BIG BEAR LAKE, California — Hatch watch is underway in the mountains of Southern California. Three bald eagle chicks could emerge this week from eggs laid in a nest monitored by wildlife enthusiasts through a popular online camera feed.
The mother, Jackie, laid the eggs in late January atop a tree overlooking Big Bear Lake, high in the San Bernardino Mountains east of Los Angeles. She sat diligently on the eggs for more than two and a half days when a recent winter storm covered the nest with snow.
“This is the longest time she has ever spent on the nest and hatched her eggs without a break! 61 hours 58 minutes!” according to the nonprofit Friends of Big Bear Valley, which installed the nest camera in 2015 and documents the successes and failures of each breeding season.
Since the storm, Jackie has been sharing breeding duties with vigilant father Shadow. Biologists expect the eagles to hatch on Thursday or Friday. The process by which chicks break out of their shells is also called pipping.
Among those monitoring the eggs’ progress from a distance is biologist Kelly Sorenson, executive director of the Ventana Wildlife Society in central California. Although his group is not concerned with Big Bear eagles, he sees their reproduction as emblematic of the comeback the species has made in the state in recent decades.
The American bald eagle was on the brink of extinction until the pesticide DDT was banned in the 1970s and other conservation measures were put in place, helping the species recover.
“We love keeping an eye on these types of nesting pairs,” he said Wednesday. “They show that conservation works and that the habitat is intact.”
Jackie has been using the nest, built by other eagles, since 2017. Last year she laid eggs in January and spent weeks incubating them. The eagle pair then began to leave them unattended. In March, ravens broke the eggs, revealing no apparent development, according to Friends of Big Bear Valley.