Hanover eagle camera to return Monday
It's eagle season, everyone.
On Monday a technician will take down, clean, repair and remount the eagle camera that made a family of Hanover-area eagles famous last winter, said Karen Lippy, who volunteers at Codorus State Park, where the eagles live. It is unclear when the eagle camera footage will begin streaming.
Last year's star eaglets have grown up a little. They're entering into their teenage years and getting a little white under the belly, Lippy said. Some disruptions heard by people who live in the area might also mean that mom and dad are trying to get them to move out.
"If nature doesn't let them know it's time to move on, their parents will," Lippy said.
If they don't move out they could return to their old nest, discover new chicks and kill them. Or they could mate with their own siblings and ruin the local gene pool, Lippy said. Whatever the problems are, nature tells the eagles to travel sometimes as far as a thousand miles or more to start anew, she said.
They'll reach sexual maturity to start their own family usually by five years old, she added.
Lippy said she has a wish list before the camera is mounted again that she isn't sure the Pennsylvania Game Commission will allow. She hopes to measure the circumference of the tree and the size of the nest because those were popular questions last year.
Whether her requests are approved or not will be discovered Monday.
The eagle cam: A history
Who knew two eagle parents and their babies could be so popular.
After a camera was set up in a Codorus State Park tree this past January, viewers got to see a pair of bald eagles start their own feathered family.
The camera's popularity skyrocketed, even after the game commission limited the live stream to its site. Almost 1.7 million people viewed the Pennsylvania Game Commission's bald eagle page from Feb. 19 to March 12. Even a Facebook group met up in person to discuss the eagles.
Eagle cam Facebook group meets face-to-face at Codorus State Park
The hype built as the mother eagle laid her eggs; the first arrived Valentine's Day, while the second came three days later. The eaglets hatched in March.
Despite some unfortunate run-ins with Mother Nature and a tree crack, speculation spread about whether or not the camera would be back again. It seems like our wishes for a second eagle enlightenment have been granted.
Eagle cam: Game commission website traffic triples after livestream change
Below is a file video of the nest from the last breeding season.