French Creek Estuary Eagles, Vancouver Island - 2020 - 2021

[JudyB]

Thanks for making a video for that visit, gemini! And thanks for starting our day, nightowl!

Catching up again - an adult (I think the same adult we've been seeing) arrived at 9:31 am with a small food object.

I was wondering if the other eagle would come to claim it, but he(?) ate the whole thing.

The meal was finished around 9:33 am, and he or maybe she mostly stood around after that, stopping to call out once.

The adult flew off at 9:41 am.

It's now 4 pm, and I looked quickly through the dvr and didn't see any other visits.

[nightowl]

WEDNESDAY, MAY 26, 2021

[JudyB]

nightowl


6:23 pm
I did a quick check of the dvr and didn't see any visits today, but I might easily have missed a quick visit.

I'm hoping to be online a bit more tomorrow.

Goodnight, everyone.

[nightowl]

THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021

JudyB

[JudyB]

nightowl

6:19 pm
I've been checking the dvr from time to time, and haven't seen any visits to the nest today. Maybe tomorrow.

[nightowl]

FRIDAY, MAY 28, 2021

[JudyB]

Just checked the dvr and we had two eagles on the nest around 6 am!

I'll try to be back later to see how long they stayed, but here are a couple of pics.

Added -

They were there from 5:54 - 6:41 (with maybe a little break or two) - much too long for a video, but there were some neat moments as they moved sticks around, and maybe some opportunities to get ID shots. I'll see what I can document in the next half hour, then I need to go out for a while.

[JudyB]

5:54 am
One arrives with a big stick; the other arrives a moment later; they have some differences of opinion about where it goes but it eventually gets somewhere.

One hops down to the support branches (I think); other one looks and goes down as well.

Added on May 29 -

Eagles with Stick (2 min 30 sec, video 735)

Pics from the video:

One on left below appears to have larger, maybe darker feet, inverted U in the collar, and darker feathers around the eye. She(?) also looks bigger to me.

[JudyB]

One returned to the nest at 5:57; second one up at 5:58 am. A bit more stick adjustment, then a bit of pecking at each other's beaks. Some nice closeups of one around the 3 minute mark.

One of them very interested in the camera - not sure which - around 6:05 am.

And I need to leave now - I think I got the best of the interaction, though I'll try to look through the rest when I get back.

It's now 8:44 am, and I didn't see any subsequent visits.


Added May 29 -

Active Discussion! (4 min) (video 736)

This is the one on the left that I'm tentatively thinking may be the male; I'm not sure what the dark mark above the nare is - maybe dirt, but maybe something more permanent.

This one also shows the other adult's eye for comparison.

Closeups (3:15) (video 737)


I'm not going to post any pictures from the "closeups" video here - will post some possible ID photos once I finish uploading videos; I am going to upload the mostly boring videos as well, as they do have good closeups and watching them may help us get a sense of who is who.

[JudyB]

Continuing my review of the dvr.

(Update - May 29 - I'm inserting videos where they belong in the sequence.)


Closeups 2 (video 738 - 6:09-6:14 - 5 minutes - added May 29)


6:14 -
The one who had been staring at the cam jumped down; marks on the beak of the other one? Back up at 6:16:08, moved off to left edge of nest; nice profiles of other adult; the one on the side seems larger but it might be perspective, has inverted U in collar; one with possible mark on right side of beak has maybe a white feather hanging down from collar.


Closeups 3 - focus on other eagle (video 739, ending 6:20, 5 min 20 sec)


I didn't record the next part - very little activity. There was some calling at 6:28 by the one with the inverted U neckline (maybe the female?) and a bit of stick adjustment, and a lot of looking.


6:38 am - started recording - closer look at one with mark on beak at 6:39:57; one with mark on beak flies off at 6:42, the other one a moment later.

Closeups 4 - more on 2nd eagle (video 740, 4 min 15 sec)


Jumping to 3:40 pm -
And of course while I was recording from the dvr so I can get screenshots - we had a visit to the nest, starting at 3:18; not seeing the mark on the beak, but haven't really seen the U on the neckline either. More shadows now. I think visit was close to 30 minutes with a lot of looking around, much with back to the cam - I'm recording while she or he is looking our way. I'm thinking this is the one who appeared to have a mark on the beak - the eyes don't look as dark as the other one - but that could be the lighting. It looks like a large eagle. He or she flew off at 3:45 pm, and had back to the camera most of the rest of the time. I did look under the nest and around briefly after the adult left but didn't see anything.


Afternoon Visit (video 741 ending 3:24 - 6-1/2 minutes)

Two screenshots from the afternoon visit.

Added - looking at the three pictures from this morning, I think this is the one who appeared to have a mark on the beak; that one's feel look lighter, and the eyes seem rounder or something.

[nightowl]

SATURDAY, MAY 29, 2021

[JudyB]

Good morning, everyone!

It's 7:47 am, and I just checked the dvr and did not see any new visits in the last 12 hours. I'm going to start reviewing and processing videos and pics from all the visits yesterday.

Stay tuned....

[JudyB]

3:10 pm
I have finished uploading and posting the videos I recorded yesterday - please start here to see the story - viewtopic.php?f=119&p=466608#p466158

I will note that the first two videos ("sticks" and "discussion") are the most interesting - but we are trying to get to know these eagles, so I decided to post the videos I mostly took so I could get s'caps from them at my leisure. I usually delete the videos I record after I have either converted them to post to YouTube or used them to get screenshots to go with my posts - the originals are much larger than the finished product (the original CaptureWizPro format 2-1/2 minute "sticks" video is 5 gigabytes which is 5000 megabytes; once I've converted it to WMV format to upload to YouTube, the converted file is 50 megabytes). The original videos are higher quality - but 99.9% of the time, the much smaller files are perfectly adequate for catching the action on YouTube.

Anyway - I am still planning to go through my original videos and post some screenshots of the features I noticed that might be useful for ID purposes - but once I've done that, I'll be deleting the originals next time I get an "out of space" warning for my hard drive. Knowing that we might want to look again at some feature I didn't take a screenshot of, I decided to post the series of "closeup" videos for future reference.

Which is probably too much information - but I don't usually post 4 minutes of Standing & Looking, and wanted to say why I'm doing it this time.

The embedded cam at French Creek went to a black screen at 2:54 pm, after pixelating badly for a couple of minutes. I tried to log into thee cam directly using the zoomer link, and couldn't connect with it, so it's likely an issue at the site. I've sent Ken a message, but am not sure there's anything that can be done on a weekend. And it does seem to come back up on its own, which may happen again this time.

I have been checking the dvr from time to time today, and have not seen any activity at the nest.

[JudyB]

Who is Who?

While I was recording the videos and making notes, I was trying to figure out who is who - and how we can tell which adult is visiting in the future (working on the assumption that the two adults are either an established pair or are becoming a bonded pair and that if we see an adult on the nest, it's probably one of these two).

This picture is from the "discussion" video - and I know how easy it is to be tricked on the size of an eagle by the perspective, especially where the cam is quite close to the nest here - but I think the one on the right with the darker eyes is bigger, and is likely the female.

This is a little further along - and unlike the previous picture, neither seems to reaching at odd angles - and they look to me to be similar in height - but her feet look bigger. So does her body as a whole, but that may be partly because of the angle.

She also seems to be nipping at him - and while I don't see that sort of bonding/courtship activity too often, it does seem that females are generally more assertive on the nest.

This is from a little later - the one I think may be the female is on the left - and a number of times, I've thought her feet look bigger. I need to check out the feet of the Surrey Reserve adults to see if that's the case with them, or if that's just these two - but her toes seem longer and slightly thicker, and seem to have some dark spots, perhaps dirt or perhaps scars.

[JudyB]

This is the one I think may be the female.

I'm not sure if her eyes seem dark because they're slightly recessed or the eyebrow-type bones over them (which almost certainly have a name) are more prominent, but there's something that makes them appear dark, and looking at her here, I don't think it's residual dark feathers like you might find on a young adult.

Earlier this month (link) local observer Denise Foster reported that something had happened to the original French Creek pair who had build a new nest nearer the Marina and the male was apparently no longer around - and she said that the eagles we saw then might be the original female with a new male. If that's still the case, it's very unlikely that she's young enough to still have dark feathers. But as Denise noted, without bands, we really have no way of knowing if this is her.

Continuing with ID points, the picture above also shows an inverted U on her collar in front - which is the sort of thing that's sometimes move visible than other times - but may be useful.

And I'm afraid it's dinner time, so I'll continue this tomorrow.