DNR's EagleCam nest falls, eaglet dies

The eagle's nest that was streamed for months on Minnesota's popular EagleCam fell Sunday morning, killing the eaglet that had hatched six days earlier.

Wind on Sunday morning shook the trees, and the camera feed showed the snow-packed nest swaying. Around 8 a.m. Sunday, the nest tumbled about 100 feet to the ground. The state Department of Natural Resources said in a social media post that staffers found the chick dead on the ground.

"We are extremely sad about this," said Lori Naumann, an information officer for the DNR.

Nesting pairs of eagles had been building and adding onto the nest in the dead tree that was first noticed in the spring of 2003, Naumann said. As the tree rotted in recent years, she said eagle-watchers had grown more concerned about the nest's stability.

Over this winter, Naumann said, the nest — a mass of sticks and branches about the size of a bass drum — became packed with snow and ice, growing heavier and heavier. Naumann said the nest weighed about 2,000 pounds by the time it crashed 100 feet to the ground Sunday morning.

DNR staffers hiked out to the nest area Sunday morning and found the nest upside-down in the snow. The chick was found dead nearby, as the parents circled overhead.

The nest was on state land and is protected by both state and federal law. Trespassing is not allowed in the area.

This was the tenth year the DNR's EagleCam streamed live video from an eagle's nest, drawing thousands of viewers from around the country. Because installing a new camera would be too disruptive, Naumann said there will not be another EagleCam this year. But the DNR will look for nests where a streaming camera might be mounted in the years to come.

This year's nest started with two eggs in February. During a snowstorm in late February, the female eagle drew attention as snow piled up on her back while she sat on her eggs. One of the eggs was broken around March 1, but the other egg hatched a fuzzy gray eagle chick on March 27.

Though the chick's death is sad, Naumann said, eaglets do fall from nests. One of the chicks hatched on last year's EagleCam was pushed from the nest by its sibling, she said. Because eagles are no longer a threatened species in Minnesota, the DNR does not keep track of all nesting eagles, It's not clear how many nests have fallen in recent years.