Follow Colorado Eagle B-75 on It’s 5-State Journey
Imagine taking a trip from Colorado to Utah to Wyoming, cutting across the corner of Montana, and then to Idaho, and back again. A band on tour? Extended camping trip? In this case, no. This was the course of Colorado's Eagle 5-75.
This magnificent creature, named B-75, typically calls Durango home. She took a bit of a vacation a while back. Departing Durango, she set course for the Grand Mesa. At a whopping 11-pounds, B-75 made the trip in six hours. That's a pretty good huff.
From there, she then paid a visit to Flaming Gorge Reservoir, then to Wind River, Wyoming. You can't tour this part of the country without visiting Yellowstone National Park, and that's exactly what B-75 did.
Her course then caught the corner of Montana, and then to Idaho. She then took the same course back to Colorado. Yeah, I've been to Idaho, too, and like B-75, couldn't get back to Colorado fast enough.
According to the Durango Herald, B-75's round trip totaled better than 1,500 miles. The entire trip was completed in roughly 40 days. How do we know this? Colorado Parks and Wildlife tagged a number of bald and golden eagles with transmitters. The study hoped to gain a better understanding of the birds' migration habits.
Without having those transmitters on it, we would never have known where that eagle was.” Brian Magee w/ Colorado Parks and Wildlife
I did a little research of my own. If one were to follow the same path in a car, the distance would come out to 1,232 miles each way. Travel time in a vehicle, according to Google Maps, would equal 22 hours and 51 minutes each way. That's traveling non-stop. Keep in mind, Eagle B-75 can't just pull through the drive-up window at Burger King. She has to hunt and capture her own food. In addition, she's not sitting in a seat on an airplane, resting comfortably, eating peanuts, while someone else does the flying. She's her own mode of transportation. This is quite a feat.
When it's all said and done, B-75 likes Durango. Can't say I blame her. Welcome back. Do all eagles do this? Apparently not. Another eagle in the Durango area tagged with a transmitter rarely travels beyond a five-mile radius of its nest.