Eagle Cam 2010
February 2, 2010 12:15 PM   Subscribe

Live feed of a bald eagle nest! Over the past month a nest was built and the eagles are currently sitting on some eggs. A different pair, featured here last year, are in the process of constructing a new nest.

The first cam is featured on my office's intranet home page, so I watch them frequently. Despite the eagle's constant stern-faced expression, it should be remembered that it's "neither a hawk nor a dove, but an eagle" that may or may not support war.
posted by cubby (26 comments total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
This post makes my day. Thank you!
posted by bearwife at 12:20 PM on February 2, 2010 [1 favorite]




*Hangs head* Or I could read the whole FPP before posting :/
posted by mullingitover at 12:46 PM on February 2, 2010


Since Bald Eagles often build and maintain more than one nest in the same vicinity, but finally choose one of the nests in which to lay eggs and raise young, it is hard to know exactly what might happen.

Multiple residences? That's living high on the hog. That Post office gig must pay pretty well.
posted by three blind mice at 12:57 PM on February 2, 2010


Not as cute as this humming bird nest!
posted by zerosanity at 1:15 PM on February 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


I hope they don't find the puppies.
posted by LarryC at 1:15 PM on February 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Excellent!

(For those of you new to the world of nest cams....The first month or six weeks after the eggs are laid are pretty boring. Footage of empty nest, with egg(s) in it; footage of eagle sitting on nest; footage of eagle sitting on nest; footage of eagle sitting on nest. Etc. Sometimes the eagle's mate will bring some food, which is exciting. But the real fun starts when the young hatch, and it gets going when they're learning how to fly. Suspense! Hilarity! Stay tuned for the next episode!)
posted by rtha at 1:16 PM on February 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Re the Daily Show clip, Alaska does have lots of eagles (and bears, and moose and seals and salmon, etc. etc. ) and predictable conflicts with people. Too bad the clip didn't show more of Homer, which is a small town with one of the most gorgeous mountainscapes in the world. I would add that despite a few trips to Homer, I've never seen eagles congregated like pigeons as in the clip. Rather, they are usually an incredibly impressive sight to see.
posted by bearwife at 1:17 PM on February 2, 2010


Burhanistan, I lived in Petersburg AK in the early 80's and that clip isn't much of an exaggeration. Especially nearer the cannery.

Damn,
I think I scared it away.
posted by vapidave at 1:17 PM on February 2, 2010


Eaglefest is next weekend at Croton, in the lower Hudson Valley in New York State - it's an educational event run by a local nature preserve that informs about the Bald Eagle, and runs tours of the good spots to view the Eagles in the wild. Last year there was a deer carcass on the ice near the Croton Dam (the Croton River is a tributary of the Hudson) and there were a whole bunch of Bald Eagles feasting on the carcass, it was awesome to be able to see them fairly close up from the top of the dam. Last year that event led to an article in the NY Times about the eagles on "an icy stretch of the Hudson river" - I guess the reporter mailed that one in. Oh look, I found it. I live nearby right on the Hudson, and last year there were at least three nesting pairs in our area that stayed throughout the summer, rather than heading back up north as usual.

Which reminds me - another spot to see them is on the Hudson itself, right opposite Indian Point Nuclear Power Station. Stop by - I have beer in the cooler. And binoculars. And mushrooms to roast - you know, just in case.
posted by Sk4n at 1:38 PM on February 2, 2010


My favorite part is when he helps Gandolf escape from Isengard.
posted by milarepa at 1:40 PM on February 2, 2010


On simultaneous, not to contradict bearwife. I saw a lot of bears when I lived in Petersburg too both when I was building trails and at the dump so I suppose to each animal their own.
posted by vapidave at 1:42 PM on February 2, 2010


Here in Washington we have a salmon run every spring in one of the rivers in Skagit County, and the eagles, including both adults (white heads) and juveniles (brown all over) are congregated thickly in the trees, occasionally dive bombing the river to grab salmon. I guess we've all seen the footage of grizzlies in Alaska, too, all gathered in rivers to fish, though they are usually a) very solitary animals and b) usually occupy very large ranges. Obvious conclusion: forget the dignity and personal space preferences when there is delicious food to be grabbed.
posted by bearwife at 1:48 PM on February 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


There's another Eagle Cam in Maine. The pair is the oldest nesting pair known in the state and has been returning to the same nest for years. I posted the link here a year or two ago, and assume it's still good. Another couple of months, and they ought to return. Great stuff.
posted by VicNebulous at 1:52 PM on February 2, 2010


Oh, hey, bearwife! We were on a birding trip in Skagit a couple of winters ago! We did a lot of driving around farm roads, and it always made me laugh to see a farm house with trees in the yard, and eagles in the trees, like crows or pigeons.

A couple of years before that, we were up in the Klamath basin region (on the California side, mostly) in the winter, and the fields were full of eagles standing around, waiting for rodents. Trees and telephone poles with eagles, waiting for the perfect duck or goose.
posted by rtha at 2:03 PM on February 2, 2010


Rtha, I showed the cam to a woman I work with, and she mentioned seeing an eagle recently, tearing into a dead deer. She said there were ravens in the area too . . . waiting respectfully on the eagle.
posted by bearwife at 2:09 PM on February 2, 2010


Audubon magazine recently announced the winners of their photography contest. The winner is in the upper left corner of the gallery on this page, and yes it's eagles, and yes it's amazing. But the even more amazing one is in the last row, second from left. I wouldn't want to be that starling, I tell you what! Click on that photo. Really.
posted by rtha at 2:34 PM on February 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


I'm fortunate enough to have a colony of herons nesting in the treetops just outside my balcony. Fortunate, that is, except for in the fall when sunrise brings an unholy symphony of "Squork! Squorrrk! Squorgle! Blaaaaag! Blaaaaat!" for an hour or two every morning. One morning last year I happened to walk out on the balcony to see that a bald eagle had come to make breakfast of the heron eggs. I found my camera and got it powered up and (almost) focused well enough to get a few shots just as the feast was finishing up. Here's the best picture I got, of the eagle departing as a heron looked on in alarm. I really should look into setting up a live cam this year.
posted by Balonious Assault at 3:08 PM on February 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


Why do these live feeds never work for me? I must be missing some kind of plugin.
posted by Malice at 3:10 PM on February 2, 2010


Burhanistan, not at all. It's disappointing, everything else works. :(
posted by Malice at 3:42 PM on February 2, 2010


related: Peregrine Falcon Cam atop the Cathedral of Learning in Pittsburgh.
posted by namewithoutwords at 4:28 PM on February 2, 2010


Also related: Sutton Center Bald Eagle Cam. I don't think it's working just at the moment, but it'll surely be back up soon.
posted by wierdo at 4:31 PM on February 2, 2010


I was driving home from work about a month ago and was coming in on the back gravel roads. It's been a miserably cold and extremely snowy winter here in central Iowa. That's forced our bald eagle population to venture away from their usual riverside habitats. I came up the road and saw four bald eagles (two males and two females) standing on the snow about 20 yards from the road. There was one blackbird of some type with them standing off to the side - that blackbird looked like a robin compared to the size of eagles. I managed to get drive up very close to them, rolled the window down and shut the car off. The noises, squawking and squeaking they were making were incredibly loud. So loud that when I called Mrs. Webhund at her office, she could hear them over the cell phone! A few minutes later, the four of them slowly flew off and as they took to the air, I could see a large rabbit in the talons of one of the female eagles. They landed about 1/4 mile away in a small grove of trees, all 4 of them talking and squawking still.

An absolutely awesome way to the end the day! :)

(obviously not for the rabbit, though)
posted by webhund at 5:15 PM on February 2, 2010


Poor rabbit! But yay eagles! I'd love to end my workday seeing something like that.

(And as an aside - it's very difficult to tell male and female bald eagles apart in the field. Females are usually about 1/3 larger, so if there's a a group of balds and some of them are noticeably larger, they're very likely females. But you can't tell by plumage. Not that I'm saying you thought that, webhund, but in my volunteer work I do encounter people who think that juvenile/sub-adult bald eagles are female, presumably because they lack the white head, which is only acquired in full adult plumage.)
posted by rtha at 6:13 PM on February 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


While I appreciate all animals, I have some friends that grew up in a small village in Alaska. They say that Bald Eagles are like rats there. They sit around like vultures, waiting to eat anything they may be able to swoop in and grab.
posted by Mr_Zero at 7:10 PM on February 2, 2010


I've noticed that when bald eagles or other birds of prey venture into my neighborhood the crows pester them relentlessly, swooping and squawking until they leave. Not that it really bothers the bigger birds; they go about their business seemingly oblivious to the protestations. I found some more pictures from the eagle raid on the heron nest, and uploaded them here in case anyone is interested in seeing them. They're not much to look at really, but the crows are in evidence, particularly in the last one which was taken after the eagle had eaten its fill and decided to move on to another location.

Several years ago I saw something similar to webhund's story. It was one eagle in the grassy interior of a cloverleaf on-ramp to the freeway. I stopped and looked for awhile, and then took off with some kind of animal in its grasp. What really struck me was the sheer power of the eagle. Standing on the ground it was every bit as wide as it was tall, and when it flew away it only needed four great flaps of its enormous wings to get 50 feet in the air and to the other side of the freeway. What beautiful animals!

Mr_Zero - I've been in places where you could say the same thing about the humans!
posted by Balonious Assault at 7:32 PM on February 2, 2010


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