New eagle cam in Harmar mounted in the love birds' nest tree
New eagle camera installation
Rob Kruljac of Davey Tree Expert Service installs the new web cam above the Harmar eagles nest
On Friday, a well-seasoned tree climber looked like Spider-Man as he did what couldn't be done before: Install a new webcam in the nest tree of a pair of bald eagles on a snow-covered bluff in Harmar above Route 28 and the Allegheny River.
Rob Kruljac of Richland, an arborist with Davey Tree Expert Service, volunteered his time to deftly climb 103 feet up the largest sycamore on the hill, which cradles the aerie of the birds soon to be in their fourth year of nesting.
The Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania, PixController of Murrysville and Davey Tree Service worked together to install the webcam.
It is one of two eagle webcams in the region, the other trained on the Pittsburgh Hays bald eagles, which will go live by the end of month, according to Brian Shema, Audubon's operations director.
They will be able to be seen on the websites of PixController and the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania.
Earlier this month, Kruljac reinstalled the Hays webcam in the birds' new nest tree.
The new placement, along with a new, high-definition camera, replaces the more distant shot previously used for the Harmar nest's webcam.
Climbing the sycamore, estimated to be between 150 and 200 years old, initially seemed insurmountable, so the camera was instead installed in another tree.
Shema got to know Kruljac's work from when he helped last year with maintenance of the Harmar webcam.
Kruljac had asked Shema why the camera was placed so far away from the nest — and a project was born.
Without Kruljac, “we'd still be 265 feet away in an oak tree,” Shema said.
Just to reach the nest tree Friday, Kruljac, Shema, PixController President Bill Powers and others had to use ropes to rappel down the steep snow-covered hill.
Kruljac's athleticism was evident as he plied his ropes so he could move laterally through the sycamore.
He seemed to walk effortlessly along the limbs high in the tree's canopy, his footsteps causing snow to fall from the branches onto the technical crew working on the webcam equipment below.
Bill Powers, CEO of PixController, said, “We will have a nest view at Harmar unlike anything we had before.”
Photos taken by Kruljac documenting the angle of the camera shows sweeping views of the Allegheny River and the Hulton Bridge.
The webcam will have tilt and zoom capability to follow the birds every move in and near the nest.
Mary Ann Thomas is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 724-226-4691, mthomas@tribweb.com or via Twitter @MaThomas_Trib.
