Bald Eagles Near and Far

A couple of weeks ago, I was getting bird food at a specialty store in Kanata. The shop has its own TV screen, and on it was a livestream YouTube video of a bald eagles’ nest in California. I was told by the clerk that two young ones had hatched two days earlier (Tuesday, March 4) and that mama eagle was sitting on one more egg, as well as the two tiny eaglets. At home I was able to connect to this livestream link by typing “Big Bear Valley Eagle Cam” into my computer search bar. Now I can watch this family of eagles in their nest high up in a pine tree fairly overlooking Big Bear Lake, which is close to Los Angeles.

On Thursday, March 6, the third egg hatched during a snow storm. All three fuzzy gray eaglets remained tucked under mama eagle’s wings and belly during that storm, which lasted several days. Every now and then, particularly around noon California time, she feeds them tiny pieces of raw fish that papa eagle drops off for snacking.

Reading the chat beside the livestream, I learned that these two locally born bald eagles have been together since 2018. Shadow, the male, for the most part stays in the background and brings twigs to shore up the nest and freshly caught fish for dinner. On several occasions I’ve heard Jackie, mama eagle, call out to Shadow, and sure enough, he shows up and they have a delightful conversation back and forth.

The Big Bear Eagle Cam is maintained by The Friends of the Big Bear Valley organization, which is dedicated to protecting and preserving Big Bear Valley. The webcam operates year round and draws thousands of viewers as a time. Before going to press, I noted there were over 50,000 viewers at any given time. One of the grade three classes in the valley will select a name for each of the eaglets based on suggestions from the public.

Besides finding this livestream footage totally breathtaking and exhilarating, I began to wonder if there are any active eagle nests in Lanark Highlands or Tay Valley Township, and whether I could somehow find a way to install a tiny camera there so one of our own local eagle family’s saga could be told.

I didn’t have too far to go to start to find an answer. Mike Girdwood, a neighbour, shared how some 10 years ago a pair of bald eagles had nested in a tall pine close to his home near Fallbrook. Using binoculars, Mike and his wife, Janet, would watch the comings and goings of this pair of eagles from their back deck.

Mike told me,”The size of the birds, the size of the nest and the fact that it was on top of the tallest tree caught our attention with the naked eye, even though it was a third of a kilometer from the house. That tree is still there, but it is dead now and there are no remnants of the nest. We always keep a set of binoculars handy at the door.”

On the Canadian Wildlife Federation website, I learned that threats leading to the decline of North American birds continue to grow. These include loss of habitat, invasive species, pesticides, toxic chemicals, pollution, cat predation, decrease in insect prey numbers, climate change, disease and death from man-made obstacles.

Increasing our awareness and systematically reducing some of these causes will go a long way to ensuring these beautiful creatures survive and flourish. Watching these birds care for their young amid major obstacles to their survival is truly inspiring.

To view the live camera, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4-L2nfGcuE