Thursday, January 11, 2007

Thursday January 11

Just looked at the cam and saw the problems. Will get back with you once I understand what's up.

update: back up!

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Wednesday January 10

Coming in a bit late today, so I checked the cam.

Looks like the high winds last night messed up our microwave link. Hang in there while they fix it.

more later.

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Monday, January 08, 2007

Frisky Monday Update



Lots going on in the nest today with our eagle pair, looks likely that they definitely intend to use the nest again this year. ;>)

Monday 8 Jan


Wet monday. Live c am is up and eagles are in the nest.

Friday, January 05, 2007

Friday January 5

Another wet day thread. They forecast in excess of 70 degrees tomorrow!?

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Thursday January 4

Here's a link for WV Wildlife Magazine on Bald Eagles in WV. A little outdated now, but interesting nonetheless.

"West Virginia Status: The first documented bald eagle nest in West Virginia was discovered in 1981. Eleven nests produced 21 eaglets in 2001. These nest sites were located in Grant, Hardy, Hampshire, Pendleton , and Mineral counties. In 1999, a pair nested in Hancock County but were apparently unsuccessful in producing young. In 2001, a pair nested on Blennerhassett Island in the Ohio River near Parkersburg , but no young were hatched. Twelve nests were active in 2002, but not the nest on Blennerhassett Island. Non-breeding eagles have been seen in most areas of the state."

Monday, January 01, 2007

Monday January 1, 2007


Happy New Year thread.

Saw an adult Bald Eagle close up along Goose Creek in VA yesterday. We figure there are two nests along a 20 mile strtech of the Creek.


Update--One wet eagle at Blackwater

Monday, December 25, 2006

Merry Christmas

I see that the guys have some work to do with the cam. Let's leave it today and enjoy the holiday.

Merry Christmas.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Friday, December 15, 2006

Friday Update

I checked with the folks this AM and they told me they were headed out to work on our problems. I just got back in the office and see that the cam is still not up to par. I'm investigating further...

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Update

The cam is now live, but they are still working on the static problem. This all has to do with the microwave link.

On a brighter note, the live cam is now online full time. Once we get the static fixed we'll be happy.

Thursday 14 December

Tech update: Sorry for the continued glitches. The problem is in our production building control room. We're meeting with folks here at 2:00 to get to the bottom of this.

Also, it looks like we will be activating the live feed in short order, not in January as we said earlier.

hang in there. it's so warm here today, and the forecast is for continued 60 degree days--our eagles are probably out soaring in the warm air anyways.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Wednesday December 13

Feed is down in our Production building. They are working to fix, should be up soon.


New thread.

Friday, December 08, 2006

Friday Update



Here's an update on the cams. Good news and less than good news.

First the good--the transition work is complete and the still cam is online.

now the less than good--the video feed was on yesterday. That was only a test. As I mentioned earlier, the video feed will start full time after the first of the year. Sorry. I got pretty excited too when the cam was up yesterday.

thanks for your continued comments of support. We really appreciate it.

Friday 8 December

A little snow last night.


On the live link, click here. This will give you the realplayer link. Once it's downloaded on your desktop, doubleclick on it and that will open the live feed link. If any of this info changes I'll get it out to you folks ASAP.

As I write this at 8:48 am, the feed is down.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Afternoon pic




Update--

The locked up still cam shot is being dealt with in Denver!

Also, the live feed is up. Access the realplayer file through the link here on this blog. The link will be put up on the eaglecam webpage soon.

Thursday December 7

New thread.

Hang in there. The cam will come back on. They are working on the transfer to Wheeling.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

We're Up and Running



update: We still have some cleanup work to do on webpage text, and on our connections. The site is currently running through Denver. We will make the transition to Wheeling tomorrow.

None of us can believe that an eagle was in the nest when we finally went live.

Wednesday December 6

Cold morning thread. The guys are working on the cam problems today.

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Up and running, almost

By now you've probably seen the new web page for the cam. Note-- to actually get to the cam it's one more click as we are hosting the cam offiste to preserve our bandwidth.

Picture still is not quite right, but the guys are working on it.

Thanks to our contracting and technical folks for making this happen so quick (by our standards here at least).

more soon.

Tuesday December 5

New thread.

Friday, December 01, 2006

Friday

New thread.

Saw an adult bald eagle flying low over the Shenandoah River near Berryville, VA this am.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Molting

Here's some info from Bent's on Bald Eagle plumage and molting:

Plumages.--When first hatched the downy young eaglet is completely covered with long, thick, silky down, longest on the head; it is "smoke gray" on the back, paler gray on the head and under parts, and nearly white on the throat. When the young bird is about three weeks old this light gray or whitish down is pushed out and replaced by short, woolly, thick down of a dark, sooty-gray color, "hair brown" to "drab." The plumage begins to appear on the body and wings, scattered brownish-black feathers showing on the scapulars, back, and sides of the breast, when about five or six weeks old; at this age the wing quills are breaking their sheaths. At the age of seven or eight weeks the eaglet is fairly well feathered, with only a little down showing between the feather tracks, and the flight feathers are fully half grown.

In fresh juvenal plumage the young eagle is uniformly dark colored "bone brown" to "clove brown" above and below; the flight feathers are nearly black, but there is usually a slight sprinkling of grayish white in the tail. This plumage is worn throughout the first year without much change, except by wear and fading, the under parts fading to "hair brown."

After the first annual molt, the next summer, the plumage becomes paler and much mixed with white in very variable amounts. Individual feathers on the back, scapulars, and breast are more or less extensively white, those of the breast and belly being largely white in some specimens. I am not sure whether this is a second or third year plumage, or both; if the latter, the third year is whiter than the second. The tail is more extensively mottled with white than in the first year, and the feathers of the crown and occiput are broadly tipped with pale buff. After the next annual molt the plumage of the body becomes darker, much like that of the adult, but lightly tipped with white below and mottled with white on the rump and upper tail coverts; the latter and the tail are now quite extensively white; the head is mixed with white above, about half white and half brown, or nearly clear, dirty white below. This is probably the third year plumage. At the next annual molt, early in the fourth year, the bird assumes a plumage that is practically adult, with a pure-white head and tail; but usually remaining signs of immaturity are seen, such as a few brown feathers in the head and some dusky mottling near the tip of the tail.

The length of time required to assume the fully adult plumage does not seem to have been positively determined, and it may take longer than I have estimated. Adults and immature birds have one complete annual molt, which is very gradual, and prolonged through spring, summer, and fall. The flight feathers are molted mainly during July, August, and September.

Wednesday November 29

Mid week thread.

Saw both eagles on the nest last night.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Wednesday November 22

Wednesday thread. Sorry about blogger yesterday, it was all bloggered up for me in the AM.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Thursday Nov. 16

Here's some news you folks have been waiting for:

We met yesterday on getting the cam going.

We are going to outsource the web access this year to allow the still cam a much better refresh rate than the 30 seconds that our network folks afforded us last year. I've mentioned to a few folks that we face significant hurdles regarding network security and bandwidth limitations, and we believe this approach gets us past these issues. We are working through the contracting now, and have targeted Dec. 6th as the start date. We will strive to hit that target.

We will also experiment with a wide shot camera along with the existing cam. We recently got a brand new microwave receiver which should help with cam reliability.

The live video will start on or around February 1, and will stay on through the end of July.

We are also looking now at technology for next season that will improve the cam, and add audio. Based on the behavior of these eagles, we figure we only have a couple of weeks window in August to make the improvements.

The cam has been on here for a few weeks now, and we have watched the eagles slowly preparing the nest with new sticks.

I know that this has been a long haitus, but hang in there and we'll be up soon.

Monday, November 13, 2006

Monday 13 November

New thread. Sorry for the slowdown in new threads. Back from CT, and had to deal with a breakdown saturday on the highway more than 100 miles from home. Loads of fun :>).

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Wednesday November 8


New Thread.

Had a visit from Mission Wolf today, with their ambassador wolf, Maggie.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Sunday 5 Nov

Still at NCTC this am for the film festival. Both eagles spent the night in the nest last night. The guard could see them in the moonlight.

fresh thread.

Friday, November 03, 2006

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Saturday October 28

Sun's coming out thread. The adults are actively working on the nest. We are working to get the still cam up and running, should be soon.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Monday, October 23, 2006

Monday October 23

Blustery day thread.

Thanks again to all who made it out toi the open house. We appreciate your presence and support, and love the gift, which we will display here proudly.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Wednesday 18 Oct part 2

The blog is now unblocked. Thanks to the NCTC ITR folks for dealing with the powers that be so quickly, and thanks for the support you folks have given this site.

Wednesday 18 Oct.

Still being blocked thread.

Monday, October 16, 2006

Monday 16 Oct

New thread. The Department of the Interior has, for the time being, deemed this blog "innappropriate." We are working to fix, else I can only access the blog from my home...

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Friday, October 06, 2006

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Wednesday 4 Oct

Fresh thread. I'm off to Wyoming and then New Mexico for the next week. Will try to keep the threads going.

Monday, October 02, 2006

Monday 2 Oct.

New thread for a new week. Sorry about the delay, was away this weekend away from computers.

AM tree Sunrise Bella comes to the nest trim the tree

  https://youtu.be/Qow-nII87Jw?is=XNN99fGA5QezdczK Vide