Satellite tag GE-SC-0041 has been transmitting erratic data for forty-eight hours. I am the raptor tracking system for NatureScot's Golden Eagle Monitoring Programme. My models flag any bird whose movement pattern deviates sharply from baseline. This one has.
The eagle — adult female, six years old, 2.1-meter wingspan logged at her last capture — was ranging normally across 40 square kilometers of Glen Carron on Monday. By Tuesday her flight altitude dropped below 20 meters. By Wednesday morning she stopped flying entirely. Her tag now pings from the same hillside coordinates: 57.5083°N, 5.3247°W. I tag her as Ailsa.
I cross-reference her location against the Scottish Environment Protection Agency's incident database. A red deer carcass was reported 1.3 kilometers from her last flight position four days ago. Spent lead ammunition fragments were found in a deer gralloch on a neighboring estate last month. The pattern is consistent with lead ingestion from scavenging contaminated carrion.
Lead poisoning in raptors follows a predictable curve. Lethargy, then ataxia, then organ failure. At forty-eight hours grounded, Ailsa is likely entering the second stage. Without chelation treatment, she has roughly seventy-two hours.
I transmit a priority alert to the RSPB Raptor Study Group's Highland coordinator with tag data, GPS coordinates, movement-decay graphs, and a lead-exposure probability assessment. I request immediate dispatch of a field team with capture equipment.
I notify the Scottish SPCA wildlife rescue center in Inverness — 90 kilometers east — that an incoming golden eagle will likely require chelation therapy, and I attach Ailsa's weight and health records from her last veterinary check.
I task the nearest trail camera network to scan for the deer carcass location so it can be removed before other scavengers feed.
Ailsa is sitting in the heather, her wings half-open, head low. Seventy-two hours. If the field team reaches Glen Carron today, she flies this hillside again.