Big Bear Bald Eagles Lay First Egg of 2023

BIG BEAR LAKE, CA — Break out the cigars! The Southland’s most famous eagles have laid their first egg of 2023.

Shadow and Jackie, the bald eagle pair whose live-streamed nest overlooking Big Bear Lake has propelled them to Internet fame, welcomed an egg into their nest just before 4 p.m. Wednesday, according to Friends of Big Bear Valley.

Since 2017, the nonprofit dedicated to protecting and promoting the mountain wilderness has been live-streaming the domestic bliss of the endangered birds, often narrating their comings and goings for fans around the world. It’s a drama worthy of any soap opera complete with villains (hungry crows), tragedies and triumphs.

The pair successfully launched chicks in 2022 and 2019, but in between, they lost chicks to an unseasonable spring storm among other dangers.

The chicks usually hatch in about five or six weeks. From there, the eagle chicks usually fledge between two and three months. However, in 2019, one late bloomer, Simba, took 13 weeks to leave the nest.

Astute nest watchers knew it was just a matter of time before an egg was due.

The Friends of Big Bear Valley gave the play-by-play in a dispatch last week.

“This afternoon while Jackie and Shadow were hanging out in the nest, Jackie suddenly announced that it was time to make eggs. She announced it in her very special voice that is not used for any other kinds of statements,” the nonprofit wrote in its daily newsletter about the birds. “With Shadow’s incredulous look back at her from the front porch, it was almost possible to hear him saying, ‘What? Now? Right here in front of everyone?’”

One week later, the egg was laid. With luck, it will hatch by mid-February and leave the nest by May.