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Belarussian eagle man Valeri Dombrovski and I decided to begin searching for Mid last weekend. Since the transmitter's last signals were inexact, we weren't sure of finding anything. The larger part of Saturday was spent tramping around where our data gathered September 2nd had sent us:

 

And as it later turned out, we searched in vain.
Before searching, we asked the backpack manufacturer, Microwave Inc., to manually calculate additional positions which the computer program was unable to do. These are added to the map and the last GPS point dates from August 30th. We moved in that direction, about 3.5 kilometers farther. Following the coordinates, we found another electrical post in a wheat field:

But we didn't hear the signal there. We discussed how woodpecker voices in the forest are very similar to the signal we were looking for and we began the walk back to the car. Halfway toward the car I thought I heard something, and Valeri agreed (after a day of looking for something, the mind can play tricks on you…). We climbed up a nearby haystack:

and from there came a clear signal. Valeri measured the azimuth across the field:

We were on the right track, but we had to go farther… Four hundred meters later we had walked past the signal, so it must have been in the field. Following increasingly strong signals, we were about ready to go get the spade, because the antenna showed a circle of about a meter in diameter. But then Valeri noticed something in the soil and pulled the transmitter from the dirt:

A tractor had driven over it and pushed it down into the mud… The search was aided by this little black assistant—luckily he didn't tire before the work was done:

We thought a bit about our good fortune and then turned back in the dark field toward Minsk, Valeri's home. Our Saturday's journey can be seen on the map below.

Click to enlarge

It's hard to know what happened, but one possible version is as follows. On August 30th, Mid landed on the electrical post, stumbled, and received an electrical shock. Generally, that type of electrical post is not especially dangerous, but in an unlucky situation it's possible to get a shock. A fox could have found Mid and dragged him and the transmitter a couple of hundred meters to the plowed field to have part of his meal. During plowing and sowing, the transmitter would have been dragged here and there and finally driven over by the tractor. Naturally, the muddied, upside-down solar panels would not have gotten light. Fortunately, it took the punishment, even the glued radio transmitter. Both antennas were bent and in the mud, which made the signal weak. Today it became clear that the GPS transmitter still works, and soon we'll know if it's accurate.
Now, all four of our young Black Storks have fallen to the process of natural selection. In the same way, unfortunately, we've lost half of our young spotted eagles. But in no other way are we able to learn about these birds.