Eagle cam returns to Iroquois refuge after 20-year absence

Bald eagle can be seen up close in nest from camera perched high in tree

Provided images: The nest cam shows a bald eagle on Friday afternoon, not long after the camera was mounted in a tree.

By Dick Moss, Friends of Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge board member

BASOM – After an absence of more than 20 years, there is an eagle nest cam once again at Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge.

The eagle camera was installed Friday morning and will begin streaming online soon after. The old eagle cam, which used vastly outdated technology in today’s terms, ceased operating over 20 years ago for technical reasons. Because of the expense and a variety of other reasons, the refuge has not had an operational eagle cam since that time.

The new camera and equipment were made possible through funding by Friends of Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge, a nonprofit group associated with the refuge, and by donated expertise from Bill Powers of PixCams and Treeman Tom LLC.

“After one year of planning and with much cooperation with the New York State DEC and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, a new eagle nest cam was installed at the Cayuga Pool bald eagle’s nest today,” said Garner Light, president of the Friends group. “This nest has been actively used by bald eagles for most of the last 24 years. This was determined to be the most accessible and successful nest to install a nest cam at.”

Photos by Emma DeLeon – (Left) Logan, an employee of Treeman Tom LLC, and Bill Powers of PixCams straighten out the cable to the eagle cam as it is raised into the tree. (Right) Gary Pocziwinski works his way up a nearby tree to install the eagle cam. The camera is now mounted in a tree about 70 feet from the eagle nest, but its zoom function will allow for a good view of the nest activity.

The eagle cam proved to be quite popular with refuge visitors and others, and Light and his associates are hoping it will prove to be so again.

“We still have refuge visitors inquire about being able to view the live feed to the eagle’s nest,” Light said.

“We are all looking forward to seeing the first footage of the eagles,” said FINWR board member Emma DeLeon. “It’s going to be a great opportunity for people to observe their natural behavior up-close. Hopefully it will be both entertaining and educational, and will help inspire a love for birds and nature and an appreciation for wildlife conservation.”

Photos by Dick Moss: Bill Powers, Gary Pocziwinski, FINWR board member Emma DeLeon and FINWR President Garner Light hook up the batteries for the solar panel (background) that will power the eagle nest cam.

Bill Powers, of Murrysville, PA, is the founder of PixCams, www.pixcams.com, which has set up numerous wildlife cam projects and streams them online. Streaming of the Iroquois cam will be available there first. The Friends group website, FINWR.org, is currently undergoing a redesign, but once that is done it will carry a link to the streaming. There are also plans to put a TV monitor in the refuge headquarters facility so visitors can see what is happening at the nest.

Update at 6:01 p.m.: Click here to see the link to the eagle cam.

The actual installation of the camera was carried out by Treeman Tom LLC, which provided the necessary tree climbing services to get the camera into an appropriate position. Owner/crew leader Gary Pocziwinski did the climbing.

There is no guarantee the eagles will have chicks is the spring – the pair that used the nest last year laid eggs, but they never hatched. But the nest has a good track record, indeed one of the bald eagles was perched in a nearby tree watching part of Friday morning’s installation. If all goes according to plan, the eagles will start being active around the nest in December and January, lay eggs in February and have hatchlings in March.

The eagle cam before installation.

A bald eagle, left, perches near the Cayuga Pool nest Friday morning.