Snowstorm blankets bald eagles trying to protect egg in California nest, video shows
Bald eagles Liberty and Guardian took turns incubating their single egg through a snowstorm March 9 in Redding, California. Their egg will be ready to hatch around March 24.
Screengrab from Friends of the Redding Eagles’ web cam
Bald eagle parents Liberty and Guardian have weathered strong winds, heavy rain and snow as they protect their only egg in Northern California.
The pair are incubating the egg in a nest at Turtle Bay in Redding, as seen through the Friends of the Redding Eagles’ live camera.
A storm moved across the state March 9, dumping snow across the northern area and blanketing the incubating bald eagles.
Liberty and Guardian are seen in the eagle camera taking turns keeping their egg warm as snow piles on top of them during each shift.
But the snow “doesn’t seem to be fazing them,” founder and director of Friends of the Redding Eagles Terri Lhuillier told McClatchy News by phone March 17.
That is, with the exception of one small blunder. At one point during the snowstorm, Guardian is seen in the video returning to the nest and stepping right on a snow-covered Liberty.
“He didn’t realize he was on top of her,” Lhuillier said.
Misstep aside, the two eagles made it through the storm and have continued to incubate their egg.
After all, eagles are equipped for the weather, Lhuillier said, but it’s still hard to watch sometimes.
Group now on ‘hatch watch’
Liberty laid her first egg Feb. 14, but it fell apart three days later. That day, Feb. 17, she laid her second egg.
Now the eagle group is on “hatch watch” for it.
Bald eagles typically incubate eggs for about 35 days, which means this egg should hatch sometime between March 24 and March 29.
Because of the weather this year, Lhuillier said she and her group have been watching the egg more closely.
But she said the group already has a name in mind for this eaglet: Miracle.
“If this thing hatches, it’s going to be a miracle,” she said.
Lhuillier has been watching Liberty for the past 18 years, and the eagle is 24 now. She first saw Liberty while on a walk with her husband at their “daily walking spot,” where she would also take her son along the river.
This is the first time she’s seen the eagle mom, who has raised 26 eaglets “from eggs to fledglings,” incubate an egg in snow, though.
Redding is about 160 miles north of Sacramento.
