Avian research center launches live bald eagle nest camera

Bartlesville, Okla. (March 16, 2010) - They’re back again and for all the world to see! Spying on the private nest lives of Bald Eagles has become an obsession for many Oklahomans, as well as for hundreds of thousands of viewers throughout the world. Live, remote cameras monitoring a pair of our national birds have once again been established on a nest near Stillwater by the Sutton Avian Research Center and their partners.


“For the last few years, this pair had been nesting on a special pole structure erected by OG&E  in Sooner Lake when it became apparent that the dead tree supporting their original nest was about to fall into the water,”  said Sutton Center assistant director, Alan Jenkins.


Last year, thousands of people tuned in to watch as this pair of eagles laid and incubated their eggs and raised their youngster to fledging.  In 3 ½ months the Sutton Center camera Web site received more than 4 million hits from 62 countries including far- away places such as the Tuvalu Islands.


“Our military personnel overseas have been watching the eagles regularly too,” said Steve Sherrod, Sutton Center executive director. “After working on the site one day, we were flagged down in our truck on the highway by a rancher pulling a horse trailer. She said she just wanted to thank us for providing that eagle nest camera because her son and his buddies watched it every day from Iraq.”


The Sutton Center confessed with a sigh of relief that it has been a real challenge this year since it was uncertain where the eagles would actually nest. It is not uncommon for Bald Eagles to repair or work on more than one nest, and this year this pair had four nests as “fixer uppers.”


“It is unwise to visit nests after egg laying starts because it may lead to desertion, and it is hard to tell which of the lined nests they would actually use so we have cameras up and ready at each potential site,” said Sherrod. “And that means a lot of work and financial investment, and it also means that the landowners must be willing to allow access to their property. Fortunately, the family that owns the land has been extremely generous in granting our team access.”


Unlike some other remote cameras, the Sutton Center nest camera is located where electrical AC access is not available, and Atlas Computers of Owasso came in and equipped the Sutton Center’s 10-foot trailer with solar panels and a small wind generator along with a wide angle camera. A volunteer climber mounted two close-up cameras above the nest and planted the transmitter, while a crew from Atlas Computers checked a laptop on the ground to make sure all the equipment was working properly. All of this had to be done within one hour so it would not disturb the egg laying process.


The signal from the nest transmitter is sent to a receiver on the smoke stacks at OG&E’s power plant where it is transmitted to a server built by Atlas Computers and housed at One Net in Oklahoma City.  OneNet, Oklahoma’s educational internet system, then provides the image-carrying signal to the world.


“It takes many partners to make this video feed available for everyone to enjoy and we are grateful for the participation of everyone involved,” said Sherrod, “We are especially grateful for the participation from our eagles and the viewers who appreciate our natural heritage.  We know this is an important educational tool and keep our fingers crossed Mother Nature doesn’t cause any problems for the nest camera this year.”


The Sutton Center anticipates the eagle hatching to occur around March 26-30.


The George Miksch Sutton Avian Research Center played a significant role in re-establishing then endangered Bald Eagles throughout the southeastern U.S. by bringing back southern Bald Eagle eggs from Florida nests, incubating and hatching them in Oklahoma, and raising them with eagle puppets from behind one way glass. They released 275 young eagles in NC, AL, GA, MS, and OK through a special process called hacking. No Bald Eagles were nesting in Oklahoma when the Center started their program in 1985, and as a result of their efforts there are now over 100 pairs nesting in the Sooner state. The Sutton Center is part of the University of Oklahoma’s Oklahoma Biological Survey in the College of Arts and Sciences.

To view the eagle cam, log on to: www.suttoncenter.org and click on eagle cam.