Bald eagles occasionally interrupt story time at Troth Street Elementary School.
Two laptops perched atop a bookshelf are a window from this Jurupa Valley school library to a bald eagle nest 70 miles away in Big Bear.
For the last three years, librarian Doris Sanchez and her students have been among tens of thousands of people who watch Jackie and Shadow try to foster the next generation of California bald eagles.
Sanchez welcomes the students' questions at any time.
“If they have a chance of learning something they might not know, it's time to stop and do that,” Sanchez said. “You can always get back to the stuff you have to do, like reading that story.”
For Sanchez, and for educators around the country, the 24/7 stream is an opportunity to pique students' interest in subjects including science, math, reading, writing, and art. Inevitably, teachers and students alike become personally invested in the ups and downs of the eagles' journey.
“It's kind of this dance between the emotions of what that might bring up in them and then trying to observe the science,” said Ali Campbell, a fifth grade teacher in Montclair, N.J.
The nonprofit Friends of Big Bear Valley raised $10,000 to install a solar-powered nest camera in 2015.
Retired special education teacher Jeanette Tabor lives in Big Bear and started playing the livestream for her students soon after it was established.
“It was a wonderful opportunity to, um, to not only explore something exciting, but it was connected with our community,” Tabor said.
Throughout the day, the students tuned in to the eagle interactions on screen.
Installed: Fall 2015
By who? Friends of Big Bear Valley, a nonprofit environmental preservation group
Location: An undisclosed Jeffrey pine tree, about 120 feet from the ground
What keeps it running? Donations and a group of 10 volunteers who monitor the nest 24-hours-a-day, 365-days-a-year and create detailed documentation.
Watch it: Here.
“It was really exciting to see what the chicks were doing,” Tabor said. “Whether it was the parents feeding them or if they happen to catch them pooping over the side of the nest — I don't know if you want to include that.”
Tabor tailored the lessons to students’ abilities and goals. For example, cutting yarn into pom-pom eagle chicks was both a cute craft and fine motor skill practice.
In 2018, the year Jackie laid her first clutch of eggs in the nest, Tabor’s class turned their observations into a story.
“The eggs hatched and we saw two baby eagles who were little, fuzzy, and gray,” reads the three paragraph story written by 12 students.
Age: 12 (Jackie) and 10 (Shadow)
Average adult size: 6 to 14 pounds with a wingspan of 6 to 8 feet
Big Bear nest size: Approximately 5.5 feet across and 6 feet deep
California eagle breeding season: January through summer.
Typical egg incubation period: 35 days
“One night it was very cold, windy and rainy, and one of the babies died. We were really sad.”
Tabor remembered breaking the news to the students.
“I think as an adult, you always want to shelter children from as much as you can,” Tabor said. “But I needed to tell them that … yes, we're sad, but yes, it is what happens, you know, it's part of our lives.”
Then Stormy, the remaining eaglet, fell from the nest.
“We did not see him for nine days,” the students wrote. Their story ended on a hopeful note: “Stormy is back in the nest now, and we watch him every day.”
Stormy went on to successfully fly — in scientific terms, fledge — from the nest.
“I was always so proud of [my students] because they would notice,” Tabor said. “I didn't have to point it out to them. They had, they were growing in their own skills of observation.”
LAist visited a third grade class at Troth Street Elementary this week to hear what they’ve learned from Jackie and Shadow. Short answer: a lot!
For example,
In addition to sparking scientific inquiry, the eagles are also role models.
“They're responsible,” said Dina Preciado. “They're taking care of the babies, and then not like leaving them.”
The students pepper Sanchez with questions during their weekly visits to the library. She’s become the school’s resident eagle expert, thanks to the history and daily summaries posted by Friends of Big Bear Valley volunteers online. Some queries (How old are Jackie and Shadow?) are easier to answer than others (Why does Shadow sabotage Jackie?).
Sanchez is the sole library employee. She manages hundreds of books, the school’s one-to-one laptop program, free Wi-Fi devices, and other teaching materials. The neighborhood surrounding the school is rural— no street lights or sidewalks. Most of the students at Troth Street Elementary are from low-income families— 88.6% qualified for free and reduced-price meals last school year.
Sanchez said the livestream connects her students to the larger region. If it’s snowing on the eagles in Big Bear, they can go outside, look north and see clouds where the San Bernardino Mountains should be.
“That I could see different animals and different places,” is student Janet Galisia’s favorite part about watching the eagles.
To date, five of Jackie’s 14 eggs have hatched and three have fledged.
“That’s not unusual for eagles,” Sandy Steers, executive director of Friends of Big Bear Valley, told LAist earlier this month. “It’s always very hard and heartbreaking when things don’t work out the way that we would like them to, but it’s nature.”
The teachers LAist talked to were all preparing to talk about the likely scenario that none of Jackie and Shadows' three eggs hatch this year.
“These kids are pretty well versed in handling disappointment because they made it through the pandemic,” said New Jersey fifth grade teacher and former South Bay resident Ali Campbell.
She said the learning doesn’t stop because the eggs aren’t viable. Campbell’s class recently interviewed a Friends of Big Bear Valley volunteer by video chat and is working on their first non-fiction writing assignment.
Campbell acknowledges the students’ feelings of sadness and they talk about what science says about animal emotions.
“Without a doubt, someone will say, ‘Well, but Jackie did have eaglets before,’” Campbell said of her student’s optimism. “They tend to look on the bright side.”
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LAist's Jackie Fortiér contributed to this story.
