Sauces Canyon, Santa Cruz Island, California - Bald Eagle Cam 2011

Sauces Canyon Nest Cam

http://www.iws.org/bald_eagles/nestcam.htm
direct link to the cam: http://media1.vcoe.org/eaglecam1

There is currently only one cam on Santa Cruz, at Sauces Canyon (the cam was moved from the Pelican Harbor nest in April 2011 after the Pelican Harbor pair moved to a new nest in a relatively inaccessible location). It is a streaming camera with sound, and is generally only on during daylight hours, as it relies on solar power.

The Sauces pair initially consisted of male A28 (removed from a nest near Juneau, Alaska, in 2004 and released from the South Hacktower on Santa Cruz) and female A02 (produced by the San Francisco Zoo in 2002 and released from the North Hacktower on Santa Cruz). They nested in 2008 and laid at least one egg, but the nest failed. They tried again in 2009, laid eggs, were seen incubating - but were found away from the nest around the time the eggs would have been expected to hatch. Then in July 2009, IWS received a report that A02 was found dead in Pozo, which I think is quite a ways inland on the mainland. A28 paired up with female A27 (also removed from a nest near Juneau, Alaska, in 2004 and released from the South Hacktower on Santa Cruz), and they built a nest for the 2010 nesting season. That new pair laid two eggs in 2010; only one hatched, and it became male A71, and fledged successfully. There's been another change for the 2011 nesting season - female A27 has a new mate, male A40 (produced by the San Francisco Zoo in 2005 and released from the South Hacktower on Santa Cruz).

Eaglets hatched or released on Santa Cruz or the other northern Channel Islands are assigned blue wing tags with the letter A; adults K10 and K 26 have orange tags with the letter K because they were raised on Catalina Island.

Based on past experience, look for eggs in the first half of March, chicks in mid-April, and fledging in late June or early July.

2010 - 2011 Season:

• cam on: April 7
  
• eggs laid: Approximately March 3 and March 6
  
• hatched: April 9, 6:39 pm (~37 days)
  
• banded: June 2 - A73 (M), subsequently named Dreamer
  
• fledged: June 28, 10:04 am (80 days)
  
• first return to nest: July 15
  

Information from the Institute for Wildlife Studies;
First view of eaglet - April 9 2011 screen cap by Lori from the Maine forum

Reserved

I think they got the cam here just in time - the first egg hatched earlier this evening. Lori from the Maine forum has a nice animation of the first view of the new chick - link to her post is here.

I will mention that they're still working on the transmission parts of the camera stream - and sometimes the colors are more than a little odd, and other times it reverts to black and white. With luck it will be streaming more consistently soon.

It is a beautiful location - and the little one seems quite active this morning.







The primary discussion forum for this and the other cameras run by the Institute for Wildlife Studies is the Channel Islands Live (CHIL) Eagle CAM Discussion Forum - and you can generally find out what's been happening at the nest by checking their Daily Discussion Thread under Nest Observations.

Not sure if there will be interest in this nest next year, so I've set up a 2012 thread and am locking this one.

Here's the link - forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic=282065