Six months after a much-watched nest collapsed, wildlife specialists are targeting a new location for an EagleCam and exploring sites for a second. But some issues must be worked out before it's turned on.

By Bob Timmons

October 19, 2023 at 9:31PM

An image of the female eagle protecting its eggs amid a blizzard last February went viral. (Photo: Courtesy of the Nongame Wildlife Program/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Several months after the collapse of one of the most-watched raptor nests on the planet, EagleCam managers have identified a new nest to focus on and are exploring a possible second site.

What's certain is that a camera will again stream the lives of eagles in action — and their possible offspring — to the masses.

What's uncertain is when.

Another EagleCam season normally would resume in mid-November, timed to an active period for bald eagles, with breeding season around midwinter. The program historically also has been timed to piggyback on Give to the Max Day, what organizers called a "giving holiday" geared toward nonprofits. As part of the Department of Natural Resources' Nongame Wildlife Program, the EagleCam is among myriad projects and outreach relying partly on donations.

In late February, the EagleCam perhaps was never more popular after an image of a steadfast bald eagle, protecting eggs and sitting up to her neck in mounding snow, went viral. Then, on April 2, disaster struck for eagle-watchers when the massive metro-area nest, heavy with debris, snow and ice, collapsed to the ground, taking the remaining eaglet's life with it.

A new camera location near an active, established nest has been picked, said Lori Naumann, a nongame program specialist who has managed the EagleCam since it began in 2013. Like the original nest, it's in the metro. That's by necessity: program staff in the Twin Cities want to be within 20 minutes of the area.

"That [new location] sounds like it is going to be a go, but probably not for this year," Naumann said, adding that getting electricity run to the site has been delayed.

Plans are possible for the original EagleCam, too, Naumann said. That camera remains aloft at the old site, where a rotting branch known to be suspect precariously supported the eagles' base. When it fell, the ice-laden nest was 20 years old, about 8 feet in diameter, 6 feet deep and an estimated 2,000 pounds.

The camera will be turned on Nov. 16 — Give to the Max Day. If history holds, viewers could get a glimpse of the displaced nesting eagles, named Beau and Nancy by their social media followers. As in the immediate days after the nest's collapse, the two continue to return and perch near the old site — territorial behavior that is common for bald eagles and other bird life.

The raptors also have been spotted building a new nest about half a mile south. Naumann and colleagues have watched that process, while also monitoring active nests nearby as they ponder a possible camera location.

"It's like they have claimed this territory in both places, although I don't know if they are far enough away to qualify as two separate territories," Naumann said. "Because there are a lot of eagle nests around that area.

"… [The eagles] stayed busy, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are going to use this nest to lay eggs in. They probably will, but what if they don't? Until we know they are going to use that nest, we are not going to do anything there."

That activity has kept the pair top of mind for its biggest fan club: the Facebook group Friends of Minnesota Nongame Eagle Cam has 15,000-plus members, and posts have abated. Members are among 1.9 million known viewers when the live feed peaked, with most pulled in by the viral blizzard image.

Online donations to the nongame program's broad work, from education outreach like bird cams to wildlife monitoring, have increased to more than $60,000 per year since the EagleCam was established, Naumann said. The nongame program also is supported by the purchase of Critical Habitat license plates and the public's use of the nongame wildlife tax checkoff.

Getting the first EagleCam operational took money, planning, a power source, troubleshooting and being sensitive to nature taking its course. Those lessons in patience have meaning now. Naumann said the program knew about the former nest in 2003 — 10 years before Season 1 of the EagleCam commenced. "There will be an EagleCam. We just can't say when."