HB9 and HB10 hatched on March 5 and 6 at The Bear Trace at Harrison Bay in Harrison, Tenn. A live feed is documenting the family’s progress, along with parents Elliot and Eloise.
Two bald eagle eggs hatched on March 5 at The Bear Trace at Harrison Bay in Harrison, Tenn. The eaglets, named BH9 and HB10 are being watched around the world via live streaming video, being fed by parents Elliot and Eloise.
Paul Carter, the Bear Trace Golf Course superintendent, said the eagles built their nest in December of 2010, and the first hatch of two eggs—HB1 and HB2—soon followed, the Chattanooga, Tenn.-based Times Free Press reported.
There was no camera then. That didn’t come until Harrison Bay park rangers were surprised by how fast the eaglets grew and fledged (compared to others in more northern climes). Right then, park officials decided a camera was a great idea for research, the Times Free Press reported.
“We figure if a pair of eagles decides the golf course is a safe and suitable habitat for raising a family, then we must be doing something right,” Carter said. “We still use pesticides and herbicides, but we’re very conscious about what we’re doing and how much we’re doing. The (Tennessee) Department of Environment and Conservation manages our course, so [conservation] is in the mission statement.”
Eagles mate for life, and barring unusual circumstances they return to the same nest every year, according to Park Ranger Matt Vawter. Elliot and Eloise have raised babies at Bear Trace every year but one—a year of many tornadoes. That year, there were no offspring, the Times Free Press reported.
Seven volunteers operate the focus and camera angles of the sophisticated camera that records every move in the nest, as well as a ground camera that shows the adult eagles as they leave and approach the nest tree. The volunteers also host a chat room on the harrisonbayeaglecam.org website. At one point on Friday, 128 computers were tuned into the live stream, some in classrooms, the Times Free Press reported.
As for the research angle, Vawter said he plans soon to work with a local entomologist, a bug expert, to zoom in on the eaglets’ cradle to learn more about the special ecology that a nest itself creates and fosters. But the real value, he wisely notes, is what the camera’s non-invasive invasion of eagle privacy offers to all the rest of us—the ordinary people gazing transfixed in watching these regal and iconic birds, the Times Free Press reported.
“The primary value it has is inspiring us to care,” Vawter said. “Because people just don’t care about things that they’re not familiar with. And things that are more personal to us, we naturally take better care of.”
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