Last year, as I recall, we followed the adventures of the two red-tailed hawks at Cornell, Ezra (male) and Big Red (female). Well, the hawkcam is up again and alert reader Kevin informs me of this:
I don’t know whether you’ve noticed but Big Red and Ezra are back at the Cornell Hawk Cam [JAC: live video at the link]
They moved nests this year so the cam was down for a bit while they put new ones in, but there are currently two eggs. Of course, the real action won’t start for a month or so, when we’ll get to see the usual pile of innards and pigeon feet cluttering the nest!
Here’s a screenshot. I’m not sure what the egg gestation time is for Buteo jamaicensis, but I’m sure one of our readers can tell us when the eggs are likely to hatch (one egg was laid March 15, the other yesterday).
You may also enjoy the Peregrine cam at the University of Sheffield (though I’ll grant that the Cornell hawks are a little less minimalist in their architecture…):
http://efm.dept.shef.ac.uk/peregrine/
One thing I’ll say about this Cornell RTH cam is that these guys are much more active, interesting, and entertaining than were any eagle or peregrine or kestrel cams I looked at. If anyone has to pick one to watch, I would say this is the one to pick. There was a lot to learn about development, and it was easy to see on these guys.
According to Wikipedia gestation lasts 28 to 35 days.
On the subject of nest cameras, how are the squirrels?
I’ll answer that tomorrow with photos.
[self] Grabs nuts ; sits waiting.
And what are the ladies supposed to do while waiting?
Well they can grab nuts too.
What on earth did you think I meant?
I’ll just sit here then, licking my eyebrows.
Well done. That made me laugh out loud. Also, since the egg was laid on the Ides of March, I hope they name it Julius.
The new hawk cam is still in the center of campus, a couple hundred meters to the west. And it’s very close to a building; that’s Weill Hall in the background.
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I see the snow has started.
Here’s another bird cam – one for an eagle nest overlooking the Mississippi River. You can watch Liberty and Justice with their two recently hatched eaglets.
http://www.alcoa.com/locations/usa_davenport/en/info_page/eaglecam.asp
Here’s a link to the live eaglecam at the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, WV (an *awesome* training facility for federal employees). The link is sponsored by the Outdoor Channel:
http://outdoorchannel.com/eaglecam
Here’s the NCTC site with archived still images:
http://www.fws.gov/nctc/cam/index.html
I’d just like to second the awesomeness of the NCTC, in every regard. The Am Chestnut Fdn has had its meetings there several times, most recently last fall, and I wish they’d meet there more often.
The Cornell Lab heron cam is also up and running, but no herons yet. They won’t arrive until the end of the month. That nest has new cams and promises to be another excellent view into previously difficult to observe behavior.
The Minnesota Bound pair of bald eagles are currently incubating the next generation of adorable eaglets:
http://www.mnbound.com/live-eagle-cam/
I don’t know how to add a link, so if anyone would like to see the bald eagles nesting near my home, search baldeagles/NorthFortMyers. Ozzie and Harriet
have been raising Hope and Honor who are about ready to fly.
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