Sandy, one of the famous Big Bear bald eagle eaglets, fell from the nest on June 28 after another eaglet moved around the family’s tree. A camera team searched for her by early afternoon PT as her family watched from below.
For a few hours on June 28, the excitement around Big Bear’s bald eagles shifted from flight practice to something sharper: a sudden fall, frantic watching, and a search.
One of the famous Big Bear bald eagles’ eaglets, Sandy, took a tumble in the family’s nest area. The Friends of Big Bear Valley. which monitors Jackie and Shadow and posts updates. said in a Facebook post that Luna jumped over Sandy at 11:24 a.m. PT in an effort to get back into the nest. Sandy lost her footing and fell onto the branches below, the organization said.
The fall didn’t end immediately. The preservation group said Sandy fell further after freeing herself from the branches, and that they could hear her “squees.”
As the situation played out, the mother, Jackie, returned “within minutes.” From a branch below the nest, Jackie watched her offspring, according to the post. The update also said that “Jackie and Shadow will now follow her wherever she goes and make sure she is fed and taken care of.”
A video posted by the organization, filmed by a camera aimed at the nest tree, showed Sandy flying out of frame. The group said Sandy “looked good in her flight” and was likely “relaxing from her unexpected adventure.”
Still, the question of where Sandy had gone wasn’t settled right away. As of 1:42 p.m. PT, camera operators were searching for Sandy, the organization said.
Earlier that day, the same monitoring effort had been describing a more typical, energetic phase of development. A Friends of Big Bear Valley blog post characterized the eaglets as “very active. high jumping. flapping. and sometimes getting a little lift. ” and told followers to “stay tuned in. ” anticipating “hovering” in the coming days.
The broader backdrop makes the June 28 scare land harder for viewers who’ve been watching from home. Jackie and Shadow’s eaglets hatched in April. and the blog post said they are now fully grown and able to fly. Jackie and Shadow—longtime celebrities in the mountain community about 100 miles east of Los Angeles—have developed an international following through livestreams of their nest.
By 3:30 p.m. PT, the YouTube stream of the main Eagle Cam had over 27,000 viewers.
The sequence of facts matters: an eaglet’s jump at 11:24 a.m. PT leads to a fall. then a burst of family attention “within minutes. ” and finally an afternoon search as the camera team tries to confirm where Sandy is after she flew out of frame. Even for a nest that has drawn global eyes for months. that kind of timing is the difference between “practice flights” and a moment you can’t look away from.
Big Bear bald eagles Jackie and Shadow Sandy Luna eaglet tumble Friends of Big Bear Valley nest camera livestream viewers June 28