Caltrans Eagle Camera Update

Caltrans completed the environmental review for the Dana to Downtown project (bridge on State Route 44 in Redding) in 2005. The next year, a pair of Bald Eagles moved to the area and built a nest. After it was determined that the eagles would stay in the nest site, the California Department of Fish and Game required Caltrans to monitor the eagles to ensure the bird's welfare and determine if construction activities have an impact on their nesting activities. Initial monitoring efforts were done physically by biologists in the field, until 2008 when a video camera was installed to aid in the monitoring effort. It was at that time Turtle Bay offered to host a web feed and the images were made available online to the public. During the summer of 2009, the camera system and feed were improved, and now Caltrans is able to continue with monitoring requirements, while providing a much sharper and better image of the nest to the web.

The Caltrans Eagle cam is available during daylight hours only.  Turtle Bay hosts the web feed.  In order to view the live eagle cam feed, you need to have Quicktime installed on your computer.

TO VIEW THE CALTRANS EAGLE CAM, CLICK HERE!

Eagle Cam Blog

By Denise Yergenson

February 4, 2010

The internet feed kept us busy this week. The issue seems to have been remedied and was caused by a third party software update that interfered with our video stream to the web. Hopefully, there will not be any other outages, but with live video and web, nothing is completely foolproof. Please continue to let me know if any outages occur. If you would like to be added to the Eagle Cam E-mail distribution list for updates when available, please e-mail me at denise_yergenson@dot.ca.gov. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions. Our biologist will be sending me egg laying times and photos as we progress. We plan to switch the public view to the new close-up image on Friday.

Here's an update on eagle activity from our people in the know:

The bald eagles appear ready to begin nesting very soon based on the last three days' behaviors. They are acting very 'broody' while making their final modifications to the nest by bringing in and arranging the last sticks, moss, and grass to make for a comfortable dwelling, especially during the rain. Saturday will be the one-year anniversary of last year's first egg. Once egg(s) are laid, incubation will occur for 5 weeks while both parents take turns sitting on the egg(s) while the other adult forages.

January 28, 2010
I've seen the eagles!

The eagles are definitely making more appearances at the nest. Though I'm not a frequent viewer, I have noticed them in the nest more frequently. Here's a quick update from the field:

A quick update on the bald eagles. We're rapidly approaching last year's date for egg laying (2/6/09) and both adults have been active at the nest since we've had a break in the heavy rain. Attached are a couple of stills from yesterday, where they were observed rearranging sticks, adding materials and likely prepping for upcoming eggs. This week we have been seeing them more often throughout the day in the tree and the nest. There should be continued maintenance of the nest, especially softer materials such as grass and moss for the middle area where incubation occurs. In the meantime, we'll be watching closely as this year's excitement could begin any day now.

January 20, 2010
Signs of Nesting?

The biologists continue to observe copulation multiple times per week, but during this type of weather they don't expect to see the birds too often. Patriot and Liberty have been adding grass and moss to build the 'egg cup' portion of the nest, where the egg(s) are laid and incubated. We could be on schedule for nesting!

January 12, 2010
They are there!

I still haven’t seen the birds live on the nest, but I have proof they're around. Look at the photos above to see the latest pictures from the biologist. So, the eagles are there! Here’s are notes from the experts for the first full week of 2010:

Only scattered sightings of the adults, mostly in late morning. Both eagles were present at the nest on Saturday, January 2. They were also observed perching well below the nest on several occasions this week. Otherwise, the nest site remained mostly vacant all week. The relatively poor weather has probably kept them in more sheltered locations.

January 5, 2010
I'm back!

I took a little time off to celebrate the new year and my son's birthday, so the blog has been on hiatus! For those of who haven't seen the eagles yet, don't feel too bad. Believe it or not I have only seen them live on the nest once since they came back. As a matter of fact, one day they swooped into view the minute I left the room! So, bottom line here is don't give up!

According to our resident experts...

During the past two weeks both eagles have been seen in the vicinity of the nest, at least briefly on most days, although not always detectable with cameras. They were observed perching well below the nest on several occasions. While nest remodeling has slowed some, there has been some lighter duff material placed in the nest, typical of the later stages of nest-building. There was a report of an immature bald eagle visiting the nest on the afternoon of December 30th, although this was not captured by the cameras. Otherwise, relatively foul weather has probably kept activity at a minimum.

December 21, 2009
Web Page a Hit!

Wow, the Eagle Camera page had 8, 469 page views in one week and eagle lovers spent an average of 8 minutes on the page. People are really interested in our birds! The switch to the wider angle camera is complete and I've heard nothing but positive feedback. We'll go back to the up close and personal view when there is more activity in the nest.

Some people are still having trouble accessing the Eagle Camera page. You AOL users out there need to use either Internet Explorer or FireFox as your web browser. For some reason, the camera page and AOL don't agree!

Here's the latest update from our biologists: Both eagles were present at the nest each day last week. We have seen some courtship displays and both birds have been observed nest building periodically. At least one of birds is quite reliably seen around 7:30 AM and/or 5:30 PM each day. Additionally, the female occasionally sleeps near the nest overnight.

The Record Searchlight ran this story on Saturday: http://www.redding.com/news/2009/dec/19/turtle-bay-eagle-cam-expands-view/

December 16, 2009
Camera Switch

In the next day or two a switch to the original camera will take place. Due to the fact that we have the new fiber optic cable now in place, the picture from the original camera is much improved over last season. For now, we've decided to webcast the picture from the original camera because it has a wider field of vision and we'll be able to see the eagles come and go a little better. Once eggs are (hopefully!) laid and there is more activity right in the nest, we'll switch to the closer view from the new camera.

December 15, 2009  
Our New Blog

Welcome to the new Eagle Cam Blog! Instead of sending out e-mails with updates on the camera and the eagles, I will be adding to this blog periodically. If you have specific questions, you can still e-mail me at denise_yergenson@dot.ca.gov. I'll be happy to answer your questions and help you with the Eagle Camera page.

Here's the latest update from the biologists:

The adult Bald Eagles at the Highway 44 bridge in Redding returned to their nest in October, about a week earlier than last season, and began typical nest maintenance and courtship behaviors, such as adding nest materials. The eagles are typically present at the nest early in the morning and late in the afternoon. We've observed some mutual and minor nest building, nest maintenance in the form of rearranging sticks and the addition of dried grass, and other courtship behaviors such as billing and copulation. Billing is a courtship behavior where the eagles rub their bills together. This signifies they are maintaining their pair bond and could be described as their version of kissing. We expect these behaviors to continue into January as the Bald Eagles prepare for nesting.

December 8, 2009  
Questions about QuickTime

Several people have called with questions about downloading QuickTime from the Turtle Bay site so they can view the Eagle Cam.  Make sure you don’t have pop up blockers on and that your virus protection software isn’t blocking the webpage.  The Eagle Camera works best by using Internet Explorer or FireFox.  For you AOL users out there, unfortunately, the camera can’t be viewed with the AOL browser.

December 2, 2009
Eagle Camera Premiere

Today, we held the Eagle Camera Premiere at Turtle Bay.  It was excellent.  There were about 50 people in attendance along with a group of absolutely adorable school kids from Turtle Bay Elementary (who stole the show).  If you would like to view a webcast of today’s public meeting, click HERE!

Isn’t this a totally awesome poster?  If you would like to print a larger version click on the sample and print away!