Anything is Possible

Well, this behavior is interesting. If the birds were to nest this late, this would be very, very unusual, and I'm sure would break a record for late nesting--I will have to check for sure with Charlie.

A couple things to look for as far as nesting. 1) nest always occupied, 2) bird stands up looks down and rotates eggs, 3) quick nest exchanges between mates, and 4) the birds stay on the nest through the night. The IR light I think is not working anymore so we may not have the view at night that we would like, but we certainly do not want to be on site when the birds are behaving this way.

Please keep up your great comments and observations.

Wing Goodale

BioDiversity Research Institute

House Finch Cam Live!

Well in an effort to provide you with images of nesting birds, I have set-up a webcam on a nesting house finch at my house with a dedicated blog.

Please see the birds live at http://www.briloon.org/watching-wildlife/finch-cam.php

These birds are common around our houses and we can learn a lot about them and bird behavior from this camera.

Wing Goodale

BioDiversity Research Institute

Osprey Cam Now Has Blog

Please visit the new osprey blog http://ospreycam1.blogspot.com/ to learn more 

about the birds and comment on their activities.

I wanted to add that the birds are very active on the nest, they have been on

and off the nest for the last hour.

Wing Goodale

BioDiversity Research Institute

Osprey Cam Live

Greeting all!

Just spent all afternoon setting up a second osprey cam. You can see it live at http://www.briloon.org/watching-wildlife/osprey-cam.php

Kids in the Nest just sent us a ton of new equipment and we hope to have eight camera systems running by the end of the year. A HUGE thank you to them for their incredibly generous support. 

The pair  of osprey at this new cam are located at the Taste of Maine Restaurant, in Woolwich Maine, and if you are ever driving past them on Route one be sure to stop in and see the birds on a 42 inch plasma TV! And they have great food too!

Last year this pair raised a chick, despite the fact that the female had an injury and was found hopping around on the ground. I will get the full story and post it soon. Both the male and female have been visiting the nest site, but like the eagles, a disruption in nesting the year before may make them take a year off.

At the moment you will see some wavy lines moving through the image. This is coming from interference and we know the problem and are working on clearing it up. This camera does not have sound, we will install it next year. I will also be setting up a dedicated blog for this web cam. 

We also intend in getting the other osprey cam up and running. It was struck by lightening last year and the camera may be completely dead, but we are working on it.

Please let me know if you see any activity.

Wing Goodale

BioDiversity Research Institute

Loon Cam Live

Good morning all. I wanted to report that the loon cam is now live on our site. You can see the cam at:

http://www.briloon.org/watching-wildlife/loon-cam.php

I quick note about the sound of the eaglecam -- I have turned it off at this point.

Next week I will be receiving equipment from Kids in the Nest (www.kidsinthenest.com) and we will working getting additional cam systems up. I huge thank you to them! As you can imagine this can take time, but I will keep you posted.

I hope that by 2009 we will have eight live cams! However, we will need your help in purchasing computer systems to run the cams. If you are able please send in donations to help us buy computers.

We have two osprey systems that we hope to have in place shortly. It does appear that the osprey cam from last year maybe dead because of a lightening strike, so we will have to replace that camera--fortunantly we can use one of the new cameras from Kids in the Nest.

I will keep you updated, but we are really excited about our new equipment and the amazing possibilities. When I have specific plans about where we will deploy the equipment, I will let you know.

Wing Goodale
BioDiversity Research Institute

No Nesting This Year

Greetings dedicated bloggers. Well I think we can be certain that the eagles will not nest this year. The birds at this nest site have been the most productive in the state over the last 14 years and they are now sliding back to the state average. As we have already discussed, there are many reasons why the birds may not be nesting this year, including getting old, last years nest failure, contaminant burden, mate switch, or simply taking a year off. What we have seen over the last three years shows how hard it is for birds to successfully raise young each year. They face so many challenges, from habitat loss, to changes in food web dynamics, to contaminants. Who knows, maybe the birds will surprise us once again and break records for late nesting, but all the sign indicate they are taking the year off.

We will keep the camera up and running and we are currently working on getting our loon cam and osprey can up and running. We will be setting up the loon cam this week and hopefully will have it live for you by the beginning of next week. I am trouble shooting the osprey cam which sustained a major lightening strike last year--hopefully we can get it up soon.

Also we have a number of other cam projects up our sleeve, and there is a good possibility that we may be able to get them off the ground (literally and figuratively) this year.

Thank you for all your support and amazing observations.

Wing Goodale
BioDiversity Research Institute

Female Spends the Night on Nest

Well the birds certainly keep us guessing. According to bloggers the female spent the night on the nest, sitting mostly in the incubation position. This morning she was gone from the nest, but this could be a good sign. Although, they probably don't have an egg at this point since the birds have now left the nest.

If the birds do have an egg they will not leave the nest unattended or more than a couple of minutes and will look down towards the egg and rotate it every so often.

Thank you for al your great observations

Wing Goodale 

BioDiveresity Research Institute