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Happy Friday everyone,
Just looked out my window and saw Pa on a west branch of Pandora tree,I didn't think Lady was in the tree, but she was, she was just down in the nest and I couldn't see her very well. Then she got up and I realized she was there. She stood up and moved about a bit and then hunkered back down again. I'll head oner to the nest later and check things out.

What wonderful optimistic reports from our reliable ground crew! It does sound like we have an egg! Christine what you saw could very well have been an egg roll. I'm glad you made it back home and can now report for us again.
Annemie and Stan, your reports kicked things off. I think if there hadn't possibly been an egg already in the nest or Lady maybe ready to lay our couple would have abandoned the area with work being done on their tree. It sounds like the city of Vancouver needs to revise their scheduling of tree work from March through July where eagle nests are involved.

Hi Lafarge eagle lovers It's Good Friday

I was thinking the same as Stim that pruning the Pandora nest tree is kind of bad timing right now with Pa and Lady trying to produce eggs and also its late in the season as most of our Urban eagles and their nests have eggs and have been brooding for at least a couple of weeks now. Maybe there was already an egg in the nest before the pruning took place or maybe now pa and Lady aren't so sure as to lay in the nest because eagles don't like human intruders e.g. remember pa and ma Sidney is this aspect when we humans intruded to cut their eaglet Flyer loose when she was caught in that fish net ma and pa didn't nest in that nest the next season and it took a lot of seasons before they returned to nest.

Thanks for your ground observations and photo Annemie and Stan we count on you guys so much now that the nest tree Pandora is not on any cam

and if the cam was up just maybe the city workers chased Pa and Lady away and she will talk pa into laying eggs at the AN instead of Pandora....for some reason Pa doesn't like the AN as a nest....I wonder why?
maybe its because humans built it?

I am feeling quite positive about the Pandora nest, Lady is back in there right now, and Pa just flew past my window with 3 crows on his tail and he has now joined Lady at the tree. She seems to have been in there quite a lot this morning. Around 10 she took off towards the North but is back now and standing on the nest. I do agree the timing wasn't great with the City workers, but I suppose they have to maintain our city trees, and a couple of big branches did come down off that tree in the recent storms. Perhaps for the sake of the house below the tree the city had to clean things up? And just as I write this one of the eagles has flown by again. Going to go now and check out the action….

First up the remaining damaged large and small branches from the recent wind storm were deemed a public safety risk by the City of Vancouver. The Pandora tree directly overhangs the public sidewalk and several branches that were either cracked or still half damaged from the storm were at risk to fall, probably during the next wind event and hopefully not on somebody's head

I got all this from the site boss after our quick to the point discussion on the active nature of the nest up the tree. In their view the work couldn't be put off and too their credit they appear to have dealt with the situation without a high degree of disturbance to the eagles up above....one was on the nest when I arrived while the work crew was still in action.

On to today.......

When I arrived at 11 AM they were both side by side on the nest bowl with lots of fiddling and eagle chatter going on folks. After 5 minutes Pa hopped up to his nearby favorite westerly perch and Lady remained on the nest bowl.....looking pretty promising for eggs up there to me

Thank you Christine and Stan for your continued updates. And Stan thank you as well for sharing the need to trim unsafe branches off our nest tree despite active nesting possibly already started. The commitment to reproduction certainly is important to eagles that they stayed around. Perhaps the equipment didn't encroach too close to the nest but the noise must have been very loud.

Thank you, Stan and Eastvan Girl for the updates - and I do hope we'll be able to get the cam back up soon, though it really does sound as if most of the activity is on Pandora Street!


What Does It Cost to Watch an Eaglet Grow?

Quite a lot, actually.

To make sure we don't miss moments like these (clicks a lot bigger):



we need about $3750 a month.

This is one week in the life of an eaglet (with a second eaglet included in some images at no extra charge).

And as I write this - if all goes well - we are about three weeks away from our first chick of the year at the Hancock nests - and this week has been a powerful reminder of why we need your help to keep everything going so we can see that first chick hatch and grow and (if all goes well) fly off in search of salmon this summer.

Here's Mom at our Delta 2 nest on March 10, with the first egg of the year, courtesy of sydie.



Today, March 25, one of the two Delta 2 cams is offline. Our amazing tech person has tried every trick he knows - and take it from me, he knows a lot - and he can't get it going again without a site visit. Or maybe two, if he gets out there and discovers that some really obscure part he doesn't carry with him has failed, and he needs to go into Vancouver to get a replacement.

And we're not sure what our Lafarge pair is going to do this year. They are a new pair - we sadly lost Ma Lafarge last year, but a charming (maybe young) new female arrived on the scene, and we think she has captured Pa's heart. We're calling her Lady Lafarge - and it's been looking as if they are getting close to laying their first eggs as a pair. But for a week or so, the Lafarge cam has been streaming for about 2 minutes, then freezing, so we need to keep refreshing the feed to see what's happening. Our tech guy was at Lafarge today - and it looks as if he needs to replace the router, so the cam is down until he can do that. And we actually are very lucky - he does have backup routers - but he needed one visit to find out that was the problem, and will need a second visit to install and configure the new router.

And while all this is going on, we've had hackers attacking our main servers, and our tech person has had to spend a lot of time keeping them from destroying all of this. He's winning - but you may have noticed that there are times when the forum doesn't come up quickly, or you have trouble posting - and that's the hackers. I have to say - I really do not get this - if they focused as much energy on curing cancer or ending hunger or saving the world in other ways as they do on showing they can destroy something, the world would be so much better. But it is what it is, and that's taking a lot of his time.

I suspect if he was independently wealthy, he'd do all this for the sheer fun of it - but he's not. And keeping food on the table and gas in the van and - oh, yeah - paying for electricity and internet fees so he can see the cams - is important. He's doing a whole lot for us (quite a bit that he doesn't bill us for) - and we need to come up with the money to cover his expenses. And he's let us run up a bit of a bill - but there is a limit.

We don't have corporate sponsorship or the resources of a university behind us, and David Hancock, who has given so much over the last 10 years, isn't in a position to help this year. If we're going to keep this going through another nesting season, we're going to have to find a way to raise the money to make it happen.

We have several options to suggest:
- you can adopt a nest for $250 (read more here)
- you can join our monthly donor program - and thanks to those who have done that! (read more here)
- or you can donate whatever feels right (five easy ways to donate)

And we'd love to have more people involved with the fundraising - I know there are some great people and great ideas out there! If you're interested or have suggestions, please let me (judyb@hancockwildlife.org) or Karen Bills (karen@hancockwildlife.org) know.

We have two eggs at Delta 2; the White Rock pair have at least one egg in their new nest (not the close-up view we had last year, but we can see them, and we may be able to adjust the cam once the chicks hatch); and we think there might be an egg at the Lafarge pair's Pandora nest, which has a great local observer team - and the Harrison Mills pair has been spending a lot of time getting their nest ready, so I expect eggs within the next week.

Like everyone reading this post, I'd love to see them all hatch and grow into strong young eagles.

Please donate today and help make that happen (if you'd like to know more about donating, there's lots of info if you click the "Five Ways" button).

~ ~ ~ PayPal ~ ~ ~


Thank you!


P.S. Those of you who know me know there's a story behind each of the pictures in the collage at the top - and I'd planned to write those before posting this - but with two cams down and a major issue affecting our server, I think I need to post this now, because we really need your help now. I'll do another post in a few days with a link to the stories behind the pictures.

Annemie and I arrived at 6.40 PM and noted one of the pair was on the Pandora nest. Shortly after another arrived and it became apparent at that point who was on the nest {Pa}. Lady arrived and sat below the nest then made a wide flight off the tree landing from the south onto the nest. Both eagles greeted each other and fussed about with whatever was in the center of the nest bowl. A short while later Pa moved off to his favorite perch while Lady tended to the nest duty this time.

Annemie should have some pictures to share later......