It’s been a winter of firsts for Big Bear bald eagles Jackie and Shadow.
The pair welcomed a rare third egg to their clutch in late January. Then the severe storm that lashed Southern California last week led Jackie to hunker down for 62 hours straight to protect her little family — at times completely covered in snow.
Now “pip watch” — the online vigil for the first holes eaglets make in their shells — is just around the corner, and devoted fans of the web-cam stars are waiting to see how the eggs have fared.
Jackie’s stint shielding her eggs from the storm made national news, with video showing her poking her head through the snow heaped on the 5-foot-wide nest that sways high in a pine tree above Big Bear Lake.
Sometimes, “she’s the only one she trusts,” said Sandy Steers, biologist and longtime executive director of Friends of Big Bear Valley. But even for a mom as devoted as Jackie, staying on the nest for 62 uninterrupted hours was a feat. Steers said the last such stretch happened a couple of years ago and topped out at 37 hours.
Steers and the Friends of Big Bear Valley have been monitoring the resident bald eagles for nearly a decade via a solar-powered web cam. It is active year-round.
“We have three people who operate the camera,” Steers said, “including one in Italy who operates it when everybody here is asleep.”
Jackie and Shadow have drawn a devoted following, and Steers believes their personalities keep viewers tuning in. “They’re amazing and hilarious,” she said. “You can tell when they’re arguing with each other; you can tell when they’re lovey-dovey.”
Shadow is “a little mischievous,” which she says is a nice balance for Jackie, who “is very serious and in charge.”
Jackie was serious last week when the storm — which hit Southern California hard with rain and mudslides and damaging winds — brought mounds of snow to the San Bernardino Mountains.
“When the weather is bad,” Steers said, “she will not get off the eggs except to roll them and turn around and lie back down.”
She didn’t allow Shadow to spell her even when he called out to her, Steers said. She seemed to be telling him, “I’m fine but not yet — stay away,” she added. The female bald eagle is larger than the male, so “they can spread out across the nest and give it more protection.”
Once the weather calmed and the sun came out, Shadow “still had to wait 10 or 15 minutes.”
Now fans are just waiting for pip watch. Beginning Feb. 29, eagle-eyed viewers will be looking for any sign the chicks are breaking through their shells.
Steers expects web-cam viewership to surge, just as it did when Jackie laid her eggs in late January and thousands tuned in. As fans become invested in the couple and their eggs, heartbreak is always possible.
In the past, Jackie and Shadow have lost eggs that have been nonviable, and some have been eaten by ravens. Once hatched, a juvenile bald eagle has less than a 50% chance of surviving its first year of life, according to the American Eagle Foundation.
But hopes are high.
Once pip watch begins, Steers said, “every little speck of dust, everybody’s wondering, is that a pip? … We will try to zoom in” to look for signs of a shell breaking open.
This story originally appeared on LA Times
