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Finding Eagle Nests; By land or by air?
Topic Started: Sep 22 2006, 03:04 PM (396 Views)
Eagle Duo
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Eagleholic
This may sound like a silly question, but after looking over the terrain of Santa Cruz with Google Earth, I started wondering how you first found the nests that you watch and foster on Catalina and Santa Cruz Islands? Those are large areas to cover on foot, not to mention very rugged terrain. Do you fly over the islands in helicopters to look for nest building initially or is there some other way?
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Eagle Guy
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We use a variety of methods to find nests, including helicopter and boat surveys. Cruz's nest was found from a boat. The grassland nest was found by examining the GPS data from the collared female, which showed she was spending half her time in the same spot. We also spend a lot of time early in the year watching eagle behavior to find their activity areas and where they may be constructing nests.
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Eagle Duo
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Thank you for your quick answer. As always, it was very interesting and educational. And thanks for taking all the time you do to answer our questions! :D
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Nancy
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Dr Sharpe
I was wondering after watching the amazing Maine Eagle nest building video and how perfectly round and sturdy the nests seem. Do the eagles, like the honeybees, have some sort of geometry/engineering type wiring of their brain to build stuctures like that? or is is purely instinct?
Thanks for your time.
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Eagle Guy
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I think nest-building is just instinctive. The nests I deal with are mostly on rock pinnacles and ledges and are rarely round. I think the shape and size depends on the substrate on which they are building the nests.
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Nancy
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Thanks Dr Sharpe for your quick reply. It just amazes me what these birds can do.
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Eagle Duo
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You mentioned that Cruz's nest was found from a boat. I was wondering how far from the ocean her nest is?

I was also curious about how far (approximately) the cameras are from all three nests.
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Eagle Guy
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Cruz's nest is probably about 300 m from the ocean. The camera on that nest is currently about 90 m from the nest, but I'll be moving it to about 30 m in a couple of weeks.

The West End cam is on the edge of the nest and the Two Harbors cam is about 4 m from the nest.
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Eagle Duo
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Thanks again, Dr. Sharpe, for your quick answers. Helps to put things in perspective. Amazing and fascinating that we can feel so close and see things as clearly as we can!

I think you mentioned awhile back that you hoped to have sound for the coming season. Is that still a possibility?
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MaMiMoBa Mom
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Eagle Guy,Sep 26 2006
09:59 AM
Cruz's nest is probably about 300 m from the ocean. The camera on that nest is currently about 90 m from the nest, but I'll be moving it to about 30 m in a couple of weeks.

The West End cam is on the edge of the nest and the Two Harbors cam is about 4 m from the nest.

Dr. Sharpe, would either you or your crew be willing to post the camera changing date on the upcoming events section of the forum? This is where my 3 kids would insert "Please, Please, PLEASE!" It would bring back the memories of your tagging day AND I would feel like I'm a part of your amazing crew working to prepare the nest viewing for next season! Just wondering...and I'll insert one more PLEASE. :huh: :unsure:
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Hulabird
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Dr Sharpe, We wanna watch. Can we, huh, can we, pleeeeeeeeeze?
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harpo516
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Me toooo - begging - please please please ---- :unsure: :unsure:
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Eagle Guy
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I'll post when I'm going to move the camera. Unfortunately, for most of that time the camera will be off-line because I have to disconnect the power and video cables to move it to the new location. I'll try to get all the power and video cable run to the new spot before moving the camera so that the down time is minimized.
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Hulabird
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If you don't wave to us we're going to be mortally wounded.
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