Suzanne's Mom's Blog

Photo: Vermont Institute of Natural Science (VINS).
An adult bald eagle brought food to the nest on May 27.

Some people think that watching wildlife doing its thing on live video is like watching paint dry. Others find it soothing. And of course there are moments when it can be really exciting.

In Vermont this summer, all those attitudes were in play as members of one bald eagle family unwittingly gave up its privacy for science.

Paul Heintz described the scene for the Boston Globe in July: “The eaglet was getting hungry. Nested 100 feet up a white pine tree on the Ottauquechee River, its chirps grew louder and louder as it waited for its parents to deliver food. The 6-week-old bald eagle was all alone. Sort of.

“There were devoted fans from all over Vermont — and around the world, as well — watching a live stream of the nest, some noting the baby bird, nicknamed V-2, had never gone this long without a visit or a fish from its parents, Windsor and Dewey.

“ ‘He must be so bored,’ one wrote on Facebook. Another suggested V-2 could really use some takeout. Still more emailed the Vermont Institute of Natural Science, which installed the camera near the nest, expressing alarm that the eaglet looked malnourished.

“Early the next morning, as fog lifted over the pond below, Windsor, the mother, swooped in with one fish, and then another. Overcome with hunger, V-2 stepped on its breakfast and tore at it with its beak.

“ ‘It turns out, eagles know what they’re doing,’ said Alden Smith, VINS’ executive director.

‘Since March, when the Quechee-based institute launched the live stream, it’s become a surprise hit, drawing hundreds of viewers at a time and raising the profile of the small nonprofit that hosts it.

“What they see is surprisingly captivating: The nest sways hypnotically in the breeze as V-2 flaps its wings or naps. Every so often, there’s a moment of excitement, such as a delivery of fish or a hot-air balloon drifting by in the background. But for the most part, it’s simply a serene summer setting, with a placid pond below, a natural soundtrack of birdsongs and the majestic sight of the country’s official national bird.

” ‘Mostly nothing happens in the life of an eagle on a nest,’ Smith said.

“He expected the experiment would educate viewers about avian wildlife, a key component of the institute’s mission, along with rehabilitating injured, sick, and orphaned birds. What surprised him was the number of eagle cam aficionados who have credited the stream with improving their mental health and making nature more accessible.

“ ‘It’s become so hard for people to tune into healthy signals because there’s just so much in our media landscape,’ Smith said. ‘To have something that makes people feel calm and curious at the same time, and to feel some sense of peace, has really been meaningful.’

“Fans of the live stream say they’ve played it in classrooms, assisted living facilities, dentists’ offices, and state parks. Not long after V-2 hatched in April, teachers at a nearby elementary school sent VINS a packet of drawings and letters from students welcoming the eaglet to the nest. …

“The Vermont institute is hardly the first entity to host an eagle cam. They’ve been around for at least two decades, and some, such as the Southwest Florida Eagle Cam and the Decorah Eagles in Iowa, have drawn hundreds of millions of views. …

“But the phenomenon has been slow to catch on in Northern New England, perhaps because the comeback of bald eagles has taken longer here than elsewhere. The species was nearly eradicated in the 1960s due to the widespread use of the pesticide DDT. Reintroduction efforts began in the late 1970s but didn’t reach Vermont until the early 2000s. The first successful nest was identified in 2008.

“Now, according to Margaret Fowle, a conservation biologist for Audubon Vermont, there are around 60 identified territories in the state hosting a pair of breeding bald eagles, largely in the Connecticut River and Champlain valleys, Fowle said. The bird is no longer on the federal or state endangered species lists.

“ ‘The story of eagles is a success story,’ said Jillian Kilborn, a nongame bird biologist for the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department. ‘And it’s one of the great success stories we’ve had in the Northeast.’ ”

More at the Globe, here. Do share your own wildlife-video stories. I myself watched baby osprey for a while. That’s another impressive bird.