Where? Where? Wedgie! 2018 Day 2 : 02-05-2018

On day 2 we travelled from Ellendale area to the Tasman Peninsula to collect the third nest camera, dropped Dave back home and continued down to camp at Franklin. Here's the video summary.

In the photo album today there are four incredible photos from Eugene's nest camera (psst- thanks for the condolence messages everyone- James really appreciates it). There's a few hints to what is in a Tasmanian wedgie diet amongst the photos. In one of the photos you can see the whole family feeding together. 

We drove across to Murdunna to collect the third and final nest camera. This nest was home to Esmerelda this past breeding season. When the team checked her to attach a transmitter it was decided shwe was not looking healthy enough to tag. But a camera was fixed to a nearby part of the trunk to see how she fared. Did she make a recovery and fledge successfully? The camera might be able to tell us.

Dave rigged the rope up past the nest and climbed to find out. He called over the edge of nest to say, "Hey guys, do you want the good news?" ... "There's lots of carcasses in the nest and no Esmerelda." Dave was describing at least 4 wallaby remains and a blue tongue lizard. 

Upon checking the camera this evening it shows Esmerelda staying on the nest longer than usual and fledging happily. Eagles normally leave the nest 12 weeks after hatching but Esmerelda stuck around until 16 weeks to fatten up!

We're processing some of the photos from Esmerelda and Ethel's nest cameras and will post them in tomorrow's report.

Day 2 T-shirt Winner: LukeFitzpatrick (Evelyn and Kara) for helping James with his Why? Wedgie! Why? problem on day 1. James will have a perplexing conundrum at the end of each daily video update. 

James and I are off to camp at Franklin now and will be heading further south to try to locate Emma and Ezio over the next two days.

Andrew

Day 1-2 travels with nest camera locations (roughly) located as little tree symbols. We won't give exact locations as some are on private land.