Pretty cool live Eagle Nest Camera set up in Hanover PA tracking Bald Eagle hatchlings over the last few years. Here's the link. Enjoy. https://hdontap.com/index.php/video/stream/hanover-bald-eagle-nest-live-cam 2 eggs this year. Previous season pic
Ooo! Ooo! Birds!!! I LOVE THESE, only I'm happy to say I don't need no Eagle cam right now (although of course I'll happily still watch). I live on a lake and a mated pair has been wintering over for going on 9 years now. This is their 6th successful set of eaglets. I see the latest juveniles as well as the adults several times a week and just hang out with my binoculars in my backyard. They're breathtaking. They've made a stunning comeback all along the cliffs of the Hudson, but the difference here is that at another local lake a mated pair started wintering over in 2008. It was the first time that a successful pairing/mating occurred in 110 years in a deciduous tree in the Hudson Valley, which was a really big deal. It was kept on the down low because no-one wanted them disturbed. The nest closest to me is on private property, but I did manage to get some excellent photos a few years ago that I'll post later. They are closely monitored by the DEC because people are fckn assholes and will shoot something just to shoot it. Some years ago some POS shot and killed an adult Bald further upstate from me and just left it there. It was a $500 fine at the time with up to 3 months in jail, but I'm pretty sure the fine has increased to $1000 since then. They never caught the dick who did it. I hope he fell off a cliff. Anyway, just the other day a couple of adolescent Crows were fleeing the juvenile Balds and Mama Crow was having none of it. Crows are a whole other subject. They are frighteningly intelligent. It's fascinating to me. They make tools, they problem solve, they even remember human faces and pass that knowledge down generationally to their young. "See that dick over there? He stopped feeding us last year. Remember that mug and dive bomb him every time you see him." Yes, I'm a self-professed bird nerd, but raptors/birds of prey are my favorites. Alotta close up and personal raptor stories, I could be here forever. I'll also post some freaky Crow stuff later on. Be amazed. Corvids are generally acknowledged to be one of the most intelligent birds on the planet. Deservedly so.
I thought what you said seemed so silly, I had to watch the video. That's really interesting. I wish the guy had more videos in that presentation, because it was fascinating.
The same Eagle cam that @JStokes posted back 4 years ago, uncanny. Eagles still frequent the Hernando County landfill down here, cheap meals I guess.
You have no idea just how fascinating it is. They are beyond scary smart. SMART AS A HUMAN 7 YEAR OLD. It's all brain to body ratio. They understand gravity displacement for one thing, which is pretty much exclusive to humans at the age of roughly five (i.e. putting rocks in a glass container when their beaks can't reach to raise the water level so they can drink - the Crows, not the kids) and great apes and some lesser primates. American Crows are the smartest, but Ravens, Magpies, Myna Birds, Jays, it's crazy. It turns out that bird brain is a misnomer. Ravens pretty much disappeared in NY state about 75 years ago and no-one knows why. They're being sighted again, which is really cool. It takes a little work to tell them apart. Oh, silly me, this belongs in the Horror Movie Thread, but ask me anything.
Awesome birds. We have 2 resident eagles on our property at work. On a somewhat related topic, I have a link to a cougar cam NSFW
I was a volunteer at an upstate NY zoo 4-5 days a week for over 5 years. One of my main tasks was feeding and training the birds for the education department and handling the animals in the rehabilitation clinic. One of the first things I learned was how smart crows are and how dumb owls are.
Ha, yeah, owls are pretty lame other than being fine-tuned killing machines. Their eyes/eye sockets are tremendous (hence their excellent vision), but to accommodate that it takes up a huge percentage of their skull space. The end result is that they have a pea brain. They are really beautiful, though. I've had a ton of owl encounters. Takes my breath away. One of my favorite raptors is the Peregrine Falcon. I sighted one on a back road near me hanging out on a telephone pole a few years ago. I was floored. They're pretty rare around here although they are making a comeback, most notably, of all places, cities. There used to be a Peregrine that I saw for years and years that hung out at Hudson Terrace right before the GWB. Pigeons are easy pickings. Fun fact about Peregrines: they are the fastest animal on Earth. They hunt by flying far above their prey then dive bomb head first at speeds over 200+ miles per hr. They slow down just enough at the last second and snatch them right out of the air. Bigger birds like Mallards, they head slam and knock them the fck out. Knock them unconscious as well as knock them out of the sky. They're dead before they hit the ground. Peregrine skulls are hard as concrete in order to withstand the impact. Now I ain't no mathematician, but I can't even imagine the amount of force when it hits its target going over 200 miles an hour. Pretty cool, huh? Beautiful birds. If any other bird nerd is interested, Sir David Attenborough has a great little piece on the Peregrines of Rome. Eagle Nest photos later today, Scout's Honor.
Oh, and there are at least 40 pairs of mated Peregrines in New York City (bridges, churches, skyscrapers, apt. houses) and TONS of Red-Tails. The biggest problem was that the city was poisoning pigeons by the millions, which is a big part of their respective diets. People have protested to stop the poisoning and let nature run its course on pest control. The pigeon population, while still a bit of a problem, has plummeted significantly, plus the city doesn't have to deal with the disposal of dead poisoned pigeons. Win/win. There are a lot of bird enthusiasts/bird-watching clubs in NYC. : )
Well, there ya go, do I lie? No. I have tons more, and all are copyrighted. I'll post some more tomorrow.
Yeah man, I know about the Peregrine falcon . The birds I spent the most time with were the coopers, red tails and kestrels. And the damn vulture who would give you “love bites.” Edit: great pictures! https://www.nyszoo.org/ That’s the zoo. I spent a lot of time training the otter Odessa when the exhibit was being finished and the she was a baby in quarantine.