Maine Bald Eagle Cam Discussion

[JudyB]

Sooner Lake, Oklahoma - Bald Eagle Cam

http://www.suttoncenter.org/pages/live_eagle_camera

This bald eagle pair has an extremely rare clutch of four eggs! The cam has streaming video, and is mounted on a telephone pole about 100 yards from the nest. There is also a nest-mounted cam, but unfortunately it seems to have failed completely, after working intermittently for a while. Fortunately it stayed up long enough so the staff at the Sutton Center could confirm that there were four eggs.

The nest is on Sooner Lake, near Stillwater Oklahoma. The current nest is 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 22 eaglets, with three eaglets in 2000 and 2002. This is 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.

The first egg was laid around February 1. These eagles usually lay their eggs about a day apart, so it's possible the last one was laid by February 7. This is closer together than most of the other nests I've been observing over the last couple of years - and because the nest cam was not available on a regular basis, it is a guess. It does suggest there could be chicks as early as March 7 - though like the Florida nests, we probably won't be able to see them for the first week or so, so we'll only know there's been a hatching when we see the parents start feeding.


(Thanks to Alan Jenkins, Assistant Director of the G. M. Sutton Avian Research Center, for the background information and the picture of the eggs)
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2010 Eaglet Info

[JudyB]

I didn't want to take up more room in an already-long opening post - but Alan Jenkins provided the year by year fledges from the nest, which is interesting data to have. Most of the past numbers are based on observations from the ground near fledging time.

The history of the Sooner Lake nest is:
1995 - built, no eggs laid
1996 - 2 young fledged
1997 - 2
1998 - 1
1999 - 2
2000 - 3
2001 - 2
2002 - 3
2004 - 1
2005 - 2
2006 - 2
2007 - 2
2008 - 4 eggs/cam down so not sure how many hatched/2 fledged
2009 - 3 eggs/1 hatched/1 fledged
2010 - 3 eggs

If you have a chance to check out their web site - http://www.suttoncenter.org/mbere.html - it has a lot of interesting information!
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2010 Eaglet Info

[Sherri]

JudyB, fascinating! ...... thanks for starting this thread. It is great that the pair has such a high success rate. I would think it is going to be quite a challenge for them this year, however. Blessings to them.


EDIT 7:01 AM nest time
There was just a nest exchange



Too bad they lost the nest cam.........we will need some Dramamine to watch the live stream.

[nightengale]

Just checked in ... Mom on the nest (my that water is moving! ) ... Very different, neat nest!

Chris

[JudyB]

First one could hatch any day now! I've been watching out of the corner of my eye, and I think I've seen some food brought to the nest, but it seems to be for Mom - haven't noticed anything that looks like feeding. I have noticed that this camera has a "zoomer" - someone often zooms in when something is happening on the nest! That will make it fun to watch when the chicks get big enough to peek over the edge!
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2010 Eaglet Info

[Tonya]

Watched the nest for about a couple of hrs. this evening. Didn't notice any feedings. And I missed the exchange if there in fact was one. I did notice that whom I believe to be Dad flew in and landed on the bar on the left, but I didn't see a switch. Looked back to computer and eagle on bar gone and only one in the picture. Here are a couple of pics.
Mom shifting

Dad came back

Tail feathers of Dads, Mom squawking Get down here NOW !!!

[Tonya]

Judy, Do you know if there is a time difference between them and Maine? Thank you.

[JudyB]

Thanks, Tonya! First egg was around February 1st, so it's been around 37 days - but it's hard to be sure as the cam that looks into the nest was only working occasionally even then. I think Oklahoma is in the central time zone, so it should be an hour earlier than Maine. No idea if the clock on the cam updates automatically or if someone will need to adjust it on Monday.
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2010 Eaglet Info

[purpleagle]

You are right, Judy...Oklahoma is in the Central Time Zone. It's straight up from me....several hundered miles.

[Sherri]

Tonya, nice pictures! ....I was watching for a little bit around sunset also......awfully pretty.

So, if the first egg was around Feb 1st, then we are 38-39 days now.

EDIT:
JudyB, I just noticed you mentioned 37 days yesterday. Duh me!

[CLC]

I posted this on the Norfolk thread at around 11:30.

[Sherri]

CLC, you're welcome.......glad you are watching.
I just lost the cam though.....anyone else?

[JudyB]

I lost the cam. Had it up most of the morning, and saw egg turning and I think a food drop for Mom, but haven't seen feeding. Won't say it didn't happen, though - while I'm at work, I really do need to focus most of my attention on the 3/4 of my screen that doesn't have little eagle cam windows.
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2010 Eaglet Info

[Sherri]

[CLC]

Cam is back up..