Southwest Florida Eagle Cam stars E21 and E22 in the "attic" above their nest off Bayshore Road in North Fort Myers. The juvenile-aged sibs are the last brood of matriarch Harriet and mate M15. Courtesy of the Southwest Florida Eagle Cam

The 2022-23 season for the Southwest Florida Eagle Cam was unlike any other in its 11-year history.

It started even before any eggs were laid, as Hurricane Ian destroyed the nest off Bayshore Road, forcing Harriet and mate M15 to work double-time to rebuild, allowing Harriet to lay her eggs right about on schedule.

Eaglets E21 and E22 hatched around the new year and, for a month, everything seemed to be the norm with E21 bullying its sibling for food and all the usual things that have happened in and around the nest since the internationally renown cam went live 11 years ago.

That changed on Feb. 2 when Harriet flew away to chase off some intruders and never returned. This put M15 in charge of taking care of two eaglets, a good two months away from fledging.

The odds were certainly against the now single parent, but despite numerous intruders vying for his affections and the dangers of having to leave his babies alone in the nest as he hunted for food, M15 was able to keep his brood alive and both successfully fledged.

Each eaglet also went missing for brief spells, but returned to the nest. E21 flew the coop out on its own. E22 has hung around a little longer than expected and M15 continued to provide for the younger sibling.

Every step of the way, the Southwest Florida Eagle Cam has brought fans the momentous occasions and troubling tragedies that occur in nature.

Ginnie Pritchett McSpadden, one of the Eagle Cam founders, said this year has been an amazing experience for everyone involved.

“It’s amazing how the eagles have been able to handle everything that has been thrown at them. They’ve given me so much hope. This is one for the record books,” Pritchett McSpadden said.

The eagle cam has had more than 204 million views from nearly every nation in the world and has been used by teachers worldwide to teach students about bald eagles and how America’s national birds live. It has also spawned a book series about the late matriarch Harriet and brought bird watchers from all over get a closer look at the eagles from the church next door.

How it started

Harriet and her previous mate, Ozzie, had nested across the street the Pritchett Farm on Bayshore Road for a long time before moving to the farm in 2006.

In 2012 the Pritchett family decided it wanted to document on video the daily lives of the bald eagles in the nest, so they raised some money, got the necessary approvals, and started the Southwest Florida Eagle Cam.

“We observed them coming in and out of the office every day. Photographers came and took pictures of them as social media was developing,” Pritchett McSpadden said. “Eagle cams were springing up all over the country and decided to try it out.”

Pritchett McSpadden and her husband and Andy Pritchett, her brother, helped set it up with their IT experience, then set up a Facebook page, and the rest is history.

It started with one camera positioned 6 feet above the nesting tree, 60 feet in the air, equipped with night vision or infrared light, which emits no actual light. The eagles do not see or hear anything coming from the camera.

The founders had no idea how the eagle cam would be received by the public, but they learned soon enough: Thousands watched as Ozzie and Harriet hatched Hope and Honor, the only eaglets given formal names. Both fledged.

This made that first season (2012-13) the most rewarding in the eyes of the founders.

“It was such a learning experience for everyone and the bond these eagles had was very special,” Pritchett McSpadden said.

“We didn’t know what to expect. To say we had achieved our original goal would be an understatement at this point,” said co-founder Andy Pritchett online.

The following season, a second camera was added, approximately 60 feet from the nest to capture images of the nest action outside the view of Camera No. 1. 

Viewers also got their first glimpse of tragedy as E3 died just six weeks after hatching. At the time, those watching were aghast, but the Pritchetts warned viewers that they would see the best and worst nature can deliver.

The 2014-15 season brought a second additional camera and even more drama. E5 died just 25 days after hatching, leaving E6 the only eaglet to fledge.

Even more drama occurred on March 17, when Ozzie was found disoriented and injured by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials and taken to the Clinic for Rehabilitation of Wildlife on Sanibel for evaluation.

After 97 days of care at CROW to recover from a broken left clavicle and a broken left coracoid bone, Ozzie was released back into the wild near the nest.

On Sept. 27, after he was seen fighting with a male eagle in the area, Ozzie was found injured and again admitted back into CROW’s care, where he died two days later.

Enter M15

A new male, dubbed M15, bonded and mated with Harriet ahead of several other suitors. The 2015-16 season turned out to be an interesting one.

After the season started a month late, one of the eaglets, E8, had to be cut free from the nest after getting monofilament fishing line wrapped around its leg and foot just two weeks after hatching. E8 was taken to the CROW clinic for treatment and released back to the nest three days later.

Meanwhile, the Southwest Florida Eagle Cam’s future was placed in doubt when the nest deteriorated and collapsed. Also, after an owl attack, E8 was again hospitalized after being found with a broken leg. The eaglet spent three months at CROW before being released.

The 2016-17 season, after Harriet and M15 returned to rebuild the nest, saw Harriet produce another unviable egg and E9, who thrived being the only chick, earned the record for the shortest time to fledge. 

After two more successful seasons, 2019-20 proved heartbreak – and hope. The first clutch of eggs produced an unviable egg and the death of E14 from a broken blood feather.

For the first time, Harriet produced a second clutch, which hatched just as COVID came around at the end of March. This time, both eaglets fledged.

In 2020-21, eaglets E17 and E18 were removed from the nest by CROW after contracting Avian chlamydiosis, a bacterial disease commonly carried by birds.

Throughout all this, the Southwest Florida Eagle Cam has added two more cameras, one close to the pond to capture the activity going on there, and a fourth is the Cam 360, located in the nest tree and the first-ever live camera in history to capture a 360-degree look into a bald eagle’s daily activity. This cam allows you to click and drag to any viewing area.

These cameras have shown many things that were overlooked over the years. We are now able to see the moment the eaglets fledge, close-ups of the eggs when we see a pip and shots of where the birds are on the tree, as well as the encounters with the lone natural enemy of bald eagles — the great-horned owl, a species which has constantly knocked the local pair off their tree, perhaps to take their nest. This year, a pair of the owls raised a brood of their own on the Pritchett property in nest built and abandoned by the eagles.

“We have come so far and our story has evolved so much with Harriet and Ozzie and Hope and Honor to now and so much in between,” Pritchett McSpadden said. “We’ve had life soaring and some death. Our goal was to bring the life of these raptors to the population and it’s been a job well done.”

The future?

What does the future hold for the Eagle Cam after the death of Harriet?

It’s anyone’s guess.

Pritchett McSpadden told WGCU recently that she isn’t sure what will happen after the season winds down.

“We have to wait and see what happens in the next several months. Whoever ends up in the nest will have big talons to fill. A lot of people pulled from her (Harriet’s) strength and energy. That’s why the cams have been so popular,” Pritchett McSpadden said.

The cameras will be brought down for maintenance and repairs, with this year being especially key because of damage caused by Hurricane Ian.

As for next season, Pritchett McSpadden said right now next season is a go, depending on what Mother Nature has in store for the nest.

The big question is whether M15 will return, this time with a mate. Or if a mature offspring will return to the nest. Or if the owls take the nest and they start an owl cam. Pritchett McSpadden said she doesn’t know what will happen.

If M15 does return, Pritchett McSpadden said she would finally give the male eagle the name it deserves, as Ozzie got. She said she would get help from the community to choose a name for M15 and his new mate.

They wanted to do that this past year, but with everything that happened with the storm, it never came to pass.

“We just know we are thankful and very proud of this journey. Being able to talk about it today is very cool,” Pritchett McSpadden said.