Technology has a way of bringing life’s smallest moments closer than ever before.
High above a rocky coastline in Southern California, two bald eagles have made a nest. A non-profit organization called Friends of Big Bear Valley installed a webcam, giving us a unique bird’s-eye-view of the comings and goings of the two bird parents-to-be.
The organization provides a live stream on YouTube, along with videos recorded from the stream and commentary on Facebook. Updates allowed their nearly half-a-million followers to get to know eagle mama Jackie and her mate, Shadow, as they prepared their nest for offspring.
When it was time to lay their eggs, nature lovers got a front row seat.
On January 11, more than 3,200 people were watching live when Jackie delivered the eagle family’s first egg. It took some time for Shadow to get the hang of helping Jackie sit on the eggs, but the proud papa was up to speed in time for egg number two, which arrived on January 14th, in the middle of a snow storm.
“Egg #2!!!!” Friends of Big Bear Valley member Sandy wrote on Facebook. “Not sleet nor snow nor rain nor wind can stop Mama Jackie. This afternoon in the middle of the cold, wet storm, she laid her 2nd egg.”
“It would seem that this time she did not want the world watching her labor and egg-laying process – somehow the cameras went down during that part of the storm,” Sandy continued. “When they came back up, she looked a bit bedraggled, like she does when she’s just gone through labor… and when she moved aside for the camera to see…there were 2 beautiful eggs!”
It takes about 35 days for eagle eggs to incubate, and Jackie and Shadow will share the duties until the big day arrives. There’s stilly plenty of time to catch up on all the daily drama on the live webcam! We can’t wait to see these majestic animals hatch.
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