film on). Amazing. We keep creeping closer and closer and finally at about 70 yards the bird flies. The crew even gets great shots of the birds flying. Really amazing. This all takes a couple of hours and then we head home for a late dinner and immediately to bed.
24 June 2003 (Tuesday)
A long day in the field. We spend the whole day in Naurzum forest. Start by working on a Saker nest, processing those chicks. Then we head off to a couple different eagle nests. The film crew gets some good shots of an eagle nest and we also show them another site where we can see eagle foraging grounds, etc. Head back to town for lunch, then back to the field in the evening. Try to show the crew where to get video of ground squirrels and other mammals. Finally when heading back home, we find another eagle perching and get some more amazing photographs of the place. It is really remarkable how easy these folks are able to get photos.
One of the neatest things of the day was that early on at one of the first sites we had the occasion to see a juvenile eagle stray into a territory defended by two adults. Both adults flew up to meet this juvenile and both slowly pushed him out of their territory. It was very much an unhurried interaction and we all had the sense that these birds were just making a statement, rather than trying to really attack an intruder. But quite fun to watch and I really learned a great deal. Back home by 11 and to bed quickly.
25 June 2003 (Wednesday)
Another long day. Went to Tersec, visited multiple eagle nests of many types and I climbed one of them (found an infertile egg, collected it, hopefully for pesticide analysis). Good marmot shots on the way back. When we got back to town, the film crew wanted to go to the forest again to film some talking, so we went and did that as well. We were all a little frustrated by this and I went walking off alone with the video camera I use here. Within 50 yards of the vehicle I encountered a deer (they are much less common here than in North America and a different species as well) and was able to get some really great footage of it—that was the best video I’ve done yet. Home late again.
26 June 2003 (Thursday)
Woke a little later and went to the field to Sip-sin. Visited a few eagle and saker nests, then headed back to town and then to Naurzum forest. Finally got to put wing tags in eagle chicks—a sea eagle nest was the first set that were ready to be tagged. We tagged those birds and I was able to show Jamie how her samples were collected (those she uses for DNA analysis). After this we went back to town and I gave an interview with the film crew (which also involved me riding my motorcycle). Finally ate and washed in preparation for leaving town tomorrow. We will drive to Kostanay in the AM and then take the evening train to Almaty. I think that I will be glad to be out of this place. It has been a long and often frustrating month.
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Field Audio: Wing-Tagging White-Tailed Eagles
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Wing Tagging Steppe Eagle
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Wing Tagging Steppe Eagle - Modem
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Raptor Tagging Equipment
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Wing Tags
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Film Crew at Burned Site
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Saker Nest
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Saker Chick
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Infertile Eagle Egg, Tersec Forest
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Page 13
: Genetic Studies - Jamie Rudnick
Editor's Note: The following information comes from Jamie Rudnick, a colleague of Todd Katzner's. Jamie is a graduate student at Purdue University in the United States, and is using DNA analysis to study raptors.
Because I’m a graduate student who studies genetics and DNA, I work in a lab. I spend my days in a relatively sterile environment, surrounded by large pieces of expensive scientific equipment. Our lab doesn’t have any windows, so in the winter I can go days without seeing the sun. It’s dark when I get to work and dark when I go home.
This summer, I was lucky enough to take a break from my lab work and spend five weeks in Kazakhstan. Not only did I get to be outside in the sun, but I also had the opportunity to experience a new country and culture. Before this summer, my only experience traveling outside the United States was a week I spent in England. Before leaving for Kazakhstan, I was nervous for a variety of reasons. Five weeks is a long time to spend in a foreign country where the culture, food, and language are all strange and unfamiliar. But the promise of spending five entire weeks away from work and my windowless lab was too much to resist. So I put aside my nervousness and went to Kazakhstan.
I was invited to visit Kazakhstan because I’m doing genetic work on three species of eagles. For the past several years, Todd has been collecting biological samples from imperial, steppe, and white-tailed sea eagles in Kazakhstan. To sample eagle chicks, Todd plucks a small developing feather and places it in a liquid storage solution. Because the feather is still growing, there’s a little blood inside the feather’s shaft. Eagle blood is a great source of DNA, and these samples work great for genetics. While getting samples from eagle chicks is fairly easy, getting samples from adult eagles can be more of a challenge. Because adults are rather hard to catch, Todd picks up loose adult feathers from inside or underneath eagle nests. Up until my trip to Kazakhstan, all the genetic work I’d done was on eagle samples that were shipped to me by Todd. This summer was my opportunity to see the eagles, their habitat, and watch how sample collection is done first-hand.
The eagles and the nature reserve they live in are amazing. Even though I knew a large number of eagles live in the reserve, I was still surprised by how many we saw and how often we saw them. Todd and Evgeny are very good at identifying what species an eagle is, even when an eagle is flying some distance away. They look for things like the shape of the eagle’s head, the length of its tail, and the shape of its wings. I tried to look for the same things that they did, but I usually couldn’t tell what species an eagle was unless it was sitting still for several minutes and I could get a really good look at it. Helping to collect biological samples like those I’ve been analyzing in the lab was a great experience. Even though adult eagle feathers are pretty easy to identify, in the beginning I sometimes had to ask if the feather I’d picked up from under a nest was an eagle feather or a feather from another bird species.
While I had many wonderful experiences in Kazakhstan, I also faced a number of challenges. Spring was late in coming to northern Kazakhstan this year and the season had been very rainy. Consequently, some of the areas we were working in were thick with mosquitoes. Sometimes we would walk thru the steppe absolutely covered in them. While the mosquitoes seemed to be only a little annoying to Todd and Evgeny, they proved to be more of a problem for me. One day the mosquitoes were so bad that my face was puffy with itchy bites. The next day the bites were nearly gone, but the teasing I received continued much longer.
I’m now back from Kazakhstan and back to work in my windowless lab. But unlike most of my fellow labmates, I actually have a tan this summer. I also have many new eagle questions I want to explore and a new appreciation for the eagle feathers I work with every day.
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Jamie Rudnick
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 About the author:
Todd Katzner is Director of Conservation and Field Research
at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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