For the first time ever in our area, researchers are now tracking a golden eagle. The eagle was released back into the wild Wednesday after being accidentally caught in a coyote trap in the fall.

He's an eagle with an entourage. Dozens of cars pull up. Dozens of photographers ready to see him off. But, he is also an eagle on a mission—even if he doesn't know it.

"We're all joined together in this particular project to attach a satellite transmitter to a bird and finally figure out where exactly these birds are coming from," says Scott Mehus with the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Minnesota.

We want to know "why exactly they are in this area so heavily this time of year," says Wildlife Biologist Kris Johansen with the Wisconsin DNR.

Earlier this year, more than 100 people spent 412 hours looking for golden eagles. They found more than 70 in western Wisconsin, southeast Minnesota and northern Iowa. But, the majority of them—52 were in Buffalo County.

"I think that people really enjoy finding out those new things about an area they have lived their whole lives," Johansen says.

So as his audience looked on, the eagle flew into the wind tracked by sight to a nearby tree, tracked by satellite on his future flights.

"It's a big beautiful bird that you can't help but fall in love with and it's a bird that hasn't really been studied at all in this area,” Mehus says. “We want to get people enjoying them while they're here!”

The golden eagles are only in our area from around mid October to March. In a couple days, you can track the eagle's GPS updates on the National Eagle Center's website. The GPS unit is actually solar charged so it can last up to seven years.