Turtle Bay, CA - Bald Eagle Cam (formerly known as CalTrans)

Home of the Friends of the Redding Eagles

http://www.turtlebay.org/eaglecam

This nest has had streaming video, and I believe had two cameras (one with a closer view, the other showing more of the tree), though they can only stream one at a time. I don't think there's sound - it's near a busy highway, which might make it hard to hear the eagles over the background noise. The cam uses QuickTime, which works on most computers but not all. However - in the fall of 2011, the eagles decided to move to a new location - near their old nest, but out of view of the cams - so we were not able to watch them last year, but the great local observer team took up the slack, and provided great coverage. They've also raised money to move the cams to the new nest, so we have our fingers crossed that we'll again able to watch the eagles in 2013.

The camera was initially installed by CalTrans (the California Department of Transportation) to make sure that nearby highway construction didn't have a negative impact on the eagle nest. Back in the fall of 2007, Caltrans had tried to discourage the eagles from nesting so near the planned highway project by placing a large cone in their nest, but the eagles were not easily discouraged (read the story here)) - and public sentiment favored the eagles - so CalTrans decided to work with the eagles and the public, installing a camera to make sure they weren't disrupting the nesting behavior - and making it available to the public. The construction project is now completed, and and the Turtle Bay Exploration Park has taken over the cam - thank you!

The pair, named Liberty (F) and Patriot (M), successfully raised two eaglets in 2008, and three eaglets in 2009 and 2010. They laid two eggs in 2011, both of which hatched, and the eaglets fledged successfully. Because there was not a cam, we don't know how many eggs they laid in 2012, but we do know they fledged two charming eaglets.


2012-2013 Season:

• adults return:
  
• cam on line:
  
• eggs laid: February 6, 5:14 pm; February 9, 3:54 pm; February 13, 5:32 pm
  
• sad news: one of the eggs looked strange the morning of March 1st, and that evening only two eggs were visible - link
  
• disruption: at least one intruder was seen in the area; Patriot stopped doing his share of incubation sometime in early March, and was last seen by ground observers on March 11; there was at least a week when the eggs were left uncovered for hours during the day, though fortunately the weather was warm and sunny, and then about a week when Liberty was incubating around the clock, with only brief breaks; an unknown eagle was seen in the area, and actually landed on the nest occasionally
  
• hatch and sad news: the first egg hatched during the night of March 17-18 and the second the morning of March 22, and each was killed and eaten by the intruder/new eagle the first time Liberty left the nest after hatching was complete; the new eagle did incubate the second egg for about 30 minutes the morning of the 22nd, the first time he or she had shown an interest in the eggs as far as we know - but unfortunately did not carry that behavior over once the egg hatched; David Hancock suggested this might be a young adult who didn't have the experience or instincts yet to know what to do.
  
• post-nesting: As of March 29, Patriot still has not been seen, and the new eagle had marks on his feet suggesting he'd been in a talon-grasping fight, suggesting that he may have driven Patriot off, or killed him. It's also not clear if the new eagle is male or female; he/she has been spending time with Liberty, which suggests a male, but is very large with a fairly thick beak, which suggests female. Observations continue, both on camera and from the ground.

June 3 2012 photo of Shasta and Lassen courtesy of eaglewoman

Link to last year's thread for this nest

Reserved

Hi JudyB! Thank you so much for getting our forum up and ready for the 2012-2013 nesting season!

A very warm welcome to all of our friends from the Turtle Bay forum who have migrated over here. Please feel free to ask questions on how to post pics, screen captures, videos, smileys, adding color, posting links or urls etc... Everyone at Hancock Wildlife is so helpful and so willing to share information! They also have tutorials on a lot of the commonly asked questions!

This is where it all began for me, where I first began posting my observations and pictures of Patriot & Liberty way back in 2008-2009 season.

Speaking of past seasons, Hancock has the threads from all of the past seasons in their archives, and they are always available and accessible to everyone! So, if you want to go back and look up something from past seasons, or just read up on our beloved eagles' history, you can do that here!

Here is the link to one of the earlier seasons...

forum/viewtopic.php?topic=111855#111855


Here's to another exciting 2012-2013 nesting season!

I just tried out the Friends of the Redding Eagles link from the Turtle Bay eaglecam page and it took me right here!!!
Thanks Turtle Bay!!!

I was down looking for our eagle pair today when I saw 2 canoes over at the island where the nest is. After not finding the eagles anywhere, I headed over to our Fledgefest spot and took some pictures of the Tree Climber standing in the nest and installing the 2 eaglecams! Toby at TB told me that they will have 2 eaglecams, one that zooms in nice and close, and the other with a more panoramic view.

It is really something to see a person standing in an eagle's nest! So amazing that the nest is sturdy enough to hold that much weight!!!

That's awesome Terri! Were you at the Fledgefest spot when you took these? Pretty exciting.
I went down this morning and beat down the tall grass and chopped some blackberry vines to get to the swamp so the path is pretty walk able now.

Any word on the date that the eagle cam will be streaming live?

Talk to you later!
Renae

THE EAGLE HAS LANDED!!!

Kit and I were down there around 10am and she spotted Patriot on the west end of the nest tree area!!! It looked like he was on what I call "Buffet Branch" because he likes to eat his prey on that branch.
No sign of Miss Liberty yet, but we'll keep our eyes peeled!

Hi Renae!
We must have just missed you this morning! Kit and I were down there around 10am riding toward Bluff Branch when she slammed on the brakes near the pond and she spotted Patriot!!!
It was soooo exciting! I'm so glad she spotted him because I wasn't even checking that spot yet!

We didn't head down the Swamp Trail, but Kit said she thought you might have been down there clearing it out a bit. Thanks for doing that! I'll check it out next time I'm down there!

Here we go gang!