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Sooner Lake, Oklahoma - Bald Eagle Cam

http://suttoncenter.org/pages/live_eagle_camera

There have generally been two streaming cams here, one giving a closeup of the nest and the other mounted away from the nest and able to pan the area as well as provide a side view of the nest.

The nest is on Sooner Lake, near Stillwater in north-central Oklahoma. Until 2010, the pair nested on an artificial tower erected by the Sutton Avian Research Center and local utility OG&E to replace the original dead nest tree used by this pair after it fell down. The pair first built a nest in the dead tree in 1995, and laid their first eggs in 1996. Since then, they've fledged 24 eaglets, with three eaglets in 2000 and 2002. 2008 was the first year they've known how many eggs were laid; they do know that three eggs hatched in 2007, but the youngest chick was unable to compete for food with its older siblings, so only two of them fledged. There were four eggs laid in 2008, but the cam was down for a month shortly after they started to hatch, so we don't know how many of them hatched; there were two eaglets when the cam came back, and both fledged successfully. There were three eggs laid in 2009, and one hatched; the eaglet fledged successfully at about 12-1/2 weeks, and was seen in the area until it was about 19 weeks old. In 2010 the moved from the artificial tower and, after apparently trying a few nearby locations, settled on an old hawk nest in a dead cottonwood tree. They managed to do some work on the nest, but it was still quite a bit smaller than the average eagle nest, with some rickety areas and a few holes when they laid their three eggs. It was a sad year - one of the eggs didn't hatch; the younger chick fell from the nest and died when it was two days old, possibly after being blown into an unfinished area near the edge by gusty winds; and the remaining chick fell from the nest and died when it was 36 days old; analysis by the Sutton Center suggests it may have backed up to the edge of the nest for a poop shot, lost its balance, and stepped backwards over the relatively low edge of the nest as it tried to recover.

The pair have been seen eating on the artificial nest, but as of mid-October have not begun to rebuild it so it's not clear where - or if - they will nest this year. (Eagles sometimes take a year off after a nest fails.) The folks at Sutton Center have plans in place for a number of contingencies, so we'll have to see what's going to happen in 2011.

2010-2011 Season:
As far as we know, the eagles did not nest this year, though they were seen at various locations around their territory.


(2009 s'caps by diana-gogee and JudyB)

(Thanks to Alan Jenkins, Assistant Director of the G. M. Sutton Avian Research Center, for the background information)

Link to last year's thread for this nest

Reserved

If any links or information is out of date - please let me know!

October 3 2010


130 pm
The view is currently on the ole nest on the lake! No sign of
Mom or Dad at the moment.

Thanks Pat

3: 25 pm,
Adult has been on the crossbar (old nest) for some time. Uploaded pic but not able to Preview or Submit on this thread so will try just the words.

3:15 pm,
Adult on the crossbar.

(not sure why I was not able to upload this earlier today)

I've been remiss in posting scaps over the past few weeks, but the Eagles are being seen more and more at the Nest site on the lake, and in the Family Tree.

Here are just a few captures from earlier visits....




In this last one, the other eagle has just flown off the crossbar (you can see it right by the eagle's head), and the one in the nest was reacting to this

And from today, another visit to use the nest as an diner:




Most of the nest appears to have fallen apart over the summer. Unless there is a whole lot of renovation in their future, this won't be the nest that Sutton has the cams on this year. I believe Alan and company were scouting for another site to locate cameras on April 1st (the day the first eaglet fell to its death ) - the alternate site is in the Sequoyah National Park if I recall.

:hello: Panda thanks for the great scaps so nice to see our family in the nest
and in the tree!

October 8 2010

215 pm
I had the cam up briefly saw one of the adults in the
family tree then I lost the cam :dunno: