The day after a pair of Big Bear area bald eagles tangled with fishing line in their nest, the couple had plenty to celebrate. Not only did they seem to have removed the dangerous line from the nest on Thursday, Feb. 11, the female, Jackie, also laid another egg.
The raptors, whose nest activities high above Big Bear Lake are broadcast on a live webcam, had their first eggs in January, but all of those were lost, two to ravens, and one to breakage.
The pair started their second clutch on Monday.
“Both Jackie & Shadow have been doing great protecting and incubating Egg#1, now it will be twice the fun!! ” Friends of Big Bear Valley posted on their Facebook page on Thursday. The nonprofit runs the nest cam.
The fishing line, according to the group, looks like it came in on Wednesday’s dinner, an American coot, that Shadow brought to the nest. At one point Jackie swallowed some of the line, but regurgitated it back up. Both got tangled in the line, but when Shadow left the nest, it appeared all the line went with him, and when he came back it was gone.
The group said on its Facebook page that it can’t legally intervene, but that they work closely with the U.S. Forest Service.
Fishing line has caused concern in the nest before. In April 2018, one of Jackie’s first chicks, an 8-week-old eaglet named Stormy, got his foot caught in a piece of fishing line, which worried biologists and viewers. He survived and eventually left the nest.
A Friday morning storm brought snow to the nest, but by the afternoon much of it had melted. If all goes well, the two newest eggs could start to hatch in a month.
The area around the nest is closed off to protect the raptors, as they can be sensitive to the presence of humans, but the nest can be viewed 24 hours a day on YouTube or on the group’s website, friendsofbigbearvalley.org.
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