Watching the Eagles' Nest Cam

It feels like it's been such a long winter, but it's finally getting to be Spring again; hurray!! One of the early signs of Spring is that the nest cams start to be available, and we are big fans, particularly since getting outside has been happening... but not not consistently yet. Winter can be done any time.

This year it's eagles on the Big Bear Bald Eagle Cam. They have two babies, and we've had a great time watching them. One of the first days we watched, there was a spontaneous rush for the kids' nature notebooks, and everyone did a drawing. That was really fun to watch and participate with. With the kids so interested in what they were doing, the drawings were their best work -- and recent efforts and learning to see things truly were clearly evident. There's been a lot of improvement over the winter!

The nest is in San Bernardino National Forest, but apparently it's been plenty cold there: we've tuned in several times to see snow in the nest, and even got to watch it fall on the patient parent one time. It was fun to watch the way that it just shed right off the feathers. The adults would sort of "tent" their wings and fluff up, and everything stayed nice and cozy in the nest, in spite of the white stuff decorating everything.

I don't know how they do it, but you can see them as clearly in the night as you can in the day, and that's been interesting, too. I had no idea that Bald Eagles sleep with their heads tucked in, and I would never have guessed that they'd do "snore wiggles" like cartoon characters!

Apparently, parenting is the same all over; I tuned in after putting the kids to bed the other day, and discovered that it's not just people babies that wake up and need attention in the night: eagle babies do this too! And their parents look every bit as pleased!

I found it amazing to watch how quickly the babies grew; this picture is not quite a week after the first one, but the little ones are noticeably larger. We've watched them have lunch several times, and seen an impressive variety of fish, mammals, and birds go through the "larder" that the parents keep up around the edges of the nest.

Snow again -- tuck those babies in nice and cozy! We didn't see much for a while after this.

But it didn't stay completely covered long, and the next time I tuned in, the babies were on their own! That seemed as exciting a milestone for the babies as it does for my babies. Funny how easy it is to identify with parents, even when they're so different.

It didn't take long, though, and the mama was back. Then it was snack time and tucked in snugly for a nap pretty quick. All that excitement will wear a baby out, I guess!