WATCH a Pair of Pennsylvania Bald Eagles Raise Their Young

When the phone rang at Comcast Business back in late October, Lori Neely Mitchell had a simple, if unusual, question. Could we provide hard-wired broadband service to a tree? More specifically, to the top of an 85-foot tall oak tree in rural York County, Pennsylvania?

Of course we could. And we did, with a little help from our friends.

Neely Mitchell, public information and media services chief at the Pennsylvania Game Commission, had been given roughly two months to plan and deliver a live stream of an active bald eagles nest just outside Codorus State Park in Hanover, PA to the Game Commission website. She was working against a Dec. 31 deadline to finish work in the tree, as the nesting pair that has been raising young there since 2005 could potentially be laying eggs within weeks of that date.

“The idea is simply to educate and to give people a view they don’t typically get,” she said.

And what a view it is, made possible by the partnership the Game Commission formed with Comcast Business, camera manufacturer HDOnTap, Swam Electric and a local landowner. Although some may argue this is really a residential account, Comcast Business is providing a static IP address and its reliable 100 Mbps broadband service to a project that is thrilling people across the world.

Neely Mitchell had been concerned a hard-wired connection might not be possible in that location, but Rob Childress, manager of installation and service for Comcast Technical Operations in nearby York, PA, quickly confirmed it could be done. He and a team that included Paul Bollinger, Shawn Renda and James Krebs managed the installation, which meant extending service from an existing Comcast enclosure underground approximately 400 feet to the base of the tree and into an enclosure provided by Swam Electric.

Meanwhile, Neely Mitchell contacted the prestigious Cornell Lab of Ornithology for camera suggestions and was connected to Tim Sears at HDOnTap in Del Mar, CA. The next challenge would be installing the camera, and that meant turning to Game Commission employee Derek Spitler, a certified climber. But when he got back to the ground after his Dec. 29 climb, he had bad news.

“Once he got up the tree, he found out he couldn’t go where he needed to go because the tree had some damage to it and it was not safe to climb there,” recalled Neely Mitchell. “And there’s not a taller tree nearby we could get into. That was discouraging. We were worried that we might have come to the end of the road.”

Fortunately, that road was big enough to accommodate a lift. The Game Commission quickly located a unit large enough, and Spitler knew how to drive and operate it. On Dec. 30 he and supervisor Jeff Mackey mounted the camera to a branch using straps and plywood, avoiding the use of screws that would damage the tree.

“I can’t wait to watch this nesting attempt unfold,” said Game Commission Executive Director R. Matthew Hough.
We talked with Patti Barber, endangered bird biologist for the Game Commission, about what we might expect to see in the coming months.

Q: Do we have an idea when the eggs will be laid?
A: The first week of February is kind of the target date, but it really could be anytime around then. Newer nesting pairs tend to lay eggs later in the cycle and older birds tend to be earlier. This pair was already established and has been in the area for several years.

Q: Do we know how old these eagles are?
A: We don’t, because they’re not banded. Bald Eagles can live 25 to 30 years. We have a pair in Tioga County (PA), banded, that first nested in 1988 and is still active.

Q: How many eggs can we expect in the nest?
A: One to three eggs are typical. With young birds it’s most likely one, but with older pairs it’s more likely to be two or three. The eggs are laid every other day and hatch that way, too. And it’s also not unusual that they don’t all survive. Most chicks don’t make it out of the nest. Of those that do, most die in the first year. But for those who make it through the first year, their life expectancy goes up dramatically.

Q: How long after the eggs are laid will the eaglets hatch?
A: 35 days.

Q: How do the eagles go about feeding the young?
A: While the nestlings are small, one adult will hunt while the other broods the young. As the nestlings grow they will need more food. By the time they are about 20 days old they will be able to maintain their body temperature and both adults will be hunting a lot. Parents will tend to first feed the chicks that are the strongest and most aggressive in demanding food.

Q: How long will the eaglets stay in the nest?
A: Anywhere from 8-10 weeks. As they get older and stronger, they’ll be more and more active in the nest, sometimes stretching out to relax and sometimes hopping from branch to branch and then flapping and holding their weight up in the air. When they leave the nest, they’ll be as big as their parents. Occasionally they do end up outside the nest earlier than expected, but even then no one should panic. If they’re not injured, they’re pretty resilient. We’ve had cases where the parents have cared for them on the ground.