The Landings Club in Savannah, Ga., is streaming live footage of a nesting great horned owl at its Palmetto Course, with owlets expected to hatch around February 1.
A great horned owl nesting at the Palmetto Course at The Landings Club in Savannah, Ga., is being live-streamed 24/7 via the Savannah Bird Cam, with the owlets expected to hatch around February 1.
According to a report by Bluffton (S.C.) Today, a video specialist bolted two video cameras, including an infrared one for night viewing, into a loblolly pine about 85 feet above the golf course in August 2014. He trained them both on a huge stick nest that bald eagles built and used to raise their young over the last several years. This was to be the Landings Eagle Cam. But the birds didn’t come back.
Without eagles, a $25,000 grant to support the project from Explore.org dried up. The chosen website name, Landings Eagle Cam, no longer fit. And then there were hardware problems including a beetle infestation that’s killing the tree, a lightning strike that damaged equipment and a glitch with the infrared system. Project supporters fixed what they could and kept their fingers crossed for a long-term resident in the nest, preferably a photogenic one, Bluffton Today reported.
By mid-December it was clear the great horned owls had “signed the lease,” as the renamed Landings Bird Cam Web page put it. On New Year’s Day the first egg appeared, followed by another the next day, Bluffton Today reported.
The nonprofit Skidaway Audubon is the primary funder of the nest camera project. Others that contributed money or in-kind services include Southside Fire Department; the Georgia Golf Course Superintendents Association; the Georgia Golf Environmental Foundation; Ogeechee Audubon; the Coastal Conservation Association, Skidaway Chapter; The Landings Club; The Landings Association; and the local Wild Birds Unlimited store, Bluffton Today reported.
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is partnering with Skidaway Audubon, providing technical assistance and also livestreaming from its site at cams.allaboutbirds.org. Charles Eldermire, Bird Cams project leader at Cornell, said the Landings Bird Cam is unusual for the beauty of its natural setting and great light, Bluffton Today reported.
“The camera does a good job capturing what it’s like to be an owl up in a tree,” he said. “It’s great insight into what owls do when people are not around.
“The interesting thing with this nest is that you’re going to see the typical arc of what happens in an owl nest,” Eldermire said. And of course, there’s the draw of owl chicks, Bluffton Today reported.
“They’re going to be downy and cute. They’re going to be adorable.”
In the meantime, viewers can anticipate. And they can keep an eye out for the male owl. He was seen feeding his mate on camera in November but hasn’t been spotted since. He’s getting a reputation locally as a deadbeat, but Eldermire said he could still be around, helping to feed his mate away from the cameras, Bluffton Today reported.
“He might be camera-shy,” Eldermire said.
The best time to watch the nest is at sunrise, Welch suggested. “She has hunted and she moves around and rearranges her feathers,” Welch said. “(Today) she hooted. It’s fun to hear her actually vocalize.”
In addition to the live stream embedded below, http://landingsbirdcam.com/ includes short clips of the mother owl defending her nest, and interacting with the father.
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