Pa Sidney Eagle Nest, Pat Bay, North Saanich BC - 2019-2024 Seasons

[sassyk]

I visited the nest site on May 26th and saw one of the adults sitting in the nest. I had glimpses of an eaglet behind the adult's tail feathers and saw something tan-coloured in the nest in front of the adult but I could not confirm that it was an eaglet There was also something on the right side of the nest but I couldn't determine what it was.

After taking a break for some refreshments at the Deep Cove Market and visiting another nest, I spotted an adult perched in a tree up the road from the nest site.

[sassyk]

May 26th cont'd.

One more photo of the adult in the tree up the road from the nest site.

As I was passing the nest site the adult was still sitting in the nest so I pulled over and took one more photo.

[sassyk]

I visited the nest site with my birding partner on June 14th. There were no adults seen or heard in the area. We were very happy to see an eaglet sitting in the nest but we were headed home so we couldn't stay long. Hopefully next time I visit I will see the adults

[sassyk]

I visited the nest site with my birding partner on July 4th. One eaglet was sitting up in the nest but we didn't see or hear either adult in the area. I took some photos from the end of the driveway and just at that time the manager of the doggie daycare came along and chatted with us. She gave us permission to walk down the driveway to get closer to the nest and I took a few more photos. We plan to visit the nest site again next week.

[sassyk]

I visited the nest site with my birding partner on July 14th. One of the adults was perched up high in a tree near the nest tree. The eaglet was sitting up in the nest when we arrived but before I could capture a photo the adult started vocalizing and the eaglet went down. The adult flew off to chase a turkey vulture out of the area. I couldn't get a clear view of the adult but I think it was our Pa.

[sassyk]

July 14th cont'd.

There is only 1 eaglet in the nest this season but it looks very big and healthy. It wasn't very active because it was quite hot! I hope the next time I visit the eaglet will be up and exercising its wings.

I have been given permission to view the nest from the driveway next to the field below the nest.

[sassyk]

July 14th cont'd.

A wide angle view of the nest tree and the perch tree the adult was in.

The adult returned to the perch tree after chasing the turkey vulture away.

One last photo of the eaglet, watching me as I was walking away

[gemini]

2023 Cam Maintenance
Matching Drive

It's that time of year - Vic at the White Rock nest fledged on July 12, and sibling Uni waited almost a week before fledging on July 18. Lof from Surrey Reserve is a week or so younger, and is beginning to get some height while flapping - I think it won't be long before we see her (or maybe him) trying out some of the branches! We know there's a chick at the Delta nest on the electrical tower, but without a cam, are not sure how close he or she is to fledging. We did lose an eaglet this year - brave, feisty Tyr from Surrey Reserve had some health and mobility issues but seemed to be doing okay although growing more slowly than most until suddenly he wasn't; I'll be adopting the Surrey nest for next year in memory of Tyr.

As I watch Lof moving around on the nest with wings held wide, I realize it will seem like just a hop, skip and a jump from now - and this year's eaglets will be off on their great adventure - and it will be time for us to get into as many nests as possible to clean the cams and do other needed maintenance.

We need your help so we can be prepared to see what happens next.

The first $1000 in donations toward our cam maintenance fund drive will be matched by long-time supporters of Hancock Wildlife - so the time to donate is now!

We'll have more details soon, but I know we'd like to have the cams at Surrey Reserve cleaned (which will cost around $1000) and it would be wonderful if we could get a cam at Delta that looks at the nest the eagles are using, as well as continuing to keep an eye on the one we'd like them to use (estimated cost $5-6000). We focused on the cams at White Rock last year, so unless there's an issue, we probably will skip them this year and plan to focus on them next year. There's a chance for a new cam at Harrison Mills, but we think the eagles have moved, so would need to find them or decide to focus on the eagles that fish in the river. And there may be other cams in the works!

If we can raise $7,000, we should be able to do the most essential work at Surrey Reserve and Delta. And with the matching drive, if you adopt Delta 2, Surrey Reserve or White Rock for next year for $250, Hancock Wildlife will get $500! Please note that adopting a nest is a sign of support for that nest, and we'll be using the funds where they are most needed - so please adopt White Rock if it's your favorite nest even though we probably won't need to do maintenance there this year - or adopt Harrison Mills, and we'll add your name there if we manage to get a camera there, or check with you a little later so you can choose to adopt a different nest or one of our tagged eagles with trackers.

The easiest way to adopt a nest is to

• go to the "Donations" page on our website (https://hancockwildlife.org/donations/ - or click the button below)
• click the "Donate via CanadaHelps Now!" link
• enter the amount of your donation ($250 to adopt the nest of your choice for the coming year)
• pick "Adopt a Nest" from the Fund list
• use the message box to say which nest (or tagged eagle) you are adopting and how you would like your name to be listed
• fill in your contact information and credit card details, and
• click "Complete Donation Now"

We've tried to answer some of the common questions about donating here - All About Donating - and please feel free to PM me or email me ([email protected]) or gemini ([email protected]) if you have other questions or concerns.

Thank You!

[JudyB]

2023 Cam Maintenance
Matching Drive
Update

We have raised over $3,000 already - almost half way to our goal! Thank you all so much!

And another supporter has come forward and pledged to match the next $500 in donations - so if you've been planning to donate, today is a great day to do that!

We already have 12 adoptions (2 each for Delta 2 and Harrison Mills, 3 each for Surrey Reserve and White Rock, one for tagged eagle Loki, and one person has not sent me their choice of nest or tagged eagle yet) - and nest adoptions have traditionally been the core of our fundraising for maintenance on the cams - so if that will work for you, please adopt a nest! Or two!

But I know that doesn't work for everyone, so I want to mention another option - we also have a core group who have signed up for monthly donations - and that consistent income helps with things like the cost of this forum, with its 1435 members, 662,126 posts and 1.2 million screenshots and other attachments. Thanks to all of you who post here, our forum has amazing documentation on a whole lot of eagles, not to mention osprey and various other critters - mostly in North America, but some from Europe and even Australia!

We encourage people to use CanadaHelps for monthly donations (actually, it's a great choice for all donations to HWF, and you don't need to be in Canada to use it). For those unfamiliar with CanadaHelps, it's a registered charity in Canada whose mission is to help smaller charities with their fundraising by handling the administrative stuff. If you're in Canada, they provide tax receipts automatically - and it's easier for gemini and me as the ones who track donations because there's a place for people to leave a comment so we know if they have an interest in a particular nest or tagged eagle - or what nest they want to adopt, if that's appropriate. Monthly donations can be cancelled at any time - or increased!

We are grateful to all of you who post observations, screenshots and videos - without you, there would be no forum, and no resource looking into the lives of so many eagles (and other critters) - thank you! And what is that saying about those who do the most being the ones asked to do more - if you can help out by adopting a nest, or signing up for monthly donations, or whatever you're comfortable doing, we would really appreciate it. Thank you for your consideration.

We've tried to answer some of the common questions about donating here - All About Donating - and please feel free to PM me or email me ([email protected]) or gemini ([email protected]) if you have other questions or concerns.

Thank You!

[sassyk]

I visited Pa Sidney's eaglet on Aug. 9th. When I first arrived the eaglet was not in the nest. I finally spotted it perched in a tree way beyond the nest tree. The eaglet is on the left side of the main trunk of the tree on the left.

After I had visited another nest and stopped for a coffee at the market, I spotted the eaglet back in the nest. Confirmation that the eaglet had fledged

[sassyk]

A few more photos of the eaglet wandering around the nest.

[JudyB]

So wonderful to see the fledgling at Pa Sidney's nest - it's been long wonderful journey since we first saw Big Vic and Little Sid back in 2006!

Thank you, sassyk, for all your work documenting the activity at all these nests!

2023 Cam Maintenance (& More)
Annual Fund Drive
Update

Hi everyone - and thanks so much to those of you who have donated to our annual fund drive! Thanks to you, we have raised $5,373 - and are getting close to our goal of $7000!

As you may know, the focus of our fund drive is to help with the maintenance expenses for our cams - and as I am typing this, David Hancock, cam wizard Ken, climbers and other team members are on their way to Harrison Mills to replace the two older cams there which are no longer streaming.

However - Hancock Wildlife Foundation is more than just our live streaming cams. We also are trying to be a repository for data about other nests with cams and nests with local observers. Many of the nests that have threads here also have active Chats and Facebook pages - which are really wonderful for communicating with other viewers while watching, and the Facebook pages are a quick way to share a great screenshot with others who are interested. However, most chats only go back a few hours - so there's no quick way to read about what happened three days ago - and photos and observations posted to Facebook are generally there permanently, but they're not chronological. Looking back a month later to see when a chick fledged can be a challenge.

We currently have threads for more than 20 other North American eagle cams, at least 15-20 nests without cams in BC, and a scattering of eagle, osprey, hawk and other nests from around the world.

We had to move our forum to a larger server this year - we host over 665,000 posts and have more than 1.2 million attachments, most of which are screenshots of eagles and other wildlife - and that number is growing daily. We have over 1400 members, and while this is generally the inactive time for our North American birds, about a hundred of you have checked in over the past month or so.

Server space, and the tech support that keeps it all running smoothly 99.9% of the time, is also a large expense - so even if you're not especially interested in our cams, if you find the forum interesting and useful, or like the ability to send PMs to other members about the nests you're following - please consider making a donation to support our general expenses.

Monthly donations are easy to set up:

• go to the "Donations" page on our website (https://hancockwildlife.org/donations/)
• click the "Donate via CanadaHelps Now!" link
• change the highlighted box at the top of the page from "Donate Now" to "Donate Monthly."
• enter the amount of your monthly donation
• feel free to use the message box to say which nest(s) you follow or provide other feedback
• fill in your contact information and credit card details, and
• click "Complete Donation Now"

Monthly donations can be cancelled at any time, and by donating through CanadaHelps, those in Canada will automatically get the tax receipt they need at the end of the year - and even though I'm in the US, I normally use CanadaHelps because I find it simpler than PayPal, and like that the tiny fee that's subtracted either way is used to help non-profits like Hancock Wildlife receive online donations. That said - you can also set up monthly donations with PayPal.

I will also mention that while we focus on adopting our HWF nests with cams, you can adopt other nests we cover, with the understanding that the money goes to support the forum, not to maintenance of those cams; two people adopted the Southwest Florida eaglecam nest for this year (2023), and I think other nests have been adopted in the past.

Details about How to Donate

If you have questions, please contact [email protected] or [email protected]




A big
Thank You!
to all who have donated,
and to our wonderful zoomer teams,
and to all who help in other ways,
posting observations, screenshots, videos, and so much more.

[sassyk]

Thank you Judy for all you do for HWF

We were in Sidney yesterday and decided to go to the market for coffee and a scone. I spotted an eagle perched high in the usual tree near the nest tree. I didn't expect to see any eagles and didn't take my camera or binoculars with me; fortunately Brian had his cell phone so I managed to capture a couple of photos. I did not see or hear any young eagles in the area. I couldn't tell if it was Ma or Pa but was very happy to see an adult

This is the cropped photo taken with the cell phone which wouldn't zoom in

This is the uncropped photo taken from the driveway on the property.

[JudyB]

Thanks for the pictures, sassyk - wonderful to see that their eaglet fledged successfully! And nice to have a wide view of the area from time to time.

[sassyk]

This is the opening post for observations, photos & videos
of Pa Sidney's nest for the 2023/2024 nesting season.

My birding partner and I visited the nest site twice on Oct. 12th. The first time we were on our way to the Deep Cove Market for a coffee and snack. We did not see or hear any eagles in the area at that time. As we were driving past the nest site after we had our coffee and visited 2 other nests in the area, I spotted an adult eagle perched in one of the trees close to the nest tree.

A wide angle view of the nest tree and perch trees.

The nest that was seen on the live streaming video cam that was installed by
David Hancock many years ago. Pa and Ma have raised many eaglets in that nest.

The adult that looked more like Ma than Pa, perched in a nearby tree.