{"id":44478,"date":"2025-07-06T22:47:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T22:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/44478\/"},"modified":"2025-07-06T22:47:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T22:47:08","slug":"big-bears-famed-bald-eagles-reappear-after-brief-hiatus-amid-july-4-fireworks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/44478\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Bear’s famed bald eagles reappear after brief hiatus amid July 4 fireworks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Naturalists said Sunday they were relieved that Big Bear Lake\u2019s famed bald eagle couple<\/a> had returned after flying the coop in the wake of the city\u2019s Fourth of July fireworks celebration.<\/p>\n

Jackie and Shadow and their lake-view aerie are the subjects of a 24-hour online webcam<\/a> that has been monitoring the couple since 2018, when Shadow replaced Jackie\u2019s previous mate. The pair have attracted tens of thousands of viewers around the world as they have hatched and reared a combined five eaglets, including Sunny and Gizmo earlier this year.<\/p>\n

But on Friday night, the booms and blasts of celebratory fireworks appear to have frightened them away.<\/p>\n

\u201cJackie and Shadow were not in the Roost Tree this morning,\u201d wrote Sandy Steers, executive director of Friends of Big Bear Valley, on Saturday. The observation was made on the group\u2019s Facebook page<\/a>, where Steers chronicles the comings and goings of the internet-famous eagles and their babies (a third sibling also hatched in March, but died later that month<\/a>). \u201cAnd none of their usual vocals were heard from anywhere nearby.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friends of Big Bear Valley had been issuing warnings ahead of the Fourth of July, saying it was opposed to local fireworks that would result in \u201cdevastation created for 30 minutes of instant gratification.\u201d It had circulated a petition with 40,000 signatures and argued that fireworks could be especially hard on Sunny and Gizmo.<\/p>\n

The young siblings were last seen soaring together June 27, around when the organization said that it was unclear if they \u201care still in the area or if they have expanded their horizons and are off on their journeys away from the habitat.\u201d<\/p>\n

By late Saturday night, cameras had spotted Jackie and Shadow once again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did return last night, which we are very happy for,\u201d said Jenny Voisard, the media and website manager for Friends of Big Bear Valley. \u201cSometimes they have left for as long as six days. So this was about 24 hours or a little less than that. It could be because the fledglings could still be nearby. We can\u2019t be sure if they dispersed or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friends of Big Bear Valley runs the camera that\u2019s 145 feet up a Jeffrey pine tree overlooking Big Bear Lake. The group is typically cautious about identifying the couple\u2019s whereabouts in order to avoid attracting crowds to their habitat. It has also asked fans to not share or solicit location information and, in its online updates, uses non-identifiable tree names, such as \u201cRoost Tree\u201d or \u201cLookout Snag,\u201d when describing their whereabouts.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the fireworks show, Visit Big Bear, a Facebook page affiliated with the city\u2019s Visitors Center and tourism industry, said it was confident the show would not harm the eagles\u2019 habitat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile fireworks may startle them, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has confirmed that the event is not expected to cause nest failure. As always, we\u2019ve sited the fireworks barge away from the nest to reduce risk,\u201d said a post to the tourism group\u2019s Facebook page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Steers posted a play-by-play of the two parents\u2019 daytime activities on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cJackie and Shadow were seen together on their favorite Roost Tree, chortling out their morning song and then working on waking up enough to start their day. When they headed out, one of them dropped by the Lookout Snag to check everything around the habitat before continuing to their next destination,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

By the mid-evening, Steers said, \u201ceither Jackie or Shadow was on the Twin Pines, hanging out and checking out the surrounding neighborhood. They even turned around to give a nice front view while they scanned around the other side of the neighborhood. And by a little after 8 p.m., Jackie and Shadow both chortled out an announcement that they were in the Roost Tree. They were settled in, near each other and ready for sleep by 8:30.\u201d<\/p>\n

Booms started around 9 p.m., Steers said. At that point, \u201cone of the eagles was no longer visible on the Roost Tree and was seen by our security camera flying away from the Roost Tree. Jackie made a peal call (a call emitted as a warning about danger) and a couple other short calls from nearby.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steers said the \u201cfull show\u201d began at 9:17 and, a minute later, \u201cno eagles were visible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will all be sending out hope for their speedy return,\u201d Steers wrote.<\/p>\n

On Saturday evening, nature enthusiasts were celebrating sightings of the couple.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter a quiet day of waiting and watching, our beloved Jackie and Shadow were back together… After the events of last night, their presence brings comfort and joy,\u201d said the caption below a Friends of Big Bear Valley video of the birds posted to YouTube by a watcher who goes by Cali Condor. \u201cKnowing they are safe and reunited, warms our hearts and reminds us of the strength and bond they share.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Naturalists said Sunday they were relieved that Big Bear Lake\u2019s famed bald eagle couple had returned after flying…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":44479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[34556,1582,276,34557,34563,34564,25242,5169,1753,34562,34558,5991,2961,224,5337,34561,34560,5395,34559,10828],"class_list":{"0":"post-44478","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-big-bear","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-coop","12":"tag-facebook-page","13":"tag-famed-bald-eagle","14":"tag-firework","15":"tag-group","16":"tag-habitat","17":"tag-internet-famous-eagle","18":"tag-jackie","19":"tag-july","20":"tag-la","21":"tag-los-angeles","22":"tag-losangeles","23":"tag-roost-tree","24":"tag-sandy-steers","25":"tag-saturday","26":"tag-shadow","27":"tag-warning"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114808726839625556","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}