Bald Eagles In Orange County And Catalina Island Welcome New Family Members

For those of us who were glued to the Big Bear bald eagle cam, there are other SoCal nests to coo over. Three eaglets successfully hatched on Catalina Island and another two were seen in Orange County.

A bald eagle, first tagged A85 on Santa Rosa Island, was spotted with two eaglets in her nest on private property along the Santa Ana River.

Peter Sharpe, a wildlife biologist with the Institute for Wildlife Studies, said it’s common for eagles to travel far, with some flying from Santa Rosa Island to places like Montana and British Columbia.

The nonprofit organization also announced that three eaglets successfully hatched on Catalina Island. There could soon be more eaglets, with seven of the eight eagle couples on the island having laid eggs.

And just like our avian friends in Big Bear, Jackie and Shadow, you can track the progress of the Catalina Island nest via a livestream.

Why didn’t Jackie and Shadow's eggs hatch?

Sharpe helped set up the live camera for the Big Bear nest we've all come to love. He noted that Jackie and Shadow have had very low success with either hatching their eggs or the chicks surviving ever since the Forest Service began monitoring them.

Sharpe said the cold weather could be playing a factor.

“Bald eagles breed mostly based upon sunlight, ” he said. “Big Bear is sort of at the right latitude for the time they breed, but being at 7,000 feet, it's a whole different weather pattern than most birds at this latitude experience.”

Bald eagle project

The nonprofit organization has an ongoing project in collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the California Department of Fish and Game as well as the Catalina Island Conservancy to reintroduce the white headed bird back to Catalina Island. The program began in 1980.

Bald eagles, once a thriving population, declined from the island in the 1950s and 1960s with the Institute of Wildlife Studies pointing to the presence of the industrial pesticide DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane) in an ocean dump site near Catalina.

The chemical weakens the eagle’s egg shell and results in it cracking before it can hatch. Even though the pesticide was banned in the US in 1972, traces of it remain, hindering restoration efforts.

Now, Sharpe said, he estimates that there are around 100 bald eagles in Southern California.