Beautiful Bald Eagles to Celebrate the 4th
The eagles are taking flight! Alongside the Sacramento River, right next to State Route 44 in Redding is a Bald Eagle's nest.
You can see into their nest via a web camera and watch the birds feed their three young eaglets - which are ready to spread their wings and leave the nest. There is a blog about the birds and their progress HERE.
To celebrate the 4th of July, I wanted to share these beautiful birds with you.
The Caltrans Eagle cam is available during daylight hours only. Turtle Bay hosts the web feed. In order to view the live eagle cam, you need to have Quicktime installed on your computer. Click HERE to view.
For a little background, when planning to widening the bridge across the river on State Route 44, It was discovered a pair of Bald Eagles had built a nest near the project in 2006. The Department of Fish and Game required Caltrans to monitor the eagles to ensure the bird's welfare. The job first fell to biologist and then in 2008 a video camera was installed. We have watched the eagles return every year since and the new offspring mature.
With wing spans of 6 to 7 feet, the eagles eat fish, carrion, smaller birds and rodents. Eagles are also known to prey on large birds and large fish making their nest location at Turtle Bay an excellent choice.
Bald eagles in the United States numbered between 300,000-500,000 in the 1700s. Numbers were once as low as 500 nesting pairs in the lower 48 states. Bald eagle numbers have rebounded since and now there are over 5,000 nesting pairs.
Enjoy!
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That is so COOL! For those that have taken a cruise to Alaska I'm sure you saw many, but not directly into the nest.
Well it looks like I was too late in posting the Eagle Cam information. I received this note from my friend, Denise* who has over seen the project for Cal Trans. The good news is we may still have access to the Cam after the bridge is completed.
I will try and remember to post the information in the early spring so we can watch the next eaglets hatch. Darcie
*For more information about this project you can contact her at
Denise Yergenson
Public Information Office -- Caltrans District 2
530-225-3260
While it may not have been in actual live time it was still enjoyable to see the nests, laying of the eggs, hatching, feeding and their first flights. The time frame of this was also posted.