Sooner Lake - 2012 - North of Stillwater, Oklahoma

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.

As far as we know, they didn't nest in 2011, though they were seen at various locations around their territory; they are still seen at the platform in the lake, so we're hoping they may nest in 2012.

Spring 2012 Update: The pair chose to use their 2010 nest; the CU cam was switched to that nest on March 9

2011-2012 Season:

• cams online: by September 12; switched to current nest March 9
  
• eggs laid: three before March 9
  
• hatched: March 11, 6:53 pm; March 14, 2:21 pm; (third egg didn't hatch)
  
• sad news: On March 19 2012 the older baby chick died ~~ parent may have stepped on the chick inadvertently when the lett became tangled up in adult's coat feathers.
  
• fledged: probably by June 7 when both adults were there with food and the eaglet didn't come to the nest for at least 10 minutes
  

2009 s'caps by diana-gogee and JudyB

2009 April 23 2009 - Huge Crop

Scap by Debs

(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

2011

January 24 2011
Beautiful Mom


February 10 2011
Perched side by side on the crossbar after a winter storm


November 2011
A collage of Mom and Dad Sooner restoring and spending
time in the nest.



Scaps by Debs

Reserved

Debs got some great pictures of this pair from mid-September, before we had this new thread in place - link to them is here - forum/viewtopic.php?topic=269690#269690

November 4 2011

Well today we were blessed with some activity at the nest and on the crossbar too ....I think 2012 will be a great season for this pair

First captures are from this morning.

1135 am
In the nest bowl



Then leaves....returns with nesting materials

Lands beautifully in the nest.


Moving the furniture


The nest later in the day.

Now this evening our pair were perched for a long time and they did a wee bit of visiting in the bowl....too many pictures to post so did a collage.


720 pm
and it is nearly dark at the nest and the Lovees are still
perched on the crossbar together.

November 5 2011

I am wee bit late posting these captures ...but here they are. They panned the cam out to provide us with some different views of the area kinda reminds me of the area I visited by boat....at the FVBEF last year!

Thank you....cam controller u da best!



A beautiful Oklahoma sky .... love it!