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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 some showed interest in the nest by moving some 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 growth 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 she 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 h/her sibling 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.
2020-2021 Sur was the first to show up at the nest this season putting in a brief appearance on Sept 25th. Res, however, extended her vacation another 6 days not arriving back to the nest until Oct 2nd. Over the next 5 months they both worked on nestorating the nest, bringing in sticks for the protective wall around the outside edge of the nest and soft materials to line a nest bowl in preparation for their anticipated family.
Eggs were produced early this year, the first on Feb 24th and the second the usual 3 days later, on the 27th. Egg number one hatched on April 3rd and the second just under a day and a half later. Even though they were close in age, Tiku was by far the dominant eaglet keeping Tucca, the younger chick, in submission much of the time when food arrived.
(Chick names courtesy of the students from ÉÉC Saint-Joseph in Port Colborne, ON.) Tucca learned quickly it was best to wait until his sibling had his fill before coming to the table. (Due to their size once fully grown, David Hancock believed both eaglets were male.) This worked well until there was a food shortage and there just wasn’t very much left over for Tucca. But even though he was only about half the size of his dominant brother, Tucca hung in there learning to out maneuver Tiku and eventually catching up to Tiku to the point where we had difficulty telling them apart. Other than the food problem, Tiku and Tucca had a typical eaglethood, growing into beautiful strong eaglets.
Tiku and Tucca both “fludged”
(accidently fledged) when Tiku, while attempting to fly to a small perching branch that Tucca was sitting on, crashed into Tucca knocking them both off, Tiku onto a lower branch with a relatively clear path and Tucca into a thicket of branches and leaves below the nest where he remained stuck for 2 days. Both parents were in quick attendance watching out for their chicks. Tiku managed to find his way back to the nest the next day but Tucca didn’t get out of the tangle of branches and leaves for two days and spent another two days improving his flying skills enough to get back to the nest. Once back, Tiku and Tucca resumed their life as newly fledged eaglets, coming and going, improving their flying skills and building up their strength until first one and then the other left to follow the salmon runs up north. Tiku was last seen on July 14th and Tucca July 19th. Res and Sur hung around for another couple of days until they were sure their eaglets had left. Both were last seen on July 22nd.
Full Season details and relevant links here.
2021-2022 It was a very different kind of eagle season for the Surrey Nest this year! Res and Sur returned from migration at their usual time – Res on September 25 and Sur October 5. All went as usual with both Res and Sur working hard at upgrading their nest from the wear and tear their two active eaglets, Tiku and Tucca, inflicted upon the nest as they learned to fly just a couple of months before.
About mid-November, we noticed that Sur was no longer coming to the nest. It was determined the last time he was in the nest was November 11. However, two adults were seen the following day chasing each other and we now believe it was Sur chasing another male as he defended the nest from the intruder. Unfortunately, it is likely that Sur lost that battle because he hasn’t been seen since. For full details of the confrontation and the resulting outcome please read
“What Happened To Sur at Surrey Reserve”
The New Male spent the next six weeks trying to win Res’s affection. Although she accepted his offerings of food, she was not in any hurry to respond to his efforts. She tolerated him at best. Then one day in December, Res just stopped coming to the nest. She was there one day and gone the next. December 23 was the last confirmed date she was seen. Please read
“What Happened to Res” for details.
There followed, after Res’s disappearance, a plethora of eagles, both male and female, one by one or in pairs, looking for a new home; however, the New Male held his ground chasing them off one at a time as he lay claim to the nest. At the beginning of January, a lone female arrived on the scene. The New Male was not too happy about this at first, but she was not discouraged by the New Male’s ungentlemanly behaviour towards her and stuck around. Over the next six months the New Male (whom we have now temporarily named “Surrey Male”) and the New Female (named "Surrey Female") have formed a working relationship defending the nest from other intruder eagles and are slowly bonding. He brings her food which she accepts (although not willing to share until she has had her fill), they perch together on the same branch overnight with less animosity, and generally appear to be more compatible and accepting of one another. In the last couple of months, they have actually started to repair the nest together – we hope in anticipation of their returning after their fall “vacation” to prepare for little chicks next spring. But only time will tell if this indeed happens!
Full season details and relevant links here.
2022-2023 The new male and new female, temporarily name Surrey Male and Surrey Female (SM and SF for short) last season, returned from migration on October 9, and October 11, respectively. It took a few days, but they finally got into the swing of things and started to work on the nest. For a new young pair, they seemed to know exactly what they were doing. In and out, sticks of all shapes and sizes arrived at the nest and much time was spent deciding where each new one went. Egg laying time came, and stick bringing switched to bringing in grasses and soft materials to line the perfectly shaped egg bowl that had been constructed.
Very much appearing like they were here to stay, in March SM and SF were given permanent names. SM became Rey (for Surrey) and SF, Brit (for British Columbia). A couple of weeks later there were two beautiful eggs. Brit and Rey were attentive prospective parents and diligently took turns incubating their eggs and in the first week of May we had two tiny balls of fluff, SR7 and SR8.
At first, all went well. As first time parents, Brit and Rey were doing a superb job of caring for both their eaglets and the chicks worked out the pecking order with the youngest surprisingly coming out on top as the dominant chick. Both were growing and thriving under the devoted and attentive care of the new parents. Then when they were about 4 weeks old, the youngest, SR8, appeared to have injured its leg. In spite of his (our educated guess is SR8 was a male) difficulty moving around, he somehow managed to get to the dining table, quite often being the first to arrive for his meals, and hobble around the nest. However, even though he appeared to be eating well, his sibling who was only one day older was soon noticeably bigger in size. Strangely, even with the difference in size, SR8 remained the dominant chick with SR7 giving in to SR8 more often than not, even surprisingly sharing food that she (another educated guess!) had learned to prep for herself.
At 9 weeks of age the chicks were named – SR7 became Lof, (an old Norse word for praise or glory) and SR8, Tyr, (for the Norse god of courage) a name most appropriate as he stumbled on courageously with his bad leg. Lof was growing into a beautiful young eaglet hopping and wingersizing all over the nest. Tyr, tried but his bad leg held him back. By now, at 9 weeks of age the difference in size between the two eaglets was almost double even though Tyr seemed to be getting his fair share of food. Something wasn’t quite right with Tyr, not just the bad leg.
For a detailed account of Tyr's struggles, please go here.
Then one day while Lof was busy practicing her flap-hopping and Tyr - now just over 11 weeks old - was sitting on the edge of the nest watching, Lof accidentally knocked Tyr off the nest. Tyr clung to one of the side branches for a few minutes before finally falling into the bushes below. An alarm was raised, and David Hancock arrived quickly to rescue Tyr and take him to OWL. He didn’t appear to be injured but David said he was the skinniest chick he had ever seen. All was done that could be done for Tyr, but unfortunately, he did not survive, succumbing a couple of days later. Because of his unexplained lack of growth, his extremely low body weight, and no definitive reason for his demise, a necropsy has been ordered. As yet, we have no results. (Added later - the necropsy showed that Tyr was actually female.)
Lof went on to briefly branch and finally successfully fledge at 13 weeks of age. And although it is not the usual, Lof never returned to the nest before leaving for wherever young fledglings go. We did, however, hear calls from the parents and what sounded like answers from the youngster. So, we have concluded that they were together as a family, at least for a while, as young Lof got her final life lessons from her parents before leaving for good for parts unknown.
For full season details and relevant dates and links go here.
