{"id":{"repo_id":"vt","oai_identifier":"oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/39794"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/vt/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/39794","repository":{"repo_id":"vt","name":"Virginia Tech","base_url":"https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Bald eagle distribution, abundance, roost use and response to human activity on the northern Chesapeake Bay, Maryland","abstract":"I studied bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) distribution, abundance, roost use and response to human activity on the northern Chesapeake Bay from 1984-89. The eagle population consisted of Chesapeake breeding eagles, Chesapeake nonbreeding eagles, northern-origin eagles and southern-origin eagles; changes in overall eagle distribution and abundance reflected the net changes in these 4 groups. Breeding territories on the northern Chesapeake increased from 12 to 28 from 1984 to 1988. Breeding eagles were resident all year, always ~7 km from the nest. Chesapeake nonbreeding eagles moved throughout most of the bay, but rarely left it (~5% of the radio-tagged eagles were off the bay during any month). Northern eagles migrated into the bay in late fall (x = 21 December! n = 7! range = 61 days) and departed in early spring (x = 27 March, n = 14, range = 43 days). Southern eagles arrived on the northern bay throughout April-August (x = 6 June, n = 11, range = 94 days) and departed from June - October (x = 3 September, n = 22, range = 119 days). Northern Chesapeake eagle abundance peaked twice annually; in winter (261 eagles, December 1987), driven by the presence of northern eagles, and in summer (604 eagles, August 1988), driven by the presence of southern birds. Of 1,117 radio-tagged eagle locations, only 55 (4.90/0) occurred in human-developed habitat, which composed 27.7% of 1,442 km2 of potential eagle habitat on the northern Chesapeake Bay (P < 0.001). During 36 aerial shoreline surveys, eagles were observed on only 111 of 700 (15.9%) 250-m shoreline segments that had development within 100 m, whereas eagles were observed on 312 of 859 (36.30/0) segments when development was absent (P < 0.001). On average, eagles were observed on 1.0 segment/survey that had coincident pedestrian use within 500 m, compared to 3.6 segments/survey expected if eagles and pedestrians were distributed along the shoreline independently (n = 34 surveys, P < 0.001).","abstract_html":"I studied bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) distribution, abundance, roost use and response to human activity on the northern Chesapeake Bay from 1984-89. The eagle population consisted of Chesapeake breeding eagles, Chesapeake nonbreeding eagles, northern-origin eagles and southern-origin eagles; changes in overall eagle distribution and abundance reflected the net changes in these 4 groups. Breeding territories on the northern Chesapeake increased from 12 to 28 from 1984 to 1988. Breeding eagles were resident all year, always ~7 km from the nest. Chesapeake nonbreeding eagles moved throughout most of the bay, but rarely left it (~5% of the radio-tagged eagles were off the bay during any month). Northern eagles migrated into the bay in late fall (x = 21 December! n = 7! range = 61 days) and departed in early spring (x = 27 March, n = 14, range = 43 days). Southern eagles arrived on the northern bay throughout April-August (x = 6 June, n = 11, range = 94 days) and departed from June - October (x = 3 September, n = 22, range = 119 days). Northern Chesapeake eagle abundance peaked twice annually; in winter (261 eagles, December 1987), driven by the presence of northern eagles, and in summer (604 eagles, August 1988), driven by the presence of southern birds. Of 1,117 radio-tagged eagle locations, only 55 (4.90/0) occurred in human-developed habitat, which composed 27.7% of 1,442 km2 of potential eagle habitat on the northern Chesapeake Bay (P &lt; 0.001). During 36 aerial shoreline surveys, eagles were observed on only 111 of 700 (15.9%) 250-m shoreline segments that had development within 100 m, whereas eagles were observed on 312 of 859 (36.30/0) segments when development was absent (P &lt; 0.001). On average, eagles were observed on 1.0 segment/survey that had coincident pedestrian use within 500 m, compared to 3.6 segments/survey expected if eagles and pedestrians were distributed along the shoreline independently (n = 34 surveys, P &lt; 0.001).","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Buehler, David A."],"institution":"Virginia Tech","degree_name":"Ph. D.","degree_level":"doctoral","degree_discipline":"Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences","degree_department":"Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences","school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":["Fraser, James D."],"committee_members":["Kirkpatrick, Roy L.","Orth, Donald J.","Stauffer, Dean F.","Nielsen, Larry A.","Smith, Eric P."],"year":1990,"date_issued":"1990-01-11","date_published":"1990-01-11","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:20:12Z","subjects":[],"languages":["en"],"rights":["In Copyright"],"rights_urls":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.other","label":"Dc Identifier Other","values":["etd-10132005-152501"],"render_values":[{"text":"etd-10132005-152501","href":null,"code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/10919/39794","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.committeechair","label":"Committee Chair","values":["Fraser, James D."]},{"key":"dc:contributor.committeemember","label":"Committee Member","values":["Kirkpatrick, Roy L.","Orth, Donald J.","Stauffer, Dean F.","Nielsen, Larry A.","Smith, Eric P."]},{"key":"dc:contributor.department","label":"Department","values":["Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Buehler, David A."]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2014-03-14T21:20:55Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2014-03-14T21:20:55Z","2005-10-13"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["1990-01-11"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["Virginia Tech"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"dc:type.dcmitype","label":"Dc Type Dcmitype","values":["Text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["doctoral"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph. 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The eagle population consisted of Chesapeake breeding eagles, Chesapeake nonbreeding eagles, northern-origin eagles and southern-origin eagles; changes in overall eagle distribution and abundance reflected the net changes in these 4 groups. Breeding territories on the northern Chesapeake increased from 12 to 28 from 1984 to 1988. Breeding eagles were resident all year, always ~7 km from the nest. Chesapeake nonbreeding eagles moved throughout most of the bay, but rarely left it (~5% of the radio-tagged eagles were off the bay during any month). Northern eagles migrated into the bay in late fall (x = 21 December! n = 7! range = 61 days) and departed in early spring (x = 27 March, n = 14, range = 43 days). Southern eagles arrived on the northern bay throughout April-August (x = 6 June, n = 11, range = 94 days) and departed from June - October (x = 3 September, n = 22, range = 119 days). Northern Chesapeake eagle abundance peaked twice annually; in winter (261 eagles, December 1987), driven by the presence of northern eagles, and in summer (604 eagles, August 1988), driven by the presence of southern birds. Of 1,117 radio-tagged eagle locations, only 55 (4.90/0) occurred in human-developed habitat, which composed 27.7% of 1,442 km2 of potential eagle habitat on the northern Chesapeake Bay (P < 0.001). During 36 aerial shoreline surveys, eagles were observed on only 111 of 700 (15.9%) 250-m shoreline segments that had development within 100 m, whereas eagles were observed on 312 of 859 (36.30/0) segments when development was absent (P < 0.001). On average, eagles were observed on 1.0 segment/survey that had coincident pedestrian use within 500 m, compared to 3.6 segments/survey expected if eagles and pedestrians were distributed along the shoreline independently (n = 34 surveys, P < 0.001)."]},{"key":"dc:description.degree","label":"Dc Description Degree","values":["Ph. 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The eagle population consisted of Chesapeake breeding eagles, Chesapeake nonbreeding eagles, northern-origin eagles and southern-origin eagles; changes in overall eagle distribution and abundance reflected the net changes in these 4 groups. Breeding territories on the northern Chesapeake increased from 12 to 28 from 1984 to 1988. Breeding eagles were resident all year, always ~7 km from the nest. Chesapeake nonbreeding eagles moved throughout most of the bay, but rarely left it (~5% of the radio-tagged eagles were off the bay during any month). Northern eagles migrated into the bay in late fall (x = 21 December! n = 7! range = 61 days) and departed in early spring (x = 27 March, n = 14, range = 43 days). Southern eagles arrived on the northern bay throughout April-August (x = 6 June, n = 11, range = 94 days) and departed from June - October (x = 3 September, n = 22, range = 119 days). Northern Chesapeake eagle abundance peaked twice annually; in winter (261 eagles, December 1987), driven by the presence of northern eagles, and in summer (604 eagles, August 1988), driven by the presence of southern birds. Of 1,117 radio-tagged eagle locations, only 55 (4.90/0) occurred in human-developed habitat, which composed 27.7% of 1,442 km2 of potential eagle habitat on the northern Chesapeake Bay (P < 0.001). During 36 aerial shoreline surveys, eagles were observed on only 111 of 700 (15.9%) 250-m shoreline segments that had development within 100 m, whereas eagles were observed on 312 of 859 (36.30/0) segments when development was absent (P < 0.001). On average, eagles were observed on 1.0 segment/survey that had coincident pedestrian use within 500 m, compared to 3.6 segments/survey expected if eagles and pedestrians were distributed along the shoreline independently (n = 34 surveys, P < 0.001)."],"dc:description.degree":["Ph. D."],"dc:format.medium":["BTD"],"dc:format.mimetype":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier.other":["etd-10132005-152501"],"dc:identifier.uri":["http://hdl.handle.net/10919/39794"],"dc:language.iso":["en"],"dc:publisher":["Virginia Tech"],"dc:rights":["In Copyright"],"dc:rights.uri":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"],"dc:title":["Bald eagle distribution, abundance, roost use and response to human activity on the northern Chesapeake Bay, Maryland"],"dc:type":["Dissertation"],"dc:type.dcmitype":["Text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences"],"thesis:degree_level":["doctoral"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph. D."],"thesis:institution_name":["Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:20:12Z"}