A pan-tilt-zoom video camera in Boulder County, Colorado, caught a sight like none other earlier this year when a lightning strike managed to blast a bald eagle nest to pieces on a tree. The blast, captured on camera by Front Range Eagle Studies, hit the nest of the Stearns Pair, a pair of breeding bald eagles that live near Stearns Lake.
The female bald eagle was by the nest as the lightning came down, keeping a close eye on the situation as a juvenile red-tail hawk appears to creep a bit too close. The strike knocks both the eagle and the hawk unconscious, leaving them hanging upside down for a period.
Fortunately the adult female bald eagle survived the strike, returning to chase off a juvenile bald eagle a while later. The juvenile red-tailed hawk did wind up falling out of the tree, though its fate after is not known. There was no sign of any raptors under the tree 2 days later.
According to KDVR Fox 31, bald eagles need large, sturdy branches to nest. A lack of old-growth cottonwood trees in the Boulder County area has become a problem for local bald eagles. Chief researcher for Front Range Eagle Studies Dana Bove hoped Boulder County would close nearby trails to help the eagles build a new nest without heavy foot traffic, and while they did close the trails until October 15, he still believes they need to do more.
“One would be to close the trail, and two would be to not exterminate Prairie Dogs within a quarter mile of where they nest. They really haven’t had a chance to come back here and try to reestablish a nest and probably that remaining tree that they could reestablish the nest in.” – Dana Bove
