Bio

Wausau. In 2014 we had tried trapping at a long-established nest in Groveton, up in the northern portion of the state, but the nest pole, at 65' tall, was just outside the reach of the bucket truck we were using. This year we had a mega-truck and were able to trap our bird in pretty short order. When we arrived, a food transfer had already taken place, so just as we pulled up the female came back into the nest to relieve the male, who had been incubating while the she ate the fish he had delivered. We were concerned that the male might head off somewhere out of sight and thus not been trappable. But, as luck would have it, a Bald Eagle flew by and that got the male's attention. He strafed the eagle a few times and drove it away. We felt that meant our target bird would be attentive around the nest, so up I went up - way up! - in the bucket and set the trap. The female came in quickly and was standing on the noose carpet that I had placed over the nest. The male saw her standing there and landed on her for a quick copulation and then landed on the noose carpet next to her. Unfortunately, he didn't walk around, so he wasn't caught. We did get the female and held on to her for about 30 minutes, when the male came in, landed right on the carpet and was quickly caught. He's named Wausau after the paper company that used to operate a plant at this site.

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