Redding, CA - 2022-23 - Bald Eagle Cam

[Jean]

Lib has been off the nest for nearly 2 hrs. Is this usual?

From the FORE facebook page:

So sorry to hear this Terri.........fingers crossed.

[Jean]

9:03pm..........UPDATE! Liberty is back home and all is well!

[Eaglewoman]

Hi Jean & JudyB & Marilyn & All!

It has been a wild Incubation Time here!
Our eagles have been dealing with some real challenges this year including lots of rain, heavy wind & snow & a Sub Adult that landed in the Nest! This is the 1st time they've had to incubate their egg with snow in the nest!!!!

But, they are still consistently incubating & we are 10 days out from HATCH WATCH March 24-29th!!!

Here is an article on Fox Weather about our resilient pair doing their best to incubate their egg in the snow on Friday. They used raw footage from the Eaglecam that Gary made into a video. And toward the end you can see where Guardian accidentally steps on Liberty while she's buried in snow!

https://www.foxweather.com/earth-space/ ... U1mbNiV14k

[JudyB]

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

Sad news today from the Friends of the Redding Eagles - Liberty and Guardian's remaining egg burst at 2:48 am today; today was day 39 for the egg.

Here is Terri/Eaglewoman's post from the FORE Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/FriendsoftheReddingEagles):

Update on the loss of Liberty & Guardian's only egg 3/28/23 2:48am:

First of all, thank you all so much for your kind words & compassion during this very difficult day for our Redding Eagle Family. While we may not be able to respond to each & every one of your comments, please know we are reading them & we are so moved by the outpouring of love & support. We just appreciate each & every one of you so much...

Secondly, Liberty & Guardian are fine. It will take them a moment to process what has happened, and that they no longer have an egg to incubate. Liberty stayed in the nest for almost10 hours in the pouring rain after the egg burst, but she eventually flew out at 12:31pm. If it wasn't raining so hard, please know that I would be down there right now checking on both Liberty & Guardian for you. If it lets up a bit I will go down there & let you know what I see. But, I can tell you that in the past when things like this have happened, the eagles seem to move on from these tragedies & setbacks very quickly.

Thirdly, we don't know why the egg burst like that at 2:48 am this morning? I have personally never seen that happen here before? Without sending the egg to a Wildlife Lab in Sacramento, we will never know exactly what happened to it. Liberty consumed the remains of the egg, which is normal behavior for eagles, so there isn't much left besides some eggshell at this point.
At FORE we work closely with several local wildlife biologists and Eagle Biologist David Hancock from British Columbia who has been studying eagles for over 70 years. I have reached out to all of these biologists to get their take on what may have happened to the egg? We all have so many questions & I just thought it would help to reach out to some experienced biologists to help shed some light on this for all of us.

Lastly, some have been asking if Liberty & Guardian will have a 2nd clutch? That is a great question! While Liberty did have a 2nd clutch in 2017, that was earlier in the nesting season when her nest & eggs fell down at Riverview Golf Course in February. She laid a 2nd clutch at her current nest at Turtle Bay in March & 1 eaglet "Solo" hatched in April. We are much later in the season now that we are almost at the end of March, so this doesn't seem likely? But, we will certainly all be watching closely & we will report anything we see!

Thank you all for being with us on this incredible journey with Liberty & Guardian, on the good days & the bad days...

~Terri

Added -

I'm quite certain that eggs that are close to hatching don't explode, so this egg either was not fertile for some reason, or something happened to stop development early in the process. It's almost certainly nothing that Liberty or Guardian did or didn't do - just something that happens once in a while. Big hugs to Terri and the rest of the Redding team.

[Eaglewoman]

Thanks so much JudyB!

Yes we heard back from David & Russ Weatherbee & both concluded that the egg most likely burst due to the gases that had been building up during decomposition. They also believe that development had ceased at some point early on for unknown reasons. So we follow the eagle's lead as always & move forward to the next chapter in the lives of these majestic creatures.

Here is the latest link for our Redding Eaglecam as of 4/21/22...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sji4pyLMKFw

[Maddy]

Terri,

[Eaglewoman]

We are on our Summer Hiatus but I thought I would share a cute video that Gary made for us about the status of our Redding Eaglecam.
The branch that our Cam was attached to broke off the nest tree in late June after the eagles had left the area. Our skilled Tree Climbers Rex & Ron were able to retrieve our Eaglecam & install it on a nearby branch that we hope will hold for the 2023-2024 Nesting Season. Unfortunately the Nest Tree, a Black Cottonwood Tree, has been slowly dying & is no longer producing leaves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ze0Ahw-_RM

A funny cartoon Gary made for us!
Enjoy!

[Eaglewoman]

We can never thank David Hancock enough for ALL he has done over his lifetime on behalf of our Bald Eagle friends!

Gary summed up our gratitude beautifully for us in his post on our FORE fb page & I wanted to share it with all of you here


"Thank you, Mr. Hancock, for your lifelong study of these magnificent animals and your thorough presentation on the issues. Your post has me thinking in wonderful new ways about nature and science! You've skillfully and realistically described the way that eagles are faced with innate drive, stimuli, procreation and feeding choices, split second survival reactions, and lethal power, among other things. You have my deep gratitude for your time and input on this matter, and all others. We are a community here, as are so many others. Many of today's fans don't know it, but you've had a very significant role in the creation of these eagle communities which now span the globe. Mr. Hancock, you and your work are benchmarks and treasures; appreciated by this community, and by this humble fan of nature." -Gary

[JudyB]

We can never thank David Hancock enough for ALL he has done over his lifetime on behalf of our Bald Eagle friends!

Gary summed up our gratitude beautifully for us in his post on our FORE fb page & I wanted to share it with all of you here


"Thank you, Mr. Hancock, for your lifelong study of these magnificent animals and your thorough presentation on the issues. Your post has me thinking in wonderful new ways about nature and science! You've skillfully and realistically described the way that eagles are faced with innate drive, stimuli, procreation and feeding choices, split second survival reactions, and lethal power, among other things. You have my deep gratitude for your time and input on this matter, and all others. We are a community here, as are so many others. Many of today's fans don't know it, but you've had a very significant role in the creation of these eagle communities which now span the globe. Mr. Hancock, you and your work are benchmarks and treasures; appreciated by this community, and by this humble fan of nature." -Gary

Thank you, Terri and Gary, for all you have done to support the Redding eagles, and for taking us along on the journey. Hoping for a much better year in 2024.

[JudyB]

As I was looking back over the posts from this year here and on FORE's Facebook page, I found this picture posted by Terri from a video Gary made back in March - Terri said it snowed five times in Redding last winter (it normally snows maybe once a year or every other year there) - and this was the first time they incubated during a snow storm.

The video is here, and shows Liberty and Guardian in at least two different storms, caring for their egg - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_z3sT9orIU

I don't always have luck with links to Facebook posts, but hopefully the link to Terri's post is here.

[JudyB]

Terri/Eaglewoman mentioned the repair work that was done on on June 24 to reposition the cam, which was dangling high above the ground after the branch it was on broke. Happily the wonderful tree climbing crew was able to find a place to reposition the cam so we will have a view of the nest for the coming season.

Here's a link to her post on Facebook, with more details about what was done - link.

Now we wait to see what the eagles decide to do!

[JudyB]

The cam is streaming, the eagles are back - and I'm locking this thread.

Please join us here for what I hope will be a much happier season with little chicks growing and fledging successfully:

Redding, CA - 2023-24 - Bald Eagle Cam