Video: Bald eagles’ nest struck by lightning in Boulder County

BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. (KDVR) — A researcher for Front Range Eagle Studies said he saw something he had never seen before when he went back to check the data from their PTZ Video Camera at Carolyn Holmberg Preserve in Boulder County.

In early August, the camera captured a female eagle in a cottonwood tree keeping watch as a red-tailed hawk swoops in, getting close to her nest.

Mere seconds later, the nest lights up as a lightning bolt strikes it, rendering the two birds unconscious.

“It was really pretty jarring. That’s an understatement,” said Dana Bove, chief researcher for Front Range Eagle Studies.

He said it was almost just as shocking to see the female eagle, who had swept to the ground, fly back into the tree and even chase off another eagle who got a little too close to the nest. He has watched her and her mate for about 10 years, and he said this pair has been through a lot during that time, namely the recent development around the preserve.

“In 2013 and ’14 when they first started to build the first apartment complex, I think it was too much for them and they left their nest tree and actually they came over here and tried to build the nest here,” Bove said.

He said possibly the foot traffic in the preserve or lack of older cottonwood trees drove them back out to the outskirts, but then another development started up.

“Clearly, they’ve been displaced several times over there by human development,” Bove said.

Eagles’ challenges include lack of old-growth trees

The lack of old-growth cottonwood trees has also been a challenge for the birds since they need bigger, sturdier branches to support their nests.

“The initial tree that they built a nest in is nearly dead. They had two chicks in there and there was a storm and the nest had been sagging the whole time,” Bove said. “It just got too heavy and it fell, the chicks died and then they moved over to the tree that’s on the ground here and built another nest.”

After this recent incident, Bove said he was hoping the trails would close for a bit longer to help the birds find a new place to build their nest without the foot traffic through their territory. Boulder County will close the trails on Oct. 15, but he said he would like to see more done in supporting these eagles.

“One would be to close the trail, and two would be to not exterminate Prairie Dogs within a quarter mile of where they nest,” Bove said. “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.”

A few weeks ago, about nine acres of prairie dogs were exterminated nearby, which Bove said is a majority of the eagle’s diet.

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