Wednesday Update, January 10th, 2007

[IWS Crew]

Hey All,

Time for another Wednesday Update! I've spent the last week getting settled back into the island life after being away for the Holidays. Anytime I leave the island for more than a couple days, it always seems like I've been gone for a month!

Fortunately, the majority of the birds are where I left them in December. Most of them are still on Santa Rosa Island, using the northwest shore during the day and moving to the interior to perch in their favorite oaks in the evenings. A-49 is still over there, hanging with the crowd. We may be making another trip to Rosa next week, to once again check-up on the youngsters and look for older, nesting birds. It's now getting close enough to nesting season that any birds that have paired up will most likely be working hard at building a nest. With all the work required to build the nest, this is our best chance to find a pair of birds carrying construction material back to the nest. Once they settle into the routine of incubating they become harder to spot, mostly because they just don't move around much. So we're going to be spending the next month looking for any potential breeders. We didn't find K-10 and K-26 in the nest until February last year, so we should have plenty of time yet to track down some new nests.

I got a call last week from a biologist on San Nicolas Island that works for the US Navy. She wanted to let me know that she had seen a young, blue-tagged Bald Eagle on the island the day before. This is the first report we've received of an eagle on that island, although historically there were several Bald Eagle nests out there. She wasn't able to get a tag #, but based on her description, it was probably and 1-2 year old bird. The GPS data hasn't shown any birds out there yet, so either it's a bird without a working GPS unit, or the data just hasn't uploaded to the satellite yet. We'll let you know if we get any more news on this bird.

Chris was out at the webcam nest today, trying to get the audio working. The microphone is in the tree and seems to be working perfectly, unfortunately we don't yet have the right adapter to plug it into the web feed. Don't worry though, everything seems to be working properly, so as soon as we get the correct fitting we should have sound from the nest.

That's about all I have for now. I'll leave you with a couple pictures we got from the trail camera this week and I'll talk to you all again soon.

Dave





A-21 is starting to look like a full adult. He was released in 2003, so he'll be turning 4 this spring.


This is a White-tailed Kite that Jessica watched kill and eat a mouse today. We've been seeing these birds on the island quite regularly lately.


Here's the Kite wiping his (her?) bill after a nice meal of mouse.

[Eagle Duo]

Thanks for the great update and wonderful pictures, Dave & Jessica & welcome back! Hope you had a good vacation and are ready to get back to eagles! Loved A21 is maturing beautifully! Thanks, Jessica, for the wonderful pictures of the white-tailed Kite too! Look forward to hearing what you find on Santa Rosa next week!

p.s. We all thought that's what those noises were from. Here's hoping you get the correct adaptor soon so we can hear the eagles! What an exciting season we have ahead of us!

[Joanie]

Hope your time away over the holidays was a relaxing one and that you are looking forward as much as we all are to the coming months. Can't wait for the audio to be fully functional... (I guess I could say the same about our nesting pairs!).
Thanks to you and Jessica for the taking and posting of the pix and the informative update - as usual!!

[SheilaSB]

Thanks Dave & Jessica for the keeping us posted on all the eagle activity on different islands - enjoyed the pics.
Thank you Chris for the sound at SC - I am looking forward to hearing it tomorrow am.

[harpo516]

As always the updates are so informative and the photos -right on! Thank you thank you -hope everyone had great holiday time and of course, wishing you all the best in the New Year!!

[KLJinOz]

How cool is that, getting a call from the US Navy! Is this something that happens a lot? I didnt even know the US Navy had biologists!

Thanks for the update and pics Ozzie

[Naturegal]

Thank you Dave and Jessica for your report and photos. Glad to hear all the eagles are doing well and that A-49 is still hanging out with her buddies.

Chris - thanks for checking into the sound for the SC nest.

[Troth]

Hi Dave,
Welcome back. Welcome back Chris and Jessica, I hope the holidays were good for all of you.

Goes without saying how much we love the updates.

Very interesting about the Navy biologist calling about the eagle on San Nicolas Island. Very positive that eagles are showing up there, the eagles are making a comeback all over these islands. I love that.

Great pics, pics are my favorite. I just wish we could get a shot of Cruz, I would love to see how she looks now. I know she is just beautiful.

Jessica, the photos of the kite were great, how big is that bird? (I can goodsearch it.) How cool to be able to watch them doing what they do naturally - hunting, catching and eating prey and then washing up after.

Have a great week you guys, be careful out there, they say rain is coming and some brry cold days ahead, so bundle up and keep warm.

Until next Wed.

[Cockney2]

Again, thanks for the great update. You people are wonderful.

[Patti]

Happy you're all back and thankful for another fantastic Update. You always bring interesting news and incredible photos. Such a great forum feature; we're so fortunate.

[cdn-cdn]

Thank you very much for the update, pictures, and all of your hard work! I, too, am looking forward to sound. Your effort to keep us all posted on the latest eagle news is really appreciated.

[Bea]

I want to add my thank you for the nice update and great pictures. What a nice looking bird that kite. Gonna have to do some goodsearches on that one. As always, very informative update. Thank you!!! We truly are lucky to have you guys share so much with us!

[Nancy]

Welcome back Dave and Jessica,
Thanks for a very informative update and beautiful photos. Nice to hear that the birds are getting along nicely. Can't wait to see our Ms Cruz at some point.
Thanks for all your hard work.

[Loverofchicks]

Welcome back to everyone. such a good update. I can't wait to see who is on the other island. you all are the best. who else would give us such a great trip on wednesdays of our . Thanks for the pictures they are so good and show the eagles' beauty. Frances