The Turtle Bay eagles made famous by their refusal to leave a nest adjacent to Redding’s Highway 44 bridge construction endured Thursday’s snowfall in good parenting style — protecting the two eggs laid during the past week.
Dubbed Patriot (male) and Liberty (female), the pair have nested in a tree just north of (and visible from) the bridge since fall 2004. In preparation for the Dana-to-Downtown construction project that began in 2008, the California Department of Transportation put a cone over the nest, hoping to discourage the eagles from returning to a location that would soon be filled with large equipment and construction noise. The birds refused to leave, and people joined the protest. The cone was removed, and the pair went on to raise 10 eaglets there over the years, including two sets of triplets.
In fall 2008, digital video cameras were installed in the tree to monitor nest activities during construction. More than a million people around the country have visited the online eagle cam since then, according to a Turtle Bay fact sheet.
Eager eagle watchers are waiting to see if Liberty will lay a third egg again this year. The eaglets should start hatching sometime in March.
Check out nest activity at turtlebay.org/eaglecam.
-from A News Cafe staff
