LOS ANGELES — After several years of disappointment, there was a sign Sunday that the Big Bear bald eagle couple Jackie and Shadow may soon have a hatchling.
The Friends of Big Bear Valley announced the discovery on Sunday afternoon: “Initial pip has been confirmed today at 15:09.” (Except that line was all in capital letters.)
It’s a thrilling time for the conservation group, which operates the 24-hour webcam that shows the eagles’ 145-foot-high nest in a Jeffrey pine overlooking Big Bear Lake.
Fans who have been on pip watch are over the moon. Pipping is when a baby bird uses its beak to crack open its shell, and pip watch is the online vigil and hoopla surrounding that activity.
“Tears of joy!!!” responded one on Facebook. “It’s been a roller coaster of emotions the last couple years.”
“Oh please come out little one!!!!” wrote another.
In 2023, Jackie and Shadow’s eggs were eaten by ravens. And last winter also held heartbreak. The pair added a rare third egg to their clutch in late January, but the cold weather was severe. At one point, a storm kept Jackie on her nest for 62 hours straight, sometimes completely covered in snow.
Low oxygen levels at high altitude are one of the reasons Friends of Big Bear Valley suspects Jackie’s three eggs failed to hatch last year. Cold, snowy winters and rainy springs also dim young eaglets’ chances of survival.
Bald eagle eggs typically have a 50-50 chance of hatching, according to Sandy Steers, biologist and executive director of Friends of Big Bear Valley. Once hatched, fewer than 50% of eaglets survive their first year, according to the American Eagle Foundation.
But hope springs eternal, and the couple had a surprising three-egg clutch again this year.
“Even when there’s a pip, it’s going to take at least a day — sometimes longer — for the chick to hatch,” Steers told The Times during the 2024 pip watch. “With nature, we need to be patient. It can teach us to just breathe and enjoy the process instead of focusing on the result.”
Sunday around 10 p.m., more than 8,000 viewers were watching a sleeping bald eagle sit on its nest amid snow.
The eagle awoke and shook out its feathers, fluffing the straw surrounding the trio of eggs as the camera zoomed in. Then the eagle resettled itself, rocking gently back and forth atop the eggs.
——–
Times staff writer Clara Harter contributed to this report.
