A unique partnership between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services training facility in Shepherdstown, West Virginia and the technology center of the Wheeling Jesuit University is bringing real-time online views of the growth and development of three energetic American bald eagle chicks.
The camera is strategically placed directly above their nest on the grounds of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services National Conservation Training Center, a Federal center providing education and training for natural resource managers. The center was conceived by West Virginia Senator Robert C. Byrd and opened in 1997, about 85 miles west of Washington, D.C near Shepherdstown, WV.
"This is a tremendous, though limited-time opportunity, for science classes, Scout troops, and birdwatchers to tune in to a daily show that surpasses any sort of learning from a book or a still photo," Rick Lemon, director of the National Conservation Training Center. "That eagles picked this place to set up housekeeping is our good fortune, and this season weve been able to invite viewers from around the globe to witness first-hand how exciting biology can be. What a tremendous tool for teachers this is turning out to be!"
Already several million viewers have tuned in to watch as a pair of attentive eagle parents feed and care for their fledgling trio, perched on a sycamore tree high above the Potomac River on the 538-acre Federal campus. This is the third year that eagles have nested in the same tree.
The marriage of wildlife and Web cam and the live, streaming transmission of the young eaglets antics to the world have been bolstered by the involvement of the Erma Ora Byrd Center for Educational Technologies, a Mountain State education center for science education created in 1994 and based across the state in Wheeling. It is named for the late wife of Senator Byrd, Erma Ora Byrd, who died March 25, as a tribute to her commitment to education in West Virginia.
The eagle cam live video feed is powered by Web servers at the Center for Educational Technologies. A link to the eagle cam and instructions for viewing is at http://www.fws.gov/nctc/cam/videoinstr.html. Video is available for viewing Monday through Friday between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. EDT through mid-June. The duration of the video feed will be determined, in part, by the dates on which the young eagles fledge from their nest and begin to disperse from the area, to hunt and live on their own, independent of their parents.
Still photos from the bald eagle cam and a running Web log of their daily activities are available at http://www.fws.gov/nctc/cam/. An educational broadcast and Web cast to schools, "Eagles of the Potomac - View of a Nesting Nursery" was presented by the National Conservation Training Center on April 20.
The first egg was laid in the nest on February 9, with the first hatching documented on March 18.
In the early 1900s it is thought upwards of 1000 pairs of bald eagles nested on the Chesapeake Bay and their numbers were plentiful throughout the mid-Atlantic region. By the 1960s their numbers had plummeted due to the widespread use of the pesticide DDT which caused thinning and failure of their eggs. DDT was banned in 1972 and the species was added to the list of endangered wildlife the following year. Since that time, their numbers have rebounded significantly and the Nations symbol is a dramatic success story in the annals of wildlife conservation. In 1995 the status of the bald eagle was reclassified from endangered to threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Recently the Service took action to further the delisting of the bald eagle from the ESA with the release of draft management guidelines and a reopening of the original 1999 proposal to remove the eagle from the Federal list of threatened and endangered species.
