Sandy has taken flight, but not without sending eagle-eyed viewers of the Friends of Big Bear Eagle Nest Cam into a Sunday-morning panic.
Shortly before 11:30 a.m., one of the two famous eaglets — later identified as Sandy — was flapping its wings on a branch just outside the nest.
She lost her footing and fell to a lower branch. Then another. And then another, before flying to another tree, according to Jenny Voisard, media manager of Friends of Big Bear Valley.
“I about had a heart attack,” Christie Schultz posted on the FOBBV Facebook page. “Sandy hung there for about 7 min upside down, then dropped all the way with wings spread.”
Big Bear eagles Jackie and Shadow’s eaglets, Sandy and sibling Luna, hatched in April, and millions watched their births. It typically takes baby eagles 10 to 14 weeks to fledge. In recent days, viewers were treated to the younger eagles practicing their wing flapping and preparing to make their first official flights.
On Sunday, Sandy did what is known in eagle circles as a “fludge,” by accidentally taking flight through an unfortunate tumble, Voisard said.
“We have a security camera, and we saw footage of her flying to another tree,” Voisard said. “We haven’t picked her up yet, but she’s probably just resting.”
Voisard noted that an eagle’s first flight is a stressful endeavor that saps the bird’s energy. Typically, eagles spend a lot of time resting after their inaugural flight.
“It could be a little bit, but hopefully, she’ll come back to the nest,” Voisard said.
Once eagles make their first venture away from the only home they’ve known, their parents will go to them and feed them where they are. Sandy and Luna will remain dependent on Jackie and Shadow for several more weeks as they learn how to live outside the nest and gather their own food.
They’ll remain around their natal area for weeks until they master flight and, equally important, landing. Once they’re capable of independent survival, Voisard said they become nomadic and explore for the first five years of their life. Eagles reach sexual maturity at the age of 5, and that’s when their feather patterns change to the more familiar iconic white-head feathers.
“Everyone was saying Luna was going to go first, because he was a boy, and they develop faster,” Voisard said. “But Sandy was like, ‘I don’t think so.’”
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