By Mary W. Yandell, Louisville Audubon Society Board of Directors
With the Bald Eagle population steadily increasing since the 1970s, you may have had the opportunity to see an adult Bald Eagle—with its diagnostic white head and tail—fishing along rivers, streams, and lake shores, seemingly unfazed by nearby human activity.
But there’s also a second species of eagle found in eastern North America that you might not have observed—one that is sometimes misidentified as a juvenile Bald Eagle.
Golden Eagles: Ghosts of the forest
Known as “ghosts of the forest,” the Golden Eagle frequents large, unspoiled, and unbroken habitats. Reclusive by nature, this eagle prefers to hunt over remote knobs and forested corridors, avoiding contact with human disturbances.
While the western population of Golden Eagles has been well studied over the years, until recently, not much was known regarding the size and distribution of the Golden Eagle population in eastern North America.
In an effort to change all that, the Eastern Golden Eagle Working Group (EGEWG)’s research over the past two decades has outfitted 114 individuals—including three at Kentucky’s Bernheim Forest and Arboretum: “Harper” (2015), “Athena” (2019), and “Hermes” (2024)—with high-resolution telemetry units.
Combined, these units have now generated more than 4.6 million GPS locations throughout the eastern U.S. and Canada. Their data reveal that Golden Eagles wintering east of the Mississippi River may also summer in northern areas of New Brunswick, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nunavut (where Athena and Harper nested), and the Northwest Territories.
Since 2005, EGEWG has learned about habitat use and distribution of Eastern Golden Eagles, especially in the Appalachian Mountains, Cumberland Plateau, and Driftless regions. Research suggests the Appalachian Mountains support many wintering Golden Eagles in October through May. These birds may represent the core of the wintering range for the northeastern Canada breeding population.
Getting involved with the Wintering Golden Eagle Survey
The Wintering Golden Eagle Survey was established in 2004 by the Wabasha, Minnesota-based National Eagle Center (NEC) to better understand the wintering Golden Eagle population in the region.
From its origins, NEC has documented not only Golden and Bald Eagles, but also other raptors observed in the survey areas, allowing the organization to monitor populations and observe trends over time. Today, the survey is the largest single-day raptor survey in the country.
I first learned of the winter survey in 2023, when I met Scott Mehus—NEC’s Director of Education and Golden Eagle Survey Coordinator—at the Eastern Golden Eagle Working Group conference at Bernheim.
Not long after that, I was assigned the first route in Kentucky as a volunteer for the 2024 survey. (Note: As of this writing, the sole Kentucky route is not yet listed on the NEC website, although the Kentucky data was accounted for and appears in both the 2024 and 2025 survey reports.)
My 2024 survey: Staying frosty
For observations to be added to the NEC database, protocol dictates that volunteers follow their established routes every year. My route, in northern Kentucky, includes Bernheim as a location known for overwintering Golden Eagles—including the previously mentioned telemetry-tagged Athena, tracked since 2019; other Golden Eagles of varying ages; and a good number of wintering Bald Eagles.
As with any avian survey, program leaders must establish time-based parameters to create a one-day “snapshot” of raptors in the area—meaning only observations made on the designated survey day are counted as survey data.
As a birder, this can be frustrating, especially if there were numerous raptors observed either the day before or after the survey. But as citizen-scientists, we volunteers also understand the reasoning behind the parameters and therefore only enter our observations made on the designated survey day as our contributions to the survey.
There are four creek fords, or crossings, that volunteers must make to access areas where they’re more likely to observe Golden Eagles. My first count, on January 21, 2024, was marked by sunny weather and temperatures between 17ºF and 24ºF. Ramps at the fords were icy but maneuverable.
However, the car dramatically broke through ice while crossing one of the deeper fords. Making across safely entailed keeping the driver’s-side door cracked open, to keep tabs on where the water level was in relation to the bottom of the SUV.
The crack of the shattering ice coupled with the sounds of the rushing, unseasonably high creek water—all brightly lit by the sun—made for quite the visual experience. The SUV’s 4-wheel drive came in handy when maneuvering the steep drive up and out of the creek—which, fortunately, was not all ice covered, allowing us to eventually cross.
After all that drama, I was happy to observe two adult Golden Eagles for the day—success!
(Check out the full 2024 report here.)
My 2025 survey: Couldn’t stand the weather
On January 18, 2025, 226 citizen-scientists volunteering for the NEC’s Wintering Golden Eagle Survey—including me—spread out across the bluff lands and forests of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, and Arkansas for the 21st Annual Wintering Golden Eagle Survey. All of us sought the Golden Eagles that winter in the region.
My experience in 2025 was quite different from the previous year—mostly thanks to the weather. Much of Kentucky recently had experienced an extended period of winter storms, so that day dawned with 10 inches of snow on the ground, crowned by a 1- to 2-inch layer of ice. Plus, the day before the count, heavy rains had moved through the area, which—coupled with snow melt from the warmer temperatures (~43ºF)—caused some flooding.
I had been warned about ice at three of the creek fords, so I decided to try approaching from another direction. When I reached that ford, I was faced with an out-of-the-banks, fast-moving river—not a gently flowing creek—so there was absolutely no chance of crossing it!
This survey does not require that volunteers follow a set route, as Breeding Bird surveys do. Being unable to cross this ford due to high waters eliminated a known area where Golden Eagles are often observed. However, even if I had been able to cross, there was no guarantee that the eagles would have “cooperated”—volunteers must also accept that we’re looking for needles in a haystack. With that in mind, I moved on to explore other areas where eagles had been observed and reported.
Unfortunately, during the day, a persistent misting rain, warmer temperatures, and the swiftly melting snow also helped create dense fog that shrouded the tops of the knobs, making visibility impossible even if an eagle had been perched there. The only soaring raptors observed that day were two Turkey Vultures fading in and out of fog along a ridgetop, made ghost-like by the mist—although not the “ghosts of the forest” that I sought.
After scouring the landscape along the route for seven hours—and logging approximately 90 miles (156 miles total with travel from home)—my 2025 survey day ended with no Golden or Bald Eagles to report.
(Check out the full 2025 report here.)
Citizen science: Why the Wintering Golden Eagle Survey matters
While I hope 2026 will be kinder to me personally, as a survey volunteer and avid birder, I can report overall positive news: The 2025 survey logged its fourth-highest count in 11 years, with 139 Golden Eagles observed.
One successful year, however, does not mean the surveyors can chalk their mission up as complete or that conservationists can rest on their laurels. Eagles, raptors, and birds of all kinds face increasing hazards, many of them human-made—such as lead poisoning, vehicle collisions, and building strikes—in addition to zoonotic diseases such as avian flu.
Surveys such as this one are critical for helping NEC monitor eagle and raptor populations and observe trends over time, and gathering enough data for a comprehensive survey wouldn’t be possible without citizen-scientists and volunteers to undertake this work.
Interested in contributing to the Wintering Golden Eagle survey by volunteering for a Kentucky route*? Email NEC or contact Scott Mehus, NEC’s Director of Education and Golden Eagle Survey Coordinator.
*Bernheim is the main Kentucky location known for overwintering eagles. Other areas may harbor eagles but haven’t yet been documented as such (for example, many eastern and southeastern counties have terrain and habitat suited to Golden Eagles: knobs and thick, unbroken tracts of woods far from human development). While NEC is looking for more Kentucky volunteers and is open to suggestions about new routes, routes would have to be areas likely to harbor eagles wintering there in January.
Photo credit: Golden Eagle, Cleve Nash/Audubon Photography Awards
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