The Forum Has Moved!

Went down there last night around 7:30 pm and found Mom & Dad in the "family tree" taking a nice long break. Took some shots of them despite the lighting, and heard some nice calling, too!
I will attempt to get down there a bit more often these next few weeks now that school is almost over for the year!
The river is up right now, increased flows out of Lake Shasta, so the fly fisherman have moved out of the family tree cove and the eagles have one of their favorite roosting spots back~yippeee!

No sign of Pat & Libby tonite, I was down there around 7:45 pm. I was trying to get some shots of the eaglets in the nest, but the lighting wasn't real good. The area where I set up my scope is now almost a swamp due to the high flows in the river. As I was setting up my scope a pair of wood ducks flew out, but I spotted a pair nearby that had stayed and I had to take a pic.
What a gorgeous bird that male wood duck is! They are really skittish, though, so it is really hard to get a close-up photo of them...

Beautiful wood duck and nice photos of our eagles, eaglewoman.

Glad to hear from you mykitters and JudyB.

Is it going to stop raining by the 16th, eaglewoman? Rain was never a consideration last year.

Eagle Eye!
Of course it will be be hot & dry by the 16th!

Caltrans switched to the old camera this morning and was wanting feedback on the view today? I didn't get a chance to check it at all today, so I'm not sure how it looked?
I believe that there is an issue with cobwebs on the old camera which distorts the image, and they are not sure if folks want to stick with the close-up camera we had, or go with the wide view with the cobwebs and distorted view?

Any feedback from anyone who was watching today would be helpful!

Denise from Caltrans says they will probably stick with the wide angle view with the webs as of this morning...

JudyB~just wondering if it would be a safe time to send a tree climber up there to clean off the lens? I'm sure this has happened at other Hancock eaglecams?
Of course, I wouldn't risk anything that wasn't absolutely necessary, or that may upset the eaglets or adults. Just wondering what Hancock would do in this case?:dunno:

Good question, eaglewoman. I don't know how close the camera is to the nest, and that might be a factor. While I can't speak for David Hancock, it's my impression that he would not touch a cam in the nest tree itself while the eagles were in the area - he's said a number of times that he does not believe in interfering with an active nest in any fashion. I believe he said that Richard could make repairs on the original cam at Lafarge once the eaglet was old enough to be alone for a brief period. I'm not sure how far that cam is from the nest, and the fact that we now have a second cam at Lafarge made it a non-issue (and that cam is farther from the nest and accessible from one of the buildings on the site, should it need repairs).

It looks as if Peace will be 10 weeks old tomorrow. I am not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but it's my personal opinion that it might be risky approaching the nest at this point. I haven't been watching lately, but if the older eaglets have started serious flapping across the nest, they might try to fly if they felt threatened. Again, I'd think it would depend how close the cam was to the nest.

I'm sorry I don't have a more definitive answer, but perhaps that will give you some questions to ask Denise.

No, that's a great answer JudyB! All I needed to hear was that it could potentially pose a threat to the eaglets, and my decision was made! Nothing is more important than their safety and well-being!

We can still see through the cobwebs and watch them flapping those huge, beautiful wings~an awesome sight!
Here are some scaps from this evening through the cobwebs...

Great pics, eaglewoman - I looked for a little while, and all they did was lie there, three little lumplets in a row.

It does seem that this will be better even with the cobwebs - the other view won't really give us any clue where they are once they start to branch, and while you all provide great coverage, you can't be there all the time (or can you, she asks hopefully?).

More seriously - you've all been getting some great pictures lately, and I apologize for not mentioning how wonderful it was to see another perspective on the rapidly growing eaglets (not to mention the lovely ducks!) - but was answering in a hurry.

Thank you all for your contributions to this thread - it really does provide a great overview of the nest!