[b]The following nest tree cam cleaning and updates were undertaken for the 2014-2015 Season.  The annual services for each nest largely include the costs for cable connections, monthly server fees, day-to-day service costs when Ken, Ben or Mike have to spend time keeping the cams running and the replacement or upgrades of any encoders, servers, cams or components that happen during the year.  Then come our annual cleaning and upgrades as needed. The following defines these final year-end events.

Ken, Ben and Mike supervise our techy work.   I, David Hancock, arrange lifts or climbers as needed.
 
1.   White Rock  [/b]Sept 4-5:   We did a major effort with the WR nest  Last year we had installed a PTZ (pan/tilt/zoom) cam in the adjacent tree but it only ran about 2 weeks then simply quit.  This season we decided to invest in two new PTZs – one to replace the wide angle PTZ that had failed and the other to replace the fixed close-up cam that had quit in June.
Russ had supplied the regular climbing crew as the lift to get me up there can no longer get around the now landscaped grounds.   The first great surprise, as we were standing beside the new cam that had fallen 100 feet down the tree as the climber was pulling it up him, was not just that this new Vivotek was still running after this incredible fall, but there on the nest tree, 6 feet up from the ground, was the obvious answer why the fixed close-up cam had died!!  Here was the line coming down the tree but it had been hit, probably by a tractor blade and been severed.  Ken quickly spliced it and wonders of wonders it started streaming.  The second miracle of the day!!
After two days of frustration in attempting to get the PTZ cams level and functional the task was accomplished except that Brad had to go back a third day to tie down a loose strap and move the mic a bit higher.  So today we have a PTZ and a fixed cam in the nest tree, a PTZ and fixed wide angle cam in the adjacent tree and the third PTZ to the south of the nest tree that looks out over Boundary Bay.  So I suspect we now have the world's best camerized nest overlooking the best bald eagle habitat in the world.  Over the next couple of weeks Ken hopes to get all this up and running.  In situ are 3 PTZ and 2 fixed cams.
 
Note:  The PTZ we removed proved to be semi functional and we are about to send it back to the manufacturer for review.

The following nest tree cam cleaning and updates were undertaken for the 2014-2015 Season.  The annual services for each nest largely include the costs for cable connections, monthly server fees, day-to-day service costs when Ken, Ben or Mike have to spend time keeping the cams running and the replacement or upgrades of any encoders, servers, cams or components that happen during the year.  Then come our annual cleaning and upgrades as needed. The following defines these final year-end events.

Ken, Ben and Mike supervise our techy work.   I, David Hancock, arrange lifts or climbers as needed.
 
1.   White Rock  Sept 4-5:   We did a major effort with the WR nest  Last year we had installed a PTZ (pan/tilt/zoom) cam in the adjacent tree but it only ran about 2 weeks then simply quit.  This season we decided to invest in two new PTZs – one to replace the wide angle PTZ that had failed and the other to replace the fixed close-up cam that had quit in June.
Russ had supplied the regular climbing crew as the lift to get me up there can no longer get around the now landscaped grounds.   The first great surprise, as we were standing beside the new cam that had fallen 100 feet down the tree as the climber was pulling it up him, was not just that this new Vivotek was still running after this incredible fall, but there on the nest tree, 6 feet up from the ground, was the obvious answer why the fixed close-up cam had died!!  Here was the line coming down the tree but it had been hit, probably by a tractor blade and been severed.  Ken quickly spliced it and wonders of wonders it started streaming.  The second miracle of the day!!
After two days of frustration in attempting to get the PTZ cams level and functional the task was accomplished except that Brad had to go back a third day to tie down a loose strap and move the mic a bit higher.  So today we have a PTZ and a fixed cam in the nest tree, a PTZ and fixed wide angle cam in the adjacent tree and the third PTZ to the south of the nest tree that looks out over Boundary Bay.  So I suspect we now have the world's best camerized nest overlooking the best bald eagle habitat in the world.  Over the next couple of weeks Ken hopes to get all this up and running.  In situ are 3 PTZ and 2 fixed cams.
 
Note:  The PTZ we removed proved to be semi functional and we are about to send it back to the manufacturer for review.

Hancock here:   as you may note from the past I think ecologically how creatures are interdependent.  The key to all our existences is water -- pure clean rain, rivers and oceans filled with it.  The challenge for most of us is that greed driven exploitation never -- well seldom -- considers this essential component adequately.  The HWF supports the Harrison Salmon Stronghold and the water-based ecology that supports their salmon and eagles.  British Columbia has been a leader in this key resource management with our former BCIT environmental director, Dr. Mark Angelo, being the founder of Rivers Day -- here in BC, then for all of Canada and then he convinced the United Nations to support World Rivers Day.

Coming up on September 28 is the world's acknowledgement of our most important resource and Hancock Wildlife Foundation will again support one of the local initiatives at Mission, BC.  There will be displays, talks (not too much!!) and riverbank events on the shores of the Fraser  River at Mission -- just on the east side of the Mission Bridge.  Come support our Fraser River and HWF from 11 AM - 4 PM.  See you by the river.
Below are some comments on the World Rivers Day:

http://business.missionchamber.bc.ca/events/details/celebrate-bc-rivers-day-at-the-harbour-3391
 

Fraser Valley Bald Eagle Festival Schedule of Events  ---  2014


Eagle Release and preliminary schedule.
 

• November 12, 2014 Official ‘eagle release’ at Pretty Estates Resort 


Season of the Eagles Festivals:

The season will be marked by THREE weekends of festivities, lectures and displays.

 
• Weekend #1 November 15 -16     19th Annual Fraser Valley Bald Eagle Festival (FVBEF)

David Hancock will provide lectures on the Wondrous Bald Eagle Recovery at Harrison Mills, the Bald Eagle Capital of the World, at the Tapadera Estates viewing site and act as a guide on numerous Fraser River Safari Eagle Tours through November and December.  Other speakers will give presentations each weekend on other natural history topics. The FVBEF will host displays and various open houses at different locations on this first weekend – see:  www.fvbef.ca for schedule of events.