A couple of weeks ago, while covering the story of some terrible men convicted of going on an eagle-killing spree, I brought up the ongoing story of Jackie and Shadow, a mated pair of bald eagles living in Big Bear Valley in California. There has been a web cam covering their nest up close for quite a few years now and the traffic gets very busy during the breeding season. After introducing the couple, I pointed out that the mother, Jackie, had laid three eggs this year and the pair had been taking turns sitting on the eggs 24/7 through all sorts of weather and the eggs were due to hatch “in the next few days.” Well, that was more than two weeks ago and there have still been no chicks born. This tragic story is all over the news this week, with USA Today simply describing it as “heartbreaking,” which it is.
Eyes from across the globe have been locked on a giant bird nest perched atop a pine tree in Big Bear for weeks but recent developments have some loyal fans of the eagle couple nicknamed Jackie and Shadow heartbroken.
Both eagles have become local celebrities thanks to a live camera installed outside their 6-foot wide nest in 2015 by biologist Sandy Steers, executive director of the Friends of Big Bear Valley, a nonprofit, environmental education organization.
“As of today, there has been no confirmed pips in any of the eggs,” Sandy wrote on the Friends of Big Bear Valley Facebook page Monday. “This is later than Jackie’s eggs have hatched in the past, so it is probably unlikely for them to hatch at this point…but as someone pointed out to me, miracles do happen.”
In January, Jackie laid three eggs and 35 days later, viewers from across the globe tuned in for “Pip Watch,” which is named so for the tiny breaks known as “pips” an eaglet will create in the days ahead of its hatching.
That quote from the director of Friends of Big Bear Valley really stuck with me. “Miracles do happen.” But it’s at the point where Jackie and Shadow may need a miracle. The eggs have been in the nest for far longer than they should. Sadly, this is all too common. In the years that these eagles have been monitored, a significant majority of the eggs have failed to hatch and only a few offspring have survived to take flight.
Sandy Steers previously explained to worried fans in the web chat that such failures to launch can be caused by a few different things. Cold air can creep in through the bottom of the nest no matter how diligently the parents have been sheltering the eggs. It has snowed there several times since the eggs were laid, sometimes covering both the nest and the adult eagles for long periods of time. But Jackie and Shadow stuck it out, protecting the eggs and taking turns sitting on them in a ritual that viewers call “shift change.”
If these eggs have failed, it will be tragic. With so few of these magnificent birds left and all the threats they face to their survival (caused almost entirely by human beings), missing the chance to see three young ones take to the skies in Big Bear Valley would be awful. All may not be lost, however. The breeding season can be unpredictable. In 2021, after losing three eggs in January, Jackie delivered two more eggs in February at around this date.
My wife and I have been watching for quite a while and we’ve had a spare laptop set up in our living room monitoring the nest 24/7 since these eggs came along. I will say with no embarrassment that we’ve become rather attached and emotional about Jackie and Shadow. The other night, watching the days tick by with no sign of activity, I grew rather despondent and said that the situation seemed hopeless. My wife continued staring at the nest on the screen and somewhat tearfully said, “Jackie hasn’t given up. Neither will we.”
She was right and I was wrong. After all… miracles do happen. As of this writing, there are still no chicks but the parents are on the job. If you’d like to watch along and cheer for them, you may do so below. Best of luck to the happy couple.