Sauces Canyon, Santa Cruz Island, California - Bald Eagle Cam 2012

Sauces Canyon Nest Cam

These are the 2011 links and may be changed for 2012:
http://www.iws.org/bald_eagles/nestcam.htm
direct link to the cam: http://media1.vcoe.org/eaglecam1

2011 was the first year on cam for this nest; with what had been an internal monitoring cam hooked up for streaming after the Pelican Harbor pair moved to a new nest; that cam was streaming with sound but generally only on during daylight hours. The cam is being upgraded for 2012, including the addition of night vision, but as of mid-January, the work was still in progress, so the cam is not always online.

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 was another change for the 2011 nesting season - female A27 had a new mate, male A40 (produced by the San Francisco Zoo in 2005 and released from the South Hacktower on Santa Cruz); the new pair laid two eggs, one of which hatched to become male A73/Dreamer, who fledged successfully and was still on the island as of mid-August 2011 (the second egg didn't hatch).

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.

2011 - 2012 Season:

• cam on:
  
• eggs laid: March 2, 6:41 pm; March 6, 12:26 am
  
• hatched: April 8, 6:32 am (37 days) April 11, Pre Dawn Hatch (36 days) Two chicks ~~first time for this pair :thumrht:
  
• banded: banded June 8 - A82 (F) & A81 (M); A81 jumped from the nest as the climber appeared
  
• named by viewers: Phoebe, Buster
  
• fledged: July 2, 12:14 pm (85 days); June 21, 4:51 pm (71 days - just over 10 weeks)
  
• first return to nest: July 5, 1:10 pm (gone 3 days): June 21, 5:13 pm (gone 22 minutes)
  

Information from the Institute for Wildlife Studies;
April 10 2011 screen cap by JudyB

Link to the 2011 thread for this nest

Reserved

Judyb ...I am sharing this information late....Debs

January 10 2012

A74 Karana dropped by this nest for a visit.
She perched for awhile; explored the nest bowl and even provided
us with a close up view as she looked into the cam.

A74 Karana is the lone chick of K26 & K10 of the Pelican Harbor nest from
last season 2011...and she sure looks healthy, strong and everybit as beautiful
as her Mom K26 So happy to see her visit this nest!





Here is the link to the Pelican Harbor thread
method=edit&forum=14&id=300375&editid=300375&page=1

January 13 2012

Judyb thanks for setting up this thread for us. It is nice to see other birds
use the nest as a stop over point....during the off season off course

And...look we have a cute visitor perched.
Is this an osprey perhaps...almost looks like a small owl too but the dark eye line and the stripes
lead me to believe it is an osprey....

Markings and coloring though nearly looks like a owl too but think this visitor is too big to be
an owl. Wish I had got a better scap before it vacated the nest.




Here is a enlarged look

Monday, January 16, 2012

We have another non-eagle visitor - and the CHIL forum is identifying this one as a kestrel; it's in the lower right corner of the nest.





I'm wondering if it's the visitor you saw earlier, Debs - the one you saw has some stripes on the head like an osprey - but osprey are almost as big as eagles, and while it's hard to get perspective (especially as I didn't watch this nest a lot), I think your visitor looks smaller than that.

(And thanks for bringing the pictures and link for Karana's visit to this thread, Debs! :thumrht: )

January 16 2012

315 pm
The nest has been empty from eagles...but
we had that lil vistor back again today....
could this be a Kestrel...or a sharp shinned hawk.

Looks so small reminds me of a small small short eared owl.
Markings look similar to me somehow.




4 pm
The lil fellow is still there but has moved up in the nest.

Hi Debs - think we cross-posted above! The little kestrel(?) is very cute on that big nest!

4:44 pm

I see our visitor is either still there - or back.




5:13 pm

This does seem to be a popular place - just not for eagles right at the moment.

Judyb Yep our posts definitely crossed that is such a funny surprise when that happens I wish our view of the lil visitor was clearer.

635 pm
Nest is empty and its dark now so
hopefully all our birds are tucked in for the night.