Decorah bald eagle camera will shut down soon for the season

The bald eagle nest is empty most of the day now

Raptor Resource Director Bob Anderson says he's getting ready to turn off Decorah's bald eagle webcam soon.

The three young eaglets are now making only brief visits back to the nest, so the webcam will be shut down soon.

Says Anderson, "Our main goal this year was to offer live footage of the nesting eagles to teachers throughout Iowa and worldwide.  I am pleased with how we accomplished this goal.  Not only did hundreds of teachers use the Decorah Eagle cam as a learning tool, we had tens of thousands of individual followers from around the world."

The bald eagle webcast, which was hosted by Luther college, had over 25,000 unique visitors.  Those visitors logged on over 3.87 million times.  An additional 53,000 individuals logged on to the nest cam through the link provided by Xcel Energy.  People from over 125 countries watched the bald eagles.

Anderson thanked the many people who helped with the project in 2010:

--Willard and MaryEllen Holthaus and LaVonne Bjergum. 

--Greg Vanney, Bob Puffer and Adam Forsyth, the IT experts at Luther College.

--Xcel Energy for providing an alternative link to log on to the Decorah eagles.

--The Upper Iowa Audubon for funds to cover the cost of the cameras and computers.

--Shanna Gobbo and Kenny Phillips at Sims Radio Shack for working out many of the computer issues and technical problems, often in freezing cold conditions. Thanks to the entire gang at Sims Radio Shack for help with wiring connections, adaptors, microphones, and all the other electronic stuff we needed.

--Amy Ries, Raptor Resource Project webmaster, for keeping the main web site up and working, and dealing with a host of IT issues.

--Neil Rettig, Dave Kester, and Amy Ries who installed the new cameras and microphones by climbing up in the nest tree.

--The USFWS and Iowa DNR for permit authorization and support.