After a month of heartbreak, fans of a pair of celebrity bald eagles who live in Big Bear are celebrating. The eagles, who are livestreamed all day and night to some 700,000 subscribers, laid an egg on Tuesday.
Thousands were tuned into the stream earlier this week when Jackie, the female bird, whistled like a tea kettle then laid an egg. The new egg was especially welcome after a raven ate two eggs Jackie laid a few weeks ago.
“It was a lift, I think all of us needed,” said Jenny Voisard with Friends of Big Bear Valley, which operates the livestream. “After the excitement of the eggs and then losing the eggs and then losing Sandy.”
Sandy Steers created the eagle livestream and was a staunch advocate for the eagles for years before that. Steers passed away two weeks ago after a private battle with cancer.
She told KVCR last year she thought Jackie was a chick she first noticed some 15 years ago.
“I would stand out here, no matter what the weather, for a few hours a day just to watch this little chick in the nest,” Steers said. “And it was beautiful to watch, and it got me hooked into all of this.”
Steers was known for her descriptive Facebook updates of Jackie and her partner Shadow’s antics. Thousands of commenters across Instagram, Facebook and YouTube mourned the loss of Steers after her death and have begun pushing for Jackie and Shadow’s next chick to be named in her honor.
“Sandy would not like that,” said Voisard. “One of Sandy's greatest joys was working with the third graders to name the chicks.”
Every year that Jackie and Shadow’s eggs have hatched, third graders in Big Bear get to vote on names submitted by viewers all around the world. Last year, fourth and fifth graders joined since there were no chicks the years prior. They settled on Sunny and Gizmo.
“I don't think she would ever want to take that away from them,” Voisard said if a chick hatches, they’ll continue to honor that tradition.
Voisard said FOBBV plans to dedicate a more permanent memorial to Steers, as a chick would eventually leave the nest.
Eagle eggs take about 40 days to incubate, so a chick could hatch in early April.