Boundary Bay Central 2023-2024 Observation and Discussion

[JudyB]

work in progress ~JudyB & RoseA

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The Boundary Bay Central Discussion Forum - Part I

Welcome to the 2023-2024 Eagle Nesting Season





Time Line

• Cams Installed: September 2023; connected to the internet: October 1, 2023
• Adults Return:
  - one on nest with food - October 11, 2:48 pm
  - one perched on above-nest perch as if watching territory - October 16
  - two adults perched on opposite side above-nest perches - October 18 (not necessarily a mated pair, but almost certainly of opposite gender)
• Adults Named: March 1 - Mère and Père (mother and father in French, which is Canada's other official language) (the accent mark is optional when posting )
• Eggs Laid:
  1st Egg - Thursday, March 21/2024 (3:49pm)
  2nd Egg - Sunday, March 24, 2024 (6:40pm)
• Hatched:
  1st Egg - Thursday, April 26/2024 (8:56pm)
• Chicks Named:
• Branched:
• Fledged:
• Last Seen:

This is truly a community funded nest!
 
Farmer Ralph Gough provided the land right on the waterfront, neighbor Steve Ishii electrified the site, and Warren Edwards across Boundary Bay above Ocean Beach receives the wireless streaming signal and downloads into his Telus web connection.  Then along came two of our most serious Eagle Monitors, Surrey residents Barbara Hamm and Dieter Knobelsdorf, and they funded the two wonderful 32X Cams and all this went into a nest the Beatty Developments had provided the previous year as a recurring contribution to rebuilding up areas with no or few trees.  (Beatty was also a major contributor to the Delta 2 pole, nest and new cams last fall.)

Thanks to all of you!
~David and all the viewers


Nest Adoptions

2024 Nesting Season – September 2023 – August 2024
This Nest has been Adopted By:

~ gemini ~


ADOPT A NEST OF YOUR OWN
Click here https://hancockwildlife.org/adopt-a-nest

Adopt a Nest Wall of Honor
(Right-click and open link in new window or tab to see at full size)

[JudyB]

The Boundary Bay Central Discussion Forum - Part II

These cams are located in Delta, BC, Canada which is in the Pacific Time Zone.

This forum is for Discussion, Observations, Photos & Videos related to events/occurrences at the Boundary Bay Central nest located in Delta, British Columbia and it's territory. Please join us as we follow the progress of the Boundary Bay Eagles and share your Observations, Photos & Videos .
Screen captures are limited to three (3) per post and and make sure you save your captures in the JPEG format.

You can join the forum to make a post by clicking this link for instructions on how to register:
viewtopic.php?p=139#p139

There are lots of helpful hints about how the forum works here - HELPFUL HINTS and an Index to help you navigate the forum here - FORUM SITEMAP. If you have questions - please ask - and WELCOME!
Thanks again,

[JudyB]

A Bit of Background

The nest was installed in September 2022. AP Hovasse made a brief video of the installation with David Hancock explaining a bit about the process and about why the area is important for eagles. There's an amazing amount of information in the 2-minute video - I encourage everyone to watch it! The link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShGYxfOBd08

When the eagles returned from migration in October, they initially tried to build a nest in one of the trees in the area – but the trees there really aren’t easy to build in and after a couple of failed attempts, they moved to the nest on the pole, laid their egg(s) and fledged one eaglet in July 2023.

Three additional videos by AP Hovasse from summer 2023:
- July 20 2023 - flapping practice - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W-wfOiP9Qc
- July 31 2023 - food delivery - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bJoCtz2zrg
- August 1 2023 - fledgling flying - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uZBZxOKHe8

Three photos from the July 31 video (not sure if he/she had fledged at this point, but AP caught a flight on August 1st) - eaglet getting some height, adult bringing food, adult keeping watch while eaglet eats








The cameras were installed in late summer 2023, so 2024 will be our first year to watch these eagles.

Videos and images are copyright AP Hovasse, used with permission, all rights reserved.

[JudyB]

A Bit of Background - 2

October 23, 2023
I asked photographer and forum member AP Hovasse if he could provide a few pictures of the pole showing the new cams that were added last month - and here's what he sent (used with permission, all rights reserved)!

I knew the North cam was higher - but didn't realize how much higher!




I really like this one - I had wondered if having the cams on the side would reduce the area of access for the eagles flying in and for the chicks we hope to see to practice hovering - and this shows that the cam supports are spread out to the sides, so the opening from the front of the nest is as large as it was before.




I'm occasionally directionally-challenged, but I believe the place where we are currently seeing an adult perch is the end of the perch on the top of the sunscreen, near where the new perch branch above the lower South cam meets it, so sort of in the top center here.




Thanks, AP!

[JudyB]

About the Eagles

On October 11, we saw an adult eagle land on the Boundary Bay Central nest pole for the first time this season (exciting!).
Was this one of the mated pair that used the nest pole last year or was it just a stranger eagle stopping by with a meal? We don’t know. Link to posts is viewtopic.php?f=136&t=709&start=45#p699495

Therefore, this coming season is seems important that we document:
- Who are our pair? What are their names?
- How can we tell the male and female apart (as in what are their distinguishing features)?
- How big is their territory (approx.)
- Where do they like to perch when they are not on the nest?
Assuming both adults return to use the nest pole again this season, these questions should be answered along with examples/photos!

See below for answers (as we find out)...

[JudyB]

How to identify the female (Mère)... or just Mere

The female has a noticeable dot in her right eye. Both click to larger view.
Eye dots are one permanent marker to ID an eagle. They do not change.

The female also has a dark mark/feather on the left side of her neck... this could end up being temporary, but for now...

[JudyB]

How to identify the male (Père)... or just Pere.

The front collar on the male is more even than the female's (the female's goes up in the middle).
Here you can see the comparison.

[JudyB]

This is where the nest pole is located (star), near the Bounday Bay Dike Trail.

[JudyB]

Friday, September 29, 2023
Preview: Re: Boundary Bay Central 2023-2024 Observation and Discussion




Here's a sneak preview of the North cam at Boundary Bay Central; there is a second cam which isn't working yet, and neither one is on YouTube at this point. I think the second picture is looking out towards Boundary Bay.

[JudyB]

Saturday, September 30, 2023

We don't yet have this stream up on YouTube so there's no way to look back. I'm posting a picture of the nest so we can see if anything get moved around.

There is a second cam that is not working yet - not sure if it will be able to be fixed from the ground or what the plan is - and I also don't know when we'll get this feed up on YouTube. I do know Ken is being kept quite busy with all these cams!

[JudyB]

The second cam is working - here are a couple of screenshots:

Ken's next task is to get the streams on YouTube so I can put them on our Live Cams page so everyone can see them.

My next task for this nest is to add some of the information to the opening posts, and also to the Live Cams page.


A pair of eagles did use this nest last year, and raised a chick, and I'll try to add a couple of pictures from last year in the history section.

Stay tuned....

[JudyB]

We have one cam streaming, and are hoping to add the second one in the next day or two, so I'm unlocking the thread in case an eagle appears - even though I still have a lot of work to do on the opening posts here, and on the live cam page https://hancockwildlife.org/boundary-bay-central-cams/

It may be my computer, but I find I have trouble viewing some of the cams, including this one, in Firefox, though they seem to work fine in Chrome or Edge.

[JudyB]

Sunday, October 1, 2023

Both cams are now streaming! I'm using my YouTube channel for the North cam, so when you bring up the Live Cams page, you'll see "WatchingEagletsGrow" in the corner rather than the usual HWF cam name.

I've seen some little birds - but no eaglets yet.

[JudyB]

Monday, October 2, 2023

8:20 am
A little bird with a bit of red on the wing is doing a bit of pecking at one of the perches above the nest, maybe checking for bugs.

We would love to have more observers for this new nest, and will be looking for zoomers as well.

If anyone sees an eagle here - please post the time, and a screenshot if possible - a pair did use the nest last year, and we're hoping they'll use it again.

I think I'm the primary person zooming here at the moment, and I'm mostly checking the dvr/rollback to see if anyone has visited, and making sure the camera is not looking towards the sun, which can damage the camera. Until we have more activity - or more people helping with observations and eventually zooming - my plan is to keep one camera watching the nest, and have the other one looking out over the bay or possibly towards the shore where eagles and other birds might be looking for fish. As many of you know, I'm not from BC and don't know this area, so if there are other wildlife-related points of interest we can see with the cam, please let me know!

[JudyB]

Tuesday, October 3, 2023

I was doing a quick check of the cams, and saw what looked to be a large bird perched nearby:

Well, it's definitely not an eagle - and I'm not sure what sort of shore bird it is - but it is a bird!