Southwest Florida Eagle Cam celebrates 15 years

Oct 12, 2026 By By CHUCK BALLARO 7 min read

Eagle lovers worldwide have seen the best and worst of what Mother Nature can wrought.

They have seen the miracle of hatching, watched the little puffballs grow to eventually be able to fledge and leave the nest.

We also have seen eggs that ended up unviable or a damaged, preventing a successful hatching.

We have seen eaglets take flight or, sadly, not.

And we have seen the evolving mating pairs as eagles pass and young eagles take their place.

It has been an interesting story that has unfolded at the nest at Pritchett Farm off Bayshore Road in North Fort Myers where, since 2012, people worldwide have had the ability to watch the happenings at the nest from the comfort of their own couch.

The Southwest Florida Eagle Cam is celebrating its 15th year of providing nature lovers an opportunity to watch the eagles in the wild care for their young and watch the eaglets grow and learn from their parents.

Ginnie Pritchett-McSpadden said the Southwest Florida Eagle Cam started with a humble goal.

“We started seeing eagles in the tree in the pasture where the Pritchett Real Estate offices are,” Pritchett-McSpadden said. “Ground photographers started taking pictures. I thought how cool it would be if we put the eagles on camera in the nest.”

The original mating pair, dubbed Ozzie and Harriet, first arrived in the area nearly 20 years before there was even a thought of an eagle cam. But the idea was soon hatched —  The Decorah Eagle Cam in Iowa had become popular and Pritchett-McSpadden said she wanted to do something like that.

After learning the regulations and technology required to have such a camera, the site went live for the 2012-2013 nesting season.

Things started slowly but surely.

“We had our family and five or six people watching. We put out a press release and we had 100 people watching,” Pritchett-McSpadden said. “We then started a Facebook page and we had a thousand people and it blew up from there.”

Then it went viral — more than 16 million viewers tuned in to watch Harriet and then-mate Ozzie raise two eaglets — Hope and Honor — from hatch to first flight.

At the time, there was just one camera directed six feet over the nest. That was enough for eagle fans, who watched in droves from 200 countries. In fact, from the time the eaglets were hatched in the first few days of 2013 the live stream averaged over 190,000 views a day.

“There were spikes where we would watch a football bowl game where they had 85,000 in the stands and there were more people watching the Eagle Cam than in the stadium,” Pritchett-McSpadden said.

Schools all over showed the happenings at the nest as part of their lessons and there was even a children’s book written about the adult eagles.

“When we put the first camera up, we hoped for the best. We didn’t know what we would be capturing, we just thought we would get a glimpse into the eagles’ lives,” Pritchett-McSpadden said. “It became such an educational opportunity for the little guys. I wrote two children’s books about Harriet. I was able to go into classes and read them so see their reactions learning about eagles.”

The use of formal names stopped after the first year for the eaglets. They became E-1, E2 and so on, names sequentially as they hatched.

Too soon, to the heartbreak of Ozzie fans, the nest would have a new adult male. In March 2015, Ozzie was found injured, presumably after being hit by a car. Ozzie spent three months rehabilitating at CROW in Sanibel and was released back home. Ozzie got into a fight with Harriet’s new would-be beau, M15, named for male, 2015. Ozzie was re-injured and died days later.

For the next eight years, M15 and Harriet raised their young and were part of some of the strangest happenings any nest has seen. In 2020, when a first clutch of eggs didn’t survive, they produced a second clutch in late February that did.

It seemed like Harriet would live forever. Unfortunately, she disappeared in early February 2023 and was presumed dead. This left M15 with a pair of five-week-old eaglets that he had to raise by himself.

Despite owls and other birds that had their eyes on the eaglets, M15 defied the odds and successfully got both to fledge.

With that, he became North Fort Myers’ most eligible bachelor. But not for long. F23 came along, a younger eagle.

The new mating pair had some challenges.

In 2024, one egg was badly damaged shortly before it was set to hatch. The eaglet, who could be seen inside, didn’t survive.

The following year, both eaglets died hours apart from the Avian flu which also made the adult eagles sick and unable to attempt another clutch.

Pritchett-McSpadden said that when people turn on the eagle cam, they will see nature at its best and worst. Eaglets have died in the nest and eggs haven’t been viable.

“Having those magic moments of the eggs hatching and the sad events, we’ve had to learn to manage the viewers’ emotions because they become so invested in the lives of the eagles, they forget that nature shows all sides of emotions,” Pritchett-McSpadden said. “We learned to keep that in check.”  

Last year, the pair finally raised a two eaglets. That is, until March when F23 went missing and was presumed dead. M15 again had to finish raising the brood, though by this point they were already branching and about the fledge.

Through the years and through the challenges, changes of high-born successes, the Southwest Florida Eagle Cam shared it all.

They added a second camera that offered a wide view of the nest so viewers could see what was happening outside the nest.

A third was added that showed the eagles flying around the Pritchett property, including the pond where they occasionally caught some fish.

A fourth camera was added a couple years ago that gave a 360-degree view of the farm that you can control.

“We take great pride in keeping up with the technology and all the latest ways to make the Eagle Cam better,” Pritchett-McSpadden said. “I give props to my husband for the 360 camera and fibers so we can continue to provide the stream everyone knows and loves so much.”

This season starts with a lot of intrigue.

M15 apparently has found a female, but as of now, there has been no mating or work being done on the nest.

Pritchett-McSpadden said the cam is in limbo because of this.

Could it be the last season?

Or does the new female eagle mean a new timeline.

“Nest building is normal eagle activity. She isn’t showing much interest in building the nest. We’ll see if we take a break this year or if there will be a delayed timeline, which is not unprecedented,” Pritchett-McSpadden said. “We’re watching to see what happens in the next couple weeks.”

Pritchett-McSpadden said she had no idea the Eagle Cam would last as long as it did.

“The Decorah Cam was in its 11th or 12th year and we thought no way would we last this long. Here we are at season 15,” Pritchett-McSpadden said. “No. I never thought we would be this far along.”

Meanwhile, Season 15 of the SWFL Eagle Cam ready to go live if and when.

The eagle cam will again have the four cameras. This nesting season, the feed will not go through the Pritchett Real Estate website. It will be shown exclusively on YouTube instead.

To reach By CHUCK BALLARO, please email news@breezenewspapers.com