Surrey Reserve 2020-2021 Observation and Discussion

[gemini]

~

The Surrey Reserve Discussion Forum

Welcome to the 2020-2021 Eagle Nesting Season



This Nest is in the Pacific Time Zone

The Surrey Reserve and Nest:

The Surrey Reserve bald eagle nest was built in late August 2018 to replace one that fell down a couple of years ago. It is located in the first bald eagle reserve in Surrey, British Columbia, land set aside by an agreement between the city of Surrey and developers Dawson & Sawyer to guarantee space for eagles to nest while adjacent land was cleared for a housing development (read the full story here).

The Reserve is on the southern edge of the city of Surrey, in close proximity to the Semiahmoo Bay eagle fishing habitat and not that far from the home of the Hancock Wildlife Foundation. It is now surrounded by townhomes but the nest itself is about 90 feet above the ground in a cottonwood tree, nestled amongst the trees included on the Reserve.

The Nest Tree

Semiahmoo Bay eagle fishing habitat

Map of Surrey Reserve area - The X is approximately where the nest is.

Map Courtesy of the City of Surrey Online Mapping System,
and is open data which may be republished without restriction.


The Cameras:

There are two powerful pan-tilt-zoom cams in place to watch the nest, one overhead and the other in a tree about 35 feet away that allows us to see the eagles come and go from the nest. Both have sound and night vision (not visible to the eagles).

North Cam View

South Cam View

[gemini]

Notable Dates 2020-2021 Season:

Adults returned: Sur - September 26, 2020, 5:58 pm; Res - October 2, 6:41 pm

Eggs laid: February 24, 4:02 pm; February 27, 6:20 pm

Pip Seen: April 2, 7:49 am; April 4, 6:15 am

Eggs hatched: April 3, 11:27 am (38 days); April 4, 9:49 pm (36 days)

Eaglets named:

First branched:

Fledged:

Eaglets last seen:

Adults last seen:


Useful LInks:
Surrey Reserve Cams
2019-2020 Discussion Thead
2018-2019 Discussion Thread
Fall 2020 Cam Cleaning
Reports and Photos of Surrey Reserve from Ground Observers
Surrey Reserve History and Information
Background article about the nest and the cam
Hancock Wildlife forum member's DICTION-AERIE
Surrey Weather Now



Nest Adoptions for 2020/2021 are now available!

In the 2021 nesting season (September 2020-August 2021) this nest has been adopted by:


~ Irish Eyes
~ gemini
~ dragonfly/Liana
~ JudyB
~ The very generous ongoing support from Jane McLennan on behalf of her grand-children Tamsyn, Lucille, Finola, Hanna and her great-grand-children Ivy, Winter and Winona


Previous Year's Adoptions

2013 - 2020

You too can honor your favorite fine feathered family
and support the work of Hancock Wildlife by adopting the
HWF nest of your choice.

Click HERE to see how!

[gemini]

IDing The Eagles:

The resident pair, aptly named Res (the female) and Sur (the male) are not easy to tell apart. However, each has his/her own distinctive traits, some permanent and some possibly only temporary, that help to identify which eagle we are looking at.

Permanent Differences:

Res (left) is bigger than Sur

The black dots on the iris are permanent (Res on left)

We hope to get scaps of their other eye this season.


Other differences:

NOTE: Keeping in mind that any feathering differences can disappear as feathers are molted, here are some of the differences noted during the past season. With any luck at all at least one, if not all, will be there when they return from migration.


Res (left) has has white feathering and less yellow skin around the eyes; Sur has some dark feathers and more yellow skin around the eyes giving the eye area a darker appearance;

Sur's neckline (left) is more ragged and has one or two wayward feathers below the neckline; Res has a more rounded collar and a little tuft of feathers that sometimes seems to stick up on the top of her head, which appears as a shadow or gray spot at times.

Res (left) has little to no markings on her upper tail; Sur has black spots; (click 2x)

[gemini]

The Surrey Reserve Nest - A Brief Yearly Summary:

2018-2019 - the first year the Surrey pair, Res (female) and Sur (male ) were featured on live cam. As we waited with baited breath first one, then the other, and finally both appeared on the new nest, built in late August 2018 by the HWF to replace one that fell down a couple of years ago, and finally showed some interest in the nest by moving a few sticks. And the rest is history.

Res and Sur went on to produce two chicks this season, named Dee and Ess. Other than Res seriously injuring her right leg (which fortunately eventually healed) followed shortly after by Sur doing the same thing (his also healed!) the season was uneventful. Dee and Ess moved through the eaglet growing stages normally with Dee fledging on July 5 and Ess on July 8. Sur was the last to be seen in the nest area on July 26. (Full season details here)


2019-2020 Res and Sur arrived back from their annual migration September 25 and 28 respectively. They had two chicks this season, named Thor and Loki by local residents. All went well until Loki, the first to fledge (June 28), had an encounter with a power line just 3 days later. Fortunately she (gender determined by her weight) was rescued by OWL and after being observed for a couple of weeks it was determined she had not suffered any permanent injury and was released in Peace Arch Park close to her nest area. Loki's rescue and release details here and here. Thor fledged successfully just 2 hours after Loki on the same day.

Loki was last seen July 17 after her release by OWL and Thor on July 16 - an eaglet that may or may not have been Thor visited the nest briefly on July 19. Both adults were last seen on Aug 14. Full season details here.

NOTE: Loki was fitted with a tracker before her release. Her travels can be followed here.

[gemini]

Reserved

[gemini]

Reserved

[JudyB]

6:00 pm
We had an eagle visit!

North cam was pixelating and he(?) didn't stay long enough for me to log in on South.

I think this is Sur - watching again now on dvr. Only there for a minute or so - but wonderful to see someone back.

A couple more pictures.

Welcome home!

I couldn't get a good look at the other side of his head, but everything I saw looked like Sur.

[IrishEyes]

6:00 pm
We had an eagle visit!

20200926_002.jpg


North cam was pixelating and he(?) didn't stay long enough for me to log in on South.

I think this is Sur - watching again now on dvr. Only there for a minute or so - but wonderful to see someone back.

A couple more pictures.

20200926_003.jpg

20200926_004.jpg


Welcome home!

I couldn't get a good look at the other side of his head, but everything I saw looked like Sur.

Thanks so much Judy and welcome back Sur

[gemini]

10:53 pm Checked the DVR back to Sur's visit and didn't see any more. Managed to get a scap of his right eye though from a video! Certainly looks like Dad's!

[nightowl]

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2020

[IrishEyes]

Good Morning SR Judy, gemini , Bill and Thank you nightowl for starting the day here and thank gemini for the scap of Sur

Weather Report

6:22a
Nest is empty

I checked the DVR on the N Cam quickly and I didn't see an eagle .. the cam has spinning circle at times.. I will report that .

[JudyB]

Good morning, everyone! Welcome to our new thread, and thank you, gemini, for getting it up and running! I've moved the posts starting with Sur's visit to this thread, since his reappearance is the start of our 2021 nesting season.

10:27 am
I've sent a message to Ken about the North embedded cam (thanks, Bev!) - but it is Sunday and I think he has some family obligations today, so it may be a while before he's able to take a look at it. I've been watching the South cam directly as much as possible, and so far all I've seen is a squirrel.

It's doing a lot of exploring of the nest tree - and I hope it's keeping its eyes and ears open for large birds.

[gemini]

6:23 pm Checked the DVR back to the beginning and no eagles visited. There was however a visit from Mr Squirrel. It stayed in the nest for about 11 minutes - appeared to be eating a nestover of some kind!

5:35 pm What a beautiful tail he/she has!

[nightowl]

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2020

[JudyB]

Good morning, everyone!

7:24 am
Both embedded cams are still streaming, though North is choppy. Dvr goes back 12 hours - I checked, and did not see any visits, though I might have missed a quick in and out.

Here's the current view of the nest, to help us tell if things are being moved.

[gemini]

3:09 pm Checked back to JudyB's post and didn't see any visits. North cam still off line, south fine.

[JudyB]

3:30 pm
Ken has rebooted something at his end, and both Surrey embedded cams are now streaming, though the feed from the North cam is choppy and pixelated.

On a different topic, I just updated the heading, donor list, and history sections of the Live Cams pages - and would appreciate it if a couple of folks could take a look at the Surrey Reserve page and let me know if you see any errors or typos or if I left out anything important - link is https://hancockwildlife.org/https://han ... erve-cams/.

[gemini]

11:38 pm Checked the S DVR back to my last post and no visits observed. The N Cam is stuck at 3:46 PM.
I will report it.

[gemini]

11:51 pm Checked the S DVR back to my last post and no visits observed.


The N Cam is stuck at 3:46 PM. I will report it.

[nightowl]

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2020

[IrishEyes]

Good Morning SR. Judy, gemini and all ..thank you nightowl for starting the day here

Weather Report

N Cam is pixelating at 5:56a'

5:58a
S Cam is streaming

I checked the DVR quickly.... no eagles seen

[IrishEyes]

3:30 pm
Ken has rebooted something at his end, and both Surrey embedded cams are now streaming, though the feed from the North cam is choppy and pixelated.

On a different topic, I just updated the heading, donor list, and history sections of the Live Cams pages - and would appreciate it if a couple of folks could take a look at the Surrey Reserve page and let me know if you see any errors or typos or if I left out anything important - link is https://hancockwildlife.org/https://han ... erve-cams/.

This is great Judy.. thank you for all your hard work !

[IrishEyes]

7:03a
Nest is empty

[JudyB]

Good morning, everyone, and thanks for posting the weather, Bev.

I've sent a message to Ken to let him know that the North cam seems to be stuck at 6 am - and it's great to see the South embedded cam streaming!

I looked back to before it started getting light, and didn't see any visits.

[gemini]

12:07 pm Just posted this in the wrong thread! Let's try again!


11:47 am Posting a scap from zoomer cam for comparative purposes don't see anything different!

9-28-2020 3:46 pm

[nightowl]

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2020

[gemini]

4:00 am Both cams down.

[IrishEyes]

Good Morning SR, Judy gemini... thank you nightowl for starting the day here

Weather Report

6:17a..Both Embedded Cams are still down

I reported the embedded Cams

[JudyB]

Good morning, everyone. Thanks for posting the weather and reporting the cams, Bev.

9:23 am
Very foggy looking out towards the water (this is a wider version of the view of the water I often post - north cam preset "flats to the left 18x")

Two views from the South cam:

Ken is aware that the embedded cams are down - he's finishing up some work on his equipment, and will be trying to restart the streams to YouTube shortly.

[Whovian]

Hi folks! I’m new to posting to this forum. I have enjoyed following the nest this year, especially since I live only a block away from it. It has been a welcome addition to my daily routine during these stay-at-home times.

I registered to post because yesterday I did see Sur come to the nest and move a few bits around. He stayed for two or three minutes. (Sep 29, 7:58 am) and then flew off.