Jim Spickler eagle nest climb

Check out this video of Jim Spickler climbing to an eagle nest to band a young eagle:
Banding Day for A63 - Part I

The video is one of a series documenting the entire climb and banding process.

Here's Bob Van Pelt's description of Jim from a post to the ENTS (Eastern Native Tree Society) list serv:
"Jim Spickler is one of the world's great climbers. He has been an instrumental part of every canopy project I have been involved with - from rain forest canopies of the Pacific Northwest, to redwood and sequoia research in California, and the tall Eucalypts of Australia."

Van Pelt is an old-growth researcher, canopy biologist and the author and most excellent illustrator of Forest Giants of the Pacific Coast

-moss

Cool video, thanks moss.

That's some hairy work there. It looks like it requires some serious patience and finesse. Those big birds are really strong.

Is it just me, or does it look like he's not tied in to anything?

Jim Spickler here....and no, i wasnt tied in

This was one of those rare situations were being tied in might have actually have been more of a hazard. The tree was about at 40ft, and the nest structure was stable but rather heavy for the supporting tree. if the crown were to have collapsed, being tied in would have meant that i was lashed to the nest and would probably have ended up buried under a ton of nest debris. In this situation my best option was to have the ability to jump clear, hopefully landing in the dense ground layer and praying that it padded my fall. I should say that i know this tree well, having climbed it before this event. Also, it would be nearly impossible to fall out from the nest to the ground due to the virtual maze of dense branches that this has. In fact, its super difficult to get in to this nest because you literally must squeeze yourself between the branches.

On a sad note, A63 (the eaglet shown in the video) was hit by a car and killed somwhere over in Nevada several months after it had left the nest. Unfortunatly, the life of a young eaglet is often short. The first year is always the most difficult for them...

jim