Eagle cam

That link leads to a Ustream live cam of a pair of eagles who are taking turns nesting 3 eggs. (It was 2 eggs a few days ago.)

It's located in Decorah, Iowa. They're nest top is 80 feet (25 meters?) up a tree. The nest top diameter is about 2 meters, the whole nest weighs 1.5 tons.

They've been adding to it for 5 years. Mulch, corn husks, small branches, large branches, cows, tractors, whatever they could carry. j/k

The area where they properly 'nest' is a lot smaller, you'll notice that as they carefully clamber in, tuck their beaks and waddle side to side to completely cover the eggs. It's pretty cute to watch that.

After dark falls they switch to an IR camera for night vision (B&W). If it sounds like a loud hum don't worry, that sound isn't on the eagle cams' end. They don't hear a thing.

Who's who...

The Dad is a bit smaller than the Mum. Around Dads' eyes it is mostly white. The Moms' eyes have a slim gray-ish color to the back and the front of her eyes.

The darker (dirtier) egg is the first one, the cleaner the egg the newer it is. Around the first week of April is when they're expected to hatch.

The nest is located on a fish hatchery that borders a stream below the tree and a nearby farm.

In the standard camera view you can see a strip of road and an occasional car drive by. Sometimes one of the camera guys will try to get close-ups and different views of the area.

There is a live chat to the right of the video which can be educational, but it's mostly kids asking the same questions over & over, and the occasional troll (as expected). I don't bother with it unless something weird happens on the cam.

I'm hooked on this pair of eagles. I feel like I know them as pets. newccrush.gif

That's pretty cool.

One of them is sleeping like a baby at the moment.

That's the Mom. She stays on the nest all night. The Dad stays perched on a nearby tree all night (facing her) only taking cat naps.

During the day they take turns nesting while the other flies off to hunt. The 'turns' tend to be between 20 and 40 minutes.

Eventually she'll turn her head back and tuck it into her wings, like a swan does.

This is pretty cool, nice find Corona :)!

It's more interesting during the day cam, trust me. :lol:

Oh, I figured as much. Night time is sleepy time, after all. And also day time is in living color! :D

She's too tuckered out to even turn her head into her wing feathers, which was the norm. Maybe it's the slightly warmer weather, or that she's saving up her energy to raise yet another brood of eaglets.

I know it'd be educational, but maybe it's a good thing they don't have cams around their hunting areas. Kinda nasty stuff going on there, Circle of Life and all.

I think I'd enjoy seeing that, it's not something I get to see, living pretty far from anywhere with wild animals.

Me neither. Anyway, it'd be kinda tricky getting eagles to wear cams.

Nice one, Corona.

I shall watch over the next few days Corona to see how they are getting on.

Dad ?? is awake right now, looking around, tidying the nest.

Really clear camera. You can see the cars passing in the distance!!

We shall have to give them names :)

That's the Mom on the nest now. Her eyes are embedded in grayish patches. The Dad was on for a long time this morning.

And there goes a minivan.

When I first found this site a few weeks ago there was still quite a bit of snow on the edges of the bedding. It's looking warmer now.

Naming them? I myself wouldn't do that unless they were domesticated, which they're not. Dad and Mom work fine for me.

Or we could name them Floppy and Fuzzlebunny. How's that work for you? :lol:

Yes I just seen the switch over, she faces a different way to the Dad.

No, Corona those names don't grab me. Perhaps just Mom and Dad will do :)

Great site, I can imagine there will be a lot of viewers at egg hatching time.

Sleeping... sleeping... sleeping... sleeping... sleeping... wait! wait, wait! oh wait... sleeping... sleeping...

Very cool though, great find Corona, can't wait to see their eggs hatching.

If you like looking at animals http://www.freeetv.com has nice list of zoo cams. :)

Richard S.

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The 3 eaglets in June near the local fish hatchery.

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One of them today pining for the fjords (and the good old days of family & hearth).

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Same one today braving a local thunderstorm.

I saw a video of one eaglet being weighed on a scale by 2 workers. I couldn't believe how tame it seemed. (It wasn't drugged.) Eaglets are very susceptible to simple communication by humans. Then again, so are a lot of young mammals.

And birds. They're not mammals, are they? They seem to be.