Pa Sidney- BC Bald Eagle Nest - Epicure- Pat Bay - 2018-2019 Season

[elle]

Welcome to Pa Sidney BC thread for 2018-2019 season

Ma and Pa Sidney were a beloved Hancock Wildlife Bald Eagle pair since 2006 . They successfully raised many eaglets together for 11 years . They built and occupied 4 nests in that time and 6 of those years we were privileged to see them on live streaming cams.

Ma and Pa Sidney did not raise any young in 2017. There were territorial wars throughout the 2017 season and we were saddened when we realised our Ma Sidney did not return from the fall migration.

Pa Sidney had a least one new mate this past season and successfully raised and fledged one eaglet in the Epicure nest . The eaglet named Genesis was a late hatch presumably from a second clutch.

Visitors to the Pat Bay area are welcome to share their observations, photos and videos of Pa Sidney and his new Missus.

We wish Pa every success in the coming year.

Previous years threads can be viewed HERE

[elle]

Visit today. No eagles in sight yet.

[sassyk]

I did a tour of all the nests on the peninsula today with my birding friend. We were both surprised to see an eagle standing in the snag nest I haven't looked at my photos yet but I'm quite sure it was the female with the skinny neck I'll post a few photos later.

[sassyk]

Here's the eagle that was standing in the snag nest today.

Having a scratch.

[elle]

Certainly looks like Missy.
I had an email from Lyndsay at Epicure to tell me she had seen an eagle in the nest. No sightings of Pa ?

[sassyk]

We did not see any other eagles in the area. I'll probably be visiting again one day next week.

[elle]

Ian , mr elle, visited the nest area yesterday and saw 2 eagles. They were not perched together but hopefully one was our Pa.

[sassyk]

Good news We are taking some relatives to the airport tomorrow morning so I will take my camera and we will drive by the nest area.

[elle]

That would be most appreciated Kay! I was away up island for 3 days with a GF without Ian and Ian passed by Pat Bay on his way to Sidney on a separate mission while I was away. He did not have a camera. We are remiss .

[sassyk]

Well, the weather was awful this morning so photos aren't very good Standing in the new driveway on W. Saanich Rd. looking towards the nest, there are 2 tall trees on the right and there was an eagle perched at the top of the one closer to the nest. The eagle definitely did not look like the one I photographed in the nest last time I was there and it didn't look like our Pa. However, it does look like our Ma. What do you think?

There is some new material in the nest.

[elle]

Oh my goodness! That is not Missy and not Pa and certainly does look like Ma! That would be wonderful. Thanks so much Kay for that photo.

[elle]

Had a text message today from Mindy to tell me she saw Ma on top of a tree in the small stand in the farmer's field across from Epicure. It sure looks like Ma has reappeared and anyone's guess what might have happened to her last year. If it is her I hope she does not have to fight to get Pa back.

[Woodlands Bleu]

We'll see....I am glad though that she is back.
carolyn

[sassyk]

I was out on the peninsula yesterday with a birding friend and our last stop was Ma & Pa's territory. Sadly, we did not see or hear any eagles in the area. They might have been at Goldstream estuary chowing down on the salmon carcasses I took a photo of the snag nest because it looked like there was some greenery added on the right side.

One of the neighbours I am in contact with, who lives behind the store on the corner of Munro Rd. said the same pair of eagles that were perching in their next door neighbour's tree last year were there early yesterday morning and again around 11am. They mated, sat together chatting for awhile, then flew off towards the farmer's field on Munro Rd.

[JudyB]

Fall
Fund/Activity Drive
Update

First - big thanks to all those who have donated! We've raised $3777 so far this month, including 14 new nest adoptions and 2 new monthly donors, so we now have more than a dozen people donating towards our monthly expenses!

As some of us were discussing our needs, we realized that we may not have done as good a job as we might at letting those who enjoy the forum know what we need to make this an active, growing hub for information about eagles and other wildlife.

We definitely need your financial support. The response to this drive has been wonderful, and will help with the bills that pile up - and it would be wonderful if we could double our monthly donations. We need to pay every month for the server space where our website and this forum is located, for the internet service to connect some of the cams to the web, for the high-speed internet service to send the signals from the cams to YouTube so everyone can see them, and a few other similar expenses that I'm forgetting at the moment. We currently get about $250/month from our monthly donor program - and thank you so much to those of you who support us this way! And it would be great if another 20 or 30 people who enjoy posting on the forum or just reading about the eagles could join the program and make a monthly donation of $10 or $20 or whatever works. It's easy to do with CanadaHelps - just go to our Donations page (click here), click the Donate via CanadaHelps Now! link, click on Donate Monthly, enter an amount (they suggest $25, but that's just a suggestion - the amount you enter is the amount you'll give), leave a message if you'd like, and fill in your contact and payment information. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me ([email protected]) or gemini ([email protected]).

But financial support is not all we need. We're calling this a Fund/Activity Drive because we really need those of you who enjoy what we're doing here to get more involved. What we need most of all is more people to watch our cameras and post observations. If you look at the threads for our primary nests (Delta 2, Harrison Mills, Surrey Reserve and White Rock), you'll see that most of the posts on each thread are by the same 3 or 4 people. And they would love some help!

This is also a good time to add more zoomers. If you're interested, the first step is to pick one or two of our nests and start posting observations and learning a bit about the territory and the eagles by where the zoomers go to look for eagles. Once you're comfortable posting, let me or one of the zoomers at your chosen nest know you're interested in zooming, and we can go from there.

We don't expect people posting to know all about the eagles initially - I've been watching cams since 2006, and I'm having trouble telling the male and female apart at our new Surrey Reserve nest unless I can see the tiny mark on the male's tale or the tuft of feathers on the female's head - but I know as I watch them more, I'll learn more about how they move or where their favorite place to perch is - and it will be easier. It's perfectly fine to say "an adult came in at 9:03 am and moved some sticks" - and often one of the folks who have been watching longer can look back using the dvr feature on our cams and see which one it is - and we're all happy to share the clues we used to recognize the adult.

You don't need to watch constantly, or commit to watching at a certain time - just whenever you happen to be watching, post what you see. Or didn't see - a post like "I was watching the North cam from 10:30 to 11:00 and did not see any activity on the nest" is actually very helpful as we learn when the eagles are most likely to visit at this time of year.

If you have questions about posting observations, please feel free to contact me or any of the Topic Assistants who post on the thread you're interested in.

You can click here to go to our donations page - and remember that the amounts listed under various projects like Eagle Cam Repairs and Monthly Support are suggestions - you pick the amount you give. Thank you.

If you have questions, please contact me ([email protected]) or gemini ([email protected]).

Thank you again to all who have donated or are donating time or money - we could not do this without your donations and without your observations, screenshots, videos, and hours spent zooming.

Mom White Rock wants to know why you're not watching her!

Screenshot courtesy of DDuckies2
(You can click to donate)

[JudiW]

Ma Sidney I recognized her the moment I saw her photo.....maybe she left the territory and got hung up in Alaska or something so Pa took a new female Missy only speculation on my behalf.....but it sure looks like her she's come back to claim her man

[JudiW]

Happy New Year to all the regulars and pa and ma and new female missy on the Sidney thread

[sassyk]

Thanks JudiW Happy 2019 to you and all HWF eagle watchers

We drove around Pat Bay and the Epicure nest area today after dropping off a family member at the airport. I took my camera but I didn't take any photos; it was raining and there was no place to safely stop on the side of the road. Ma, or whichever female is now with our Pa, was perched at the top of the tallest tree on the First Nations property. I have photographed both eagles in that same tree in past years. Pa was perched in the tallest tree at the south end of what was the Epicure property. There was a line of vehicles behind us so we couldn't stop or even take a photo out the car window The snag nest is still intact and the newer nest on Towner Park Rd. is as well I will be doing a tour of the nests on the peninsula one day next week if the weather is good Hopefully I will be able to get some photos of both eagles.

[JudiW]

Has anyone checked on Pa Sidney and his new female Missy to see if they are around as I heard that 12 eagles were poisoned up this way on the Island 6 died and 6 are in rehab could any of the mature eagles be Pa and Missy as they ate from a dead animal carcuss that had been euthanized and has been disposed wrong

[sassyk]

I did a tour of most of the nests on the peninsula yesterday. Pa was perched in his usual tree at the south end of the Epicure property (now new owners) across from the beach. After a few minutes he flew to another tree on the same side of the property, snapped off a branch and flew off towards the nest area. While checking on their newer nest on Towner Park Rd. I spotted one of the eagles in a tree on the farmer's property across the road from the snag nest. I couldn't tell which one it was but see from my photo it was Pa. We headed up the road to check on the snag nest. It looked intact but I couldn't see any new branches. We saw an eagle flying north of the Epicure property, across W. Saanich Rd. and it landed in one of the trees on the left side of the road before Wain Rd. I parked in the area where the pump station is and walked up the road to get a better vantage point for some photos. It was very dull and the little sunshine we had in the morning had disappeared so the quality/lighting in the photos I took isn't good.

Pa in his perch tree across from the beach.

Pa in the second tree just before he snapped off a branch.

Pa in the tree on the farmer's property, taken from Towner Park Rd.

[sassyk]

Their newer nest on Towner Park Rd. I can see 2 new sticks

The eagle in the tree up the road from the Epicure property.
Pa was still perched in the tree on the farmer's property.

Another view of the same eagle. Does not look like our original Ma or Missy.
Possibly the new female who stayed with Pa last summer.

[gemini]

From JudyB:

ANNOUNCEMENT

Hi everyone! We've done some work on the forum over the last couple of days which unfortunately made it harder for some people to log in and stay logged in. We think we've found and fixed the problem, but it may require folks to delete their browser cookies in order to log in.

We're still working on this, but have instructions for deleting cookies for several popular browsers here - viewtopic.php?f=2&t=13&p=148341#p148341 - and you can probably find the method for other browsers on the internet - and we hope to add more tomorrow.

If you have any additional suggestions or would be willing to write instructions for one of the other browsers, please let me know!

We are sorry for the inconvenience, but the work we've done will keep the forum more stable and hopefully more accessible.

If you can log in and post, if you have any questions or can help with additional instructions, please post on the Report Cams Down and Forum Errors thread in the Technical Help area.

If you cannot log in and post, please email me at [email protected]

Thanks!

[sassyk]

I visited Pat Bay and both nest areas today but sadly I didn't see or hear Pa or any other eagles in the area

[sassyk]

I did a tour of some of the nests I monitor on the Saanich Peninsula yesterday. I'm happy to report that Pa's new mate was
in the nest and appeared to be incubating I saw her picking up nesting material and pulling it around herself. I
did not see or hear any other eagles in the area Hoping next time I will see our beloved Pa

[JudiW]

Thank you Sassyk for the link I had lost it when I installed Microsoft Edge for Windows 10

Your in my prayers Elle, Ian bring Elle up here when she comes home and you still post your videos of Pa and Missy Sidney or Ma Sidney I and Gary we miss her my friend since Fledgefest 2007

[sassyk]

I did a tour of the nests on the peninsula yesterday. Pa was in the perch tree on the farmer's property across from the nest site. Pa's new Ma was in the nest incubating. We did not see a feeding or any fuzzy heads so we could not confirm there are eaglets in the nest.

[sassyk]

Pa's new Ma in the snag nest.

Ma & Pa's newest nest overlooking Pat Bay. They haven't used this nest for a few years.

[sassyk]

I did a tour of some nests on the peninsula today and was very happy to see 2 eaglets in Pa’s snag nest
They both were flapping their wings and looked very healthy. Ma was perched in a tree near the nest then flew off.
Pa flew into the nest and it looked like he might have dropped some prey, then flew off again. Pa was later perched
in a tree beyond the farmer's field.

[sassyk]

[sassyk]

I went to see how Pa and his family are doing yesterday. Both eaglets were sitting up in the nest looking out over the meadow. We did not see Pa anywhere in the area but his new mate flew in with something in her talons. One of the eaglets rushed over to see what it was but we did not see Mom feeding the eaglets. She flew off a few minutes later. One of the eaglets decided it was nap time while the other one did some jumping up and down and flapping its wings. It was sitting in the nest looking in the direction where Mom had gone when we left.