Catalina Update, Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Hi everybody,

What a wonderful week we’ve had. Last Friday, the West End (WE) eagles gave us a surprise of a lifetime by ‘secretly’ hatching an egg that we didn’t even know had been laid. As you must have known, Pete and I had collected two eggs from this nest a few weeks ago and were able to hatch one of them in our facility.
West End chick less than a day old

We have been monitoring the nest to make sure the parents continued to incubate the fake eggs, though given the new view of the camera, we were not able to see into the grass bowl so we assumed there was nothing there but the two fake eggs.
It looks like the female may have laid 4 eggs this season; egg #1 we think broke before we collected, egg #2 and #3 we collected, and egg #4 was laid after collection and successfully hatched on April 18.

On Saturday we fostered the WE chick back to his/her nest. We placed the chick in our portable incubator and drove to the West End of the island for nearly two hours. It slept most of the way out there but every now and then it would wake up and ‘look out the window’ in such an adorable way…

Unfortunately, our computer on the mainland was having problems that we didn’t know about and the WE cam did not work for most of the day. To make up for it, I posted a really good video of the fostering on Saturday; for those of you who missed it or liked it and would like to watch it again… here it is.

Right after Pete put the chick back I climbed to the nest and took a quick look at the very special couple of chicks; one for being hatched, fed and ‘brooded’ by us, and the other one for its unexpected arrival. Here’s my best picture of them

These are a couple of great shots from Pete



This is the second part of the fostering video


On our way back to Avalon we stopped at Two Harbors (TH) and recorded some video from across the water

We’ll try to post high quality video of the Catalina nests recorded from the transmitters instead of from the internet.

Pinnacle Rocks is doing well. Here’re a couple of pictures from yesterday.

The Seal Rocks (SR) nest still have its one chick and we’re hoping Twin Rocks (TR) nest still has at least one chick since we haven’t been out there this week.

In other news K51, another bird from 2005, returned to Catalina this week and was spotted this afternoon at Shark Harbor, which is a beach on the southern coast of the island but fairly close to a dirt road. S/he was spotted in San Clemente just a couple of days ago. Hopefully it’ll stick around and pair up with some of the other juveniles on the island for next breeding season.

Until next week eaglefans,
Steffani

Thank you for the update Steffani, and thank you for sharing your great work with us. The events of the past week on the West End nest were beyond wonderful and thanks to you we were able to share the joy. Congratulations on the surprise hatch! Here's to another successful year for IWS!

Steffani - Thanks so much for reposting the video taken by Stephanie of yours and Peter's trip to WE - love the pics both you and Peter took of the siblings. Couldn't believe the speed at which you climbed up to the nest to see the chicks after Peter left - you are amazing - all of us are so happy we got to meet and spend time with you and Peter for the 1st or for some the 2nd time - so happy you are permanent full time - so happy Hyde works so well with you and hoping Pimu will get the idea soon. The TH video is so clear and sharp - thanks for posting it. Hope there is sighting of Diana soon. Thanks for the pics of PR and news of K51.

Awesome absolutely awesome! Thank you guys so much for all you do! And I can only imagine what it was like to be "bombed" by Wray and 01 as you checked on the chick that they hatched, to foster back the one you guys helped hatch and then cared for - seeing the 2 together - Thank you for taking us along!

Wonderful update. Thank you.

MIB

The WE incubated chick is so cute in the palm of somebody's hand...it sort of looks like a little yolk sac there, but it's hard to tell. Very exciting that the other egg hatched in the wild...thrilling day for all! Thank you so much for the beautiful videos and news of K51. Hope it does pair off next year.

It's me holding the chick and I have small hands. The chick was so tiny, I think it was its second day with us since it was being held without gloves.
steff

Thank you for another wonderful update, Steffani! All the pictures and video are super. I have to select the one with the two fake eggs and little WE "Surprise" though as my favourite! That photo has to be the most unique one!

Thanks Steff love to see "our "\chicks and the great job you do
Cool pics !!!

Thank you for this amazing update and video and for taking us on this fostering trip with you and .

Thank you Steff for the wonderful update. Peter, Thank you for the cute pictures of the WE chick " surprise" and the photo of the two WE Chicks together in the nest.. I love the eaglet car seat you travel with...

Steffani Thanks for sharing these wonderful videos and pictures with us! I greatly admire the work you are doing at IWS!

It was really good to see clear video of the TH nest - special thanks for that (we have a hard time seeing that nest on the NK feed).

Wonderful update, Steff! Thanks so much for taking us along on your adventures each week in words, pictures & videos! Glad to see you & Peter were both wearing helmets!

That was such a great update Stephanie!! Better you than me climbing that pinnacle, I'm afraid of heights. And then when I saw one of the parents dive bomb you, I thought, Oh My Hope someday to get there to meet you and Peter and take a tour of the facility.

Incredible week and incredible update! Thank you so much for letting us see what is happening on Catalina -- especially the video of the fostering. Wow! I especially enjoyed the video of the TH nest since that is the chick I got to meet.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!