Jackie and Shadow, the popular eagle couple from Big Bear, are the happy parents of a healthy chick – their first in two years.
“Shadow was on the nest for the hatching, he is a proud daddy!” wrote Friends of Big Bear Valley on their Facebook page. The page runs a popular web camera that monitors the couple’s nest 24 hours a day.
While two eggs were in the nest at one point, only one has hatched thus far. Jackie laid her first egg of the year back on January 22nd, and the second came just three days later. Their eggs normally take about 35 days to incubate. However, due to the incubation period waiting for the clutch to be full and the final egg arriving, the first egg doesn’t normally hatch until around day 38 or 39. Friends of Big Bear Valley notes that the second egg usually takes a day or two beyond then.
Interested viewers are encouraged to follow along with pip watch – the beginning stages of an eaglet’s birth – while also catching the hatching of the second egg on the livestream of Shadow and Jackie, which can be found (insert hyperlink here).
The couple has been busy tending their nest in preparation for their new additions, especially with winter weather rolling into Big Bear. Fans are hoping for the best for the famed duo, who haven’t experienced a successful hatching in nearly 3 years.
The past couple of years have been particularly difficult for them, with all seven of their eggs failing to hatch – including two that were destroyed by ravens who swooped in to the next while Jackie and Shadow were both briefly away. And tragically last year, one of their chicks that had hatched suddenly died after its first chirps were heard.
“Sometimes nature is hard to watch, especially when there is an unexpected turn of events that we do not understand,” said Friends of Big Bear Valley at the time.