{"id":378748,"date":"2026-06-28T23:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T23:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/378748\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T23:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T23:44:11","slug":"big-bear-eaglet-sandy-takes-first-flight-after-accidental-fludge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/378748\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Bear eaglet Sandy takes first flight after accidental ‘fludge’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sandy has taken flight, but not without sending eagle-eyed viewers of the Friends of Big Bear Valley eagle nest cam<\/a> into a Sunday-morning panic.<\/p>\n

Shortly before 11:30 a.m., one of the two famous eaglets \u2014 later identified as Sandy \u2014 was flapping her wings on a branch just outside the nest. <\/p>\n

She lost her footing and fell to a lower branch. Then another. And then another, before flying to another tree, according to Jenny Voisard, FOBBV\u2019s media manager. <\/p>\n

\u201cI about had a heart attack,\u201d viewer Christie Schultz posted on the FOBBV Facebook page. \u201cSandy hung there for about 7 min upside down, then dropped all the way with wings spread.\u201d<\/p>\n

Big Bear eagles Jackie and Shadow\u2019s<\/a> offspring, Sandy and sibling Luna, hatched in April<\/a>, and millions watched as they hatched. It typically takes baby eagles 10 to 14 weeks to fledge. In recent days, viewers were treated to the younger eagles practicing their wing flapping and preparing to make their first official flights.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Sandy did what is known in eagle circles as a \u201cfludge,\u201d by accidentally taking flight through an unfortunate tumble, Voisard said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a security camera, and we saw footage of her flying to another tree,\u201d Voisard said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t picked her up yet, but she\u2019s probably just resting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Voisard noted that an eagle\u2019s first flight is a stressful endeavor that saps the bird\u2019s energy. Typically, eagles spend a lot of time resting after their inaugural flight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could be a little bit, but, hopefully, she\u2019ll come back to the nest,\u201d Voisard said.<\/p>\n

Once eaglets make their first venture away from the only home they\u2019ve known, their parents will go to them and feed them where they are. Sandy and Luna will remain dependent on Jackie and Shadow for several more weeks as they learn how to live outside the nest and gather their own food. Sandy was named in honor of the late Sandy Steers, longtime biologist<\/a> and executive director of FOBBV.<\/p>\n

The pair will remain nearby for weeks until they master flying and, equally important, landing. Once they\u2019re capable of independent survival, Voisard said they become nomadic and explore for the first five years of their life. Eagles reach sexual maturity at the age of 5, and that\u2019s when their feather patterns change to the more familiar white head feathers.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone was saying Luna was going to go first, because he was a boy, and they develop faster,\u201d Voisard said. \u201cBut Sandy was like, \u2018I don\u2019t think so.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sandy has taken flight, but not without sending eagle-eyed viewers of the Friends of Big Bear Valley eagle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[153206,48637,153208,73932,153207,23540,30276,78247,48,52,51,47,50,49,26802,153209,42820,153205,53697,430,40125],"class_list":["post-378748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-baby-eagle","tag-big-bear","tag-famous-eaglet","tag-first-flight","tag-fludge","tag-friends","tag-jackie","tag-jenny-voisard","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-luna","tag-medium-manager","tag-nest","tag-sandy","tag-shadow","tag-week","tag-wing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}