Big Bear Lake’s famed bald eagle couple has flown the coop, and naturalists are pointing to the city’s July 4th fireworks celebration as the likely culprit.
Jackie and Shadow and their lake-view aerie are the subjects of a 24-hour online webcam that has been monitoring the couple since 2018, when Shadow replaced Jackie’s previous mate. The pair have attracted tens of thousands of viewers around the world as they have hatched and reared a combined five eaglets, including Sunny and Gizmo earlier this year.
But on Friday night, the booms and blasts of celebratory fireworks appear to have frightened them away.
“Jackie and Shadow were not in the Roost Tree this morning,” wrote Sandy Steers, executive director of Friends of Big Bear Valley, Saturday. The observation was made on the group’s Facebook page, where Steers chronicles the comings and goings of the internet-famous eagles and their babies (a third sibling also hatched March, but died later that month). “And none of their usual vocals were heard from anywhere nearby.”
Friends of Big Bear Valley had been issuing warnings ahead of Independence Day, saying it was opposed to a local fireworks that would result in “devastation created for 30 minutes of instant gratification.” It had circulated a petition with 40,000 signatures and argued that fireworks could be especially hard on Sunny and Gizmo.
The young siblings were last seen soaring together on June 27, around when the organization said that it was unclear if they “are still in the area or if they have expanded their horizons and are off on their journeys away from the habitat.”
Friends of Big Bear Valley runs the camera that’s 145 feet up a Jeffrey pine tree overlooking Big Bear Lake. The group is typically cautious about identifying the couple’s whereabouts in order to avoid attracting crowds to their habitat. It has also asked fans to not share or solicit location information and, in its online updates, uses non-identifiable tree names, such as “Roost Tree” or “Lookout Snag,” when describing their whereabouts.
Ahead of the fireworks show, Visit Big Bear, a Facebook page affiliated with the city’s Visitors Center and tourism industry, said it was confident the show would not harm the eagles’ habitat.
“While fireworks may startle them, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has confirmed that the event is not expected to cause nest failure. As always, we’ve sited the fireworks barge away from the nest to reduce risk,” said a post to the tourism group’s Facebook page.
On Saturday, Steers posted a play-by-play of the two parents’ daytime activities on July 4. Steers could not be directly reached for comment on Saturday.
“Jackie and Shadow were seen together on their favorite Roost Tree, chortling out their morning song and then working on waking up enough to start their day. When they headed out, one of them dropped by the Lookout Snag to check everything around the habitat before continuing to their next destination,” she wrote.
By the mid-evening, Steers said “either Jackie or Shadow was on the Twin Pines, hanging out and checking out the surrounding neighborhood. They even turned around to give a nice front view while they scanned around the other side of the neighborhood. And by a little after 8 p.m., Jackie and Shadow both chortled out an announcement that they were in the Roost Tree. They were settled in, near each other and ready for sleep by 8:30.”
Booms started around 9 p.m., Steers said. At that point, “one of the eagles was no longer visible on the Roost Tree and was seen by our security camera flying away from the Roost Tree. Jackie made a peal call (a call emitted as a warning about danger) and a couple other short calls from nearby.”
Steers said the “full show” began at 9:17 and, a minute late “no eagles were visible.”
Since then, the group has offered no updates.
The eagles, for now, are gone, though they may come back at a later time.
“We will all be sending out hope for their speedy return,” Steers wrote.
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