General Announcements Posted to the Forum

[JudyB]

continued

b_chicks2.jpg (64.31 KiB) Viewed 9526 times

[JudyB]

being posted on our four primary HWF observation threads on March 5, around 12:30 pm

New Beginnings

It's not spring yet for those of us in Canada and the northern part of the US - but I can feel it coming on the gentle breeze that slips in occasionally between the Arctic gusts. And I can see it when I see the nests, all ready for the eggs that will appear any day now. This is our new Surrey Reserve nest:

As our northern nesting season gets underway, I'm reminded that it was about a year ago that Hancock Wildlife Foundation made some major changes, including launching this new forum and our new website https://hancockwildlife.org/. We also took over the streaming of the video from our cams to the web, which in practical terms means that we needed some fairly sophisticated software to convert the signal sent by our cams in British Columbia to the audio and video formats required by YouTube so anyone anywhere in the world can watch "our" eagles. It used to be that one could buy this software - but like a number of programs such as Microsoft Office 365 or most Adobe software, it's now only available as a subscription service.

The annual payment for what I call the Wowza server is about $2650 Cdn -
and it's due this month.

Please help us raise the money we need for the equipment to keep the cams streaming.

The easiest way to donate is to

• go to the "Donations" page on our website (https://hancockwildlife.org/donations/)
• click the "Donate via CanadaHelps Now!" link
• choose "Donate Now" or "Donate Monthly"
• enter the amount of your donation ($250 to adopt a nest - or whatever you'd like to give)
• pick one of the options on the Fund list (the amounts for Eagle Cams/Repairs and for General Monthly Support are suggestions; the amount you put in the Amount box is what you'll donate)
• if you are adopting a nest, use the message box to say which nest you are adopting and how you would like your name to be listed - or you can use it for other messages to HWF
• fill in your contact information and credit card details, and
• click "Complete Donation Now"

It would be great if we could raise enough money for the software this week - and to get things started, the first $650 in donations will be matched! So if you adopt a nest for $250, HWF will get $500 - or if you donate $20, HWF will get $40! We'd also love to have more people in our monthly donor program - and the first month's donation is also eligible to be matched.

Hancock Wildlife Foundation is a "Not-for-Profit" society in Canada and a tax slip will be automatically provided if you donate via CanadaHelps. For donors in the United States, we have a favorable rate of exchange right now, so if you donate $100 Cdn, your credit card will be billed about $75 US dollars.

The eagles are getting ready:

Delta 2 eagles discuss where to place a stick,
courtesy of SueB

Please help us be ready too.

[JudyB]

Thank You!

We are off to a great start on the fund drive to pay the annual fee for the software that lets us stream the cams - we have raised $1900 of the $2650 we need!

And it's just in the nick of time - we have our first egg of the season! This is female Res from our Surrey Reserve cam showing off her newly laid egg while male Sur (who might be a first-time dad) tries to figure out what is happening!

We still need another $750, so if you can help, that would be wonderful. There's more information about how to donate and why we need this money here - viewtopic.php?f=109&t=293&p=165098#p165098 The button below will take you to our donations page, where you can click the button to donate via CanadaHelps.

[gemini]

A new chick has arrived at Duke Farms overnight! Came across it by accident last night.
https://forum.hancockwildlife.org/view ... 39#p175739

[JudyB]

posted on Harrison Mills, White Rock, SW Florida, EA chat and the SW FL chat, all personalized a bit after the Hi everyone; please feel free to post anywhere else. Thanks! And now I'm mostly out for the weekend!

Hi everyone!

Announcement

We are on hatch watch at two of our HWF cam nests, Surrey Reserve and Delta 2 - and we would love to have more people watching and posting observations there!

Surrey Reserve

Today is Day 36 for the first egg - this is our first year watching this nest, so we don't know when their first egg usually hatches, but eagle eggs usually hatch between 35 and 40 days, so we could see a pip (the initial hole in the shell) at any point.

Link to the cams - https://hancockwildlife.org/surrey-reserve-cams/

Link to our observation thread - viewtopic.php?f=114&t=333&start=2100

The female is named Res and the male is named Sur - for Surrey and Reserve; there are pictures to help you know who is who in the opening posts of the thread - but at this point we're most interested in pictures of the eggs, especially once a pip is confirmed.

Here is gemini's screenshot of Mom Res turning the eggs from yesterday:

Delta 2

Today is Day 35 for the first egg; the Delta 2 pair often delays incubation of the first egg so both hatch within a day or so - so don't be surprised if the first egg doesn't hatch until Monday or Tuesday or even Wednesday.

Link to the cams - https://hancockwildlife.org/delta-2-cams/

Link to our observation thread - viewtopic.php?f=10&t=335

The parents are called Ma Delta and Trooper, and there are ID pictures in the opening posts. This is Trooper's first year at the nest - he's been great tending the eggs, and we're waiting to see his reaction when the eggs start peeping and demanding food!

Here is SueB's screenshot from yesterday of Ma with the eggs:

Please join us at one of these nests and help us document the action!

[JudyB]

Announcement

Observers Wanted

Several of our regular observers at Surrey Reserve are not going to be able to be online much from now through Monday, and we could really use some help posting.

The eaglets Dee and Ess are almost 8 weeks old and are learning to grab food from each other and mantle - and of course flap their growing wings - they really are wonderful to watch!

Dee is older by a day and a half and has a solid black tail; Ess's tail has white at the tips, which is about the only way I can tell them apart, so I hope Ess doesn't grow out of that. If anyone notices other differences that will help us know who is who, please share them on the thread!

Link to the cameras is here - https://hancockwildlife.org/surrey-reserve-cams/

Link to the forum is here - viewtopic.php?f=114&t=333&start=3210#p207561

Please Watch Us

Thanks!

[JudyB]

Announcement
~

We have discovered a bug in the process for registering for the forum - it appears that even if you fill in everything properly, you may get an error message.

We've made some changes, and so far two tests and one real person registering have gone through successfully.

So - if you previously tried to register and it didn't work, please try again - we'd love to see you here.

If you're still having trouble registering, please email [email protected], which will reach me and several other admins.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope we have everything working properly now.

There is information about how to register here - viewtopic.php?p=139#p139 - and there's also a link to register (or to log in if you're already registered) at the upper right of each forum page.

Thanks,
JudyB

[gemini]

Upcoming Talks By David Hancock

The Lynn Canyon Ecology Center
Lynn Canyon Park
3663 Park Rd
North Vancouver, BC

Saturday, January 25, 2020
1:00 pm-2:30 pm

Entrance fee: $9.00

and


Langley Field Naturalists
The Langley Community Music Center
4899-207 Street
Langley, BC

February 20, 2020 - 7:30 pm

[JudyB]

Announcement

I'm not sure when, but sometime soon we will be doing an upgrade of the forum software.

The forum will be offline for at least several hours while the old software is being replaced with the new software - and as part of the process, the look of the forum may revert from our green and tan color scheme to the generic blue scheme that's the default for the software.

Our forum tech person David Hathaway generally tries to work on the forum when there aren't many people online - but if I'm around, I'll try to post updates on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Hancock-Wildli ... 430480179/ and on our backup forum WildlifeCamWatch, where we'll post updates on the HWF Forum Updates thread in the Welcome and HWF Updates area, which should be visible without logging in.

If the HWF forum is down for more than a few hours (which I don't really expect), I'll unlock registration so people can post questions on the backup forum.

The HWF Website and the Live Cams pages will not be affected, and the direct access to the cameras used by zoomers will not be affected.

Posted 4 pm on a variety of active threads

Adding image to use in my next post so I can use IMG tags

[IrishEyes]

Thanks Judy for letting us know and Good Luck David... will keep checking here for updates !

[Kitcat11848]

Thanks Judy. I’ve bookmarked those links.

[JudyB]

Announcement

Our forum tech person David Hathaway is planning to do an update of the forum software tonight, and the forum will be offline while he does that. Things are always subject to change, but he's planning to start the update at 9 pm pacific time (midnight eastern), when the eagles (and many of us) will likely be fast asleep.

(Off topic - a big thanks to those who keep an eye on the nests and post during the night - we've learned a lot of new things about eagles thanks to the cams with infrared light, and those who report on what happens after dark!)

As part of the update process, he may temporarily change the look of the forum to something more like this:


If that happens, it will be back to our normal green and tan scheme soon (and he may not need to change it at all - but I wanted to let everyone know that if it does look like that, it's still our forum!).

I have unlocked registration on our backup forum WildlifeCamWatch - http://www.wildlifecamwatch.com - but you don't need to be a member to check the HWF Updates thread there. Everyone is welcome to join - and like our forum here, an admin needs to approve new members. Please use the same user name you use here so we recognize you.

We're not expecting problems - the update went very smoothly on WildlifeCamWatch though it did take several hours (David Hathaway is more experienced than I am so he'll do things faster - but the HWF forum is a whole lot bigger). But if there are problems, as soon as I'm aware of them, I'll post on WildlifeCamWatch and on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Hancock-Wildli ... 430480179/ - which should be visible to those not on Facebook, though I never know about that because the rules and policies on Facebook seem to change frequently.

Thank you for your patience during this update, and with a bit of luck we'll be back online in the morning and good to go for another year or so!

[JudyB]

in progress

Announcement

We are looking for a volunteer or small group of volunteers to work with David Hancock's associate Myles to compile a series of screenshots from our cams showing the daily development in the chicks.

[IrishEyes]

in progress

Announcement

We are looking for a volunteer or small group of volunteers to work with David Hancock's associate Myles to compile a series of screenshots from our cams showing the daily development in the chicks.

Thanks Judy this is a good idea ... but since we don't have chicks on H Mills I think this is best left up to the folks on the nests that do... and thank you Judy for all you do all over this forum and I hope you get the volunteers you need.

[JudyB]

Hello Spring!

Our Surrey Reserve eaglets are going to be featured on CBC's Hello Spring project debuting today - https://www.cbc.ca/life/hellospring

I don't know where our eaglets will be popping up in their rotation of things about spring - but have learned that our Surrey South eagle cam will be live this afternoon on the CBC Docs Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/cbcdocs/ starting at 2 pm pacific/5 pm eastern - so it's live now.

We are thrilled to have this opportunity to introduce more people to the wonderful eagles of British Columbia - and to the Surrey Reserve, a tract of trees set aside for the eagles and other wildlife while land around it was being developed. This is the second year we've been watching these eagles, and they appear to be getting along just fine with their many human neighbors.

Direct link to the cams is https://hancockwildlife.org/surrey-reserve-cams/

Our thread with lots of pictures and videos is viewtopic.php?f=114&t=407&start=2700#p330534


Please join us there - and check out the other interesting topics on CBC's Hello Spring page!