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Shadow typically is on the day shift & Jackie on night watch. Jackie just totally came & kicked shadow out.

#JackieAndShadow’s initial pip has been confirmed today at 15:09. The pip is circled in the picture.

Jackie & Shadow’s previous chick Spirit pipped exactly 3 years ago to the date.

It may take a day or more for the chick to fully emerge from the shell.

#BigBearValley #BaldEagle #wildlife #conservation
https://www.friendsofbigbearvalley.org/eagle-stories/

It looks like a beautiful, if chilly, morning in #BigBearValley.

Shadow warms the eggs in a snow filled nest. It snowed all night. But the week ahead is forecast for warmer weather. The egg that pipped should hatch today or tomorrow, Wednesday at the latest.

Woo Hoo!

2 eggs have now pipped!

Here’s a video of Jackie rolling the eggs just now, you can see somebody is coming!

#JackieAndShadow #BigBearValley #BaldEagle #wildlife #conservation

h/t @fondoffawns

It looks to me like all 3 eggs have pipped. Here you can even see feathers & a leg(?) through the crack in the shell!

Oh my goodness!

#Eaglet beak & face sighting through the pip!

Jackie finally lets Shadow takeover for a while. Shadow usually does the day shift while Jackie takes night. They clearly have a heightened awareness of what seems like impending hatching. They are checking on & rolling the eggs a lot more frequently & Shadow has been hanging around very close by. Jackie has occasionally called to him & he’s there in a second or two.

Check out Jackie’s 7 foot wing span as she takes off.

Jackie just took a break to eat the fish Shadow had brought her & we got a glimpse of 2 little faces & beaks & one even gave out a little cry! So cool. Jackie just finished eating & successfully ousted Shadow.

Apologizies for the orientation switch — I quickly switch back to landscape just in time to see baby chirp.

Here’s a good long look at the #eaglets peeking & chirping through the pips in the shells. I’m a little worried about the third egg, but it’s possible it will hatch later. Jackie laid each egg singly & 3 days apart from each other. So it could be the last egg laid.

Chick1 hatched 3/3 23:26! Chick2 hatched 3/4 4:29!

It was on the night vision cam, so pretty difficult to see, but yay!!!

Shadow is on watch now, & he’s keeping them nice & warm tucked beneath him, but here’s a little look at the #eaglets. Shadow sweetly tucks the remaining unhatched egg between the 2 before settling back down.

Here’s a much better look at the #eaglets. One is already innately opening its little beak for a feeding, #Shadow didn’t have anything, but stroked the little one with his beak.

Feeding!

Jackie just succeeded in feeding some fish to one of the new chicks. The whole time I was rooting for the other chick to get some nibbles.

I love #Shadow, but he’s just not as good at the whole feeding thing as #Jackie.

Video: Eaglets, with wide open beaks, are ready for a feeding. Shadow, belatedly realizes it, but the chicks have tired themselves out, so when he tries to give them some bits of fish, they’ve exhausted themselves. - I do think one of the eaglets got a little nibblet.

Proving my point, #Jackie returns to the nest, bloodied beak & claws, prey in claw, & successfully feeds both #eaglets!!

First feeding of eaglet #2!

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#Jackie returns to the nest, bloodied beak & claws, prey in claw, & successfully feeds both #eaglets!!

First feeding of eaglet #2

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(Sorry for delay, LOTS of issues uploading media cc: @mastodonmigration @stux)

These two are a crack up. Here they are grabbing each other’s beaks. They’re so absorbed in each other it took a while before they realized Jackie was trying to feed them.

Cold & snowing tonight & tomorrow in #BigBearValley, CA. #JackieAndShadow will need to keeps those babies warm & tucked in.

(Video 1/2)
#Eaglets #BaldEagle #birds #wildlife #conservation #TLcleanse

Cold & snowing tonight & tomorrow in #BigBearValley, CA. #JackieAndShadow will need to keeps those babies warm & tucked in.

(Video 2/2)
#Eaglets #BaldEagle #birds #wildlife #conservation #TLcleanse

#TLcleanse

Still snowing in #BigBearValley, CA.

Here’s #Shadow checking in on the eaglets in the nest’s snow bowl.

He even treats them (& us) to a few silly snorts.

The third egg has pipped!!!!

In the video you can see the unhatched eaglet moving around through the pip!

Yeesh, & you thought your kids were messy eaters.

Both Momma & Papa pitching in, though I’m not entirely sure Shadow is “helping” per se.

Time for another #JackieAndShadow & #Eaglets #TLcleanse

Here is Shadow doing a great job getting both chicks fed. You can also see the 3rd eaglet making progress on the pip in its shell
You can hear Jackie return at the end with a fresh coot.

This is some impressive #coparenting. Jackie takes off & ~15 seconds later Shadow arrives. Nice.

#Eaglet 3 has arrived! Again it was overnight, so night vision cam made it difficult to see. Here is a glimpse of the newly hatched chick + an early morning feeding.

Great look at #JackieAndShadow’s 3 #eaglets.

They so resemble funny little muppets / miniature Ostriches with Slinky toy necks.

Adorable.

Also, every time Shadow does a feeding, “Papa can you hear me?” from Yentl plays in my head.

Sadly, it seems that one of #JackieAndShadow’s #eaglets has died.

From the blog:

“We are sad to let everyone know that 1 of Jackie & Shadow’s chicks did not make it through the severe winter storm that brought over 2' of snow to the area. The chick’s passing happened some time after all 3 were observed together getting fed at 6pm on 3/13. We do not know what happened or why it passed.…We do not know which chick it was because they were very close in size.…”

#wildlife
https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1gx7VP85Gwp1jhHRilStcZMrnUPszHQ0-w1czkjnf9bc/mobilebasic?pli=1

@vaughnsc

I was worried too, also in spite of my perfectly reasonable explanation.

Late last night there was a point when the eaglet had mostly hatched but its head was still stuck in the egg shell, in addition to laughing, I too thought, “I get it.”

@alex_p_roe

I know