![\"Alden](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/WJXTBCUX2E3OGOL35PNUC33QHM.JPG\")
Alden Smith, executive director of the Vermont Institute of Natural Science, viewed the live-streamed eagle’s nest from an observation tower on the organization’s Quechee campus on Jun. 24.Paul Heintz\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n\u201cHe must be so bored,\u201d one wrote on Facebook. Another suggested V-2 could really use some takeout. Still more emailed the Vermont Institute of Natural Science, which installed the camera near the nest, expressing alarm that the eaglet looked malnourished. <\/p>\n
Early the next morning, as fog lifted over the pond below, Windsor, the mother, swooped in with one fish, and then another. Overcome with hunger, V-2 stepped on its breakfast and tore at it with its beak.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt turns out, eagles know what they\u2019re doing,\u201d said Alden Smith, VINS\u2019 executive director. <\/p>\n
Since March, when the Quechee-based institute launched the live stream, it\u2019s become a surprise hit, drawing hundreds of viewers at a time and raising the profile of the small nonprofit that hosts it. <\/p>\n
What they see is surprisingly captivating: The nest sways hypnotically in the breeze as V-2 flaps its wings or naps. Every so often, there\u2019s a moment of excitement, such as a delivery of fish or a hot-air balloon drifting by in the background. But for the most part, it\u2019s simply a serene summer setting, with a placid pond below, a natural soundtrack of birdsongs and the majestic sight of the country\u2019s official national bird.<\/p>\n
Alden Smith, executive director of the Vermont Institute of Natural Science, viewed the live-streamed eagle’s nest from an observation tower on the organization’s Quechee campus on Jun. 24.Paul Heintz\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n
\u201cMostly nothing happens in the life of an eagle on a nest,\u201d Smith said. <\/p>\n
He expected the experiment would educate viewers about avian wildlife, a key component of the institute\u2019s mission, along with rehabilitating injured, sick, and orphaned birds. What surprised him was the number of eagle cam aficionados who have credited the stream with improving their mental health and making nature more accessible. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s become so hard for people to tune into healthy signals because there\u2019s just so much in our media landscape,\u201d Smith said. \u201cTo have something that makes people feel calm and curious at the same time, and to feel some sense of peace, has really been meaningful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fans of the live stream say they\u2019ve played it in classrooms, assisted living facilities, dentists\u2019 offices, and state parks. Not long after V-2 hatched in April, teachers at a nearby elementary school sent VINS a packet of drawings and letters from students welcoming the eaglet to the nest. <\/p>\n
Hillary Walz, a surgery coordinator at Dartmouth Health, grew up in the area and fondly recalled field trips to VINS\u2019 campus to visit its captive owls, hawks, and eagles. She began playing the stream at work in March, generating excitement among staff in the vascular surgery department.<\/p>\n
After Windsor hatched an egg, a surgeon suggested the department throw an eaglet shower in her honor. Staff gathered in a conference room and helped themselves to \u201csquawk snacks\u201d (Swedish Fish), \u201cnesting material\u201d (pretzel sticks), and cupcakes with eagle toppers. There were red and pink balloons and, of course, a screen playing the live stream. <\/p>\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/V3G456NRZ5G3QS5KQCQCI7VJDA.JPEG\")
An adult bald eagle soared above the Vermont Institute of Natural Science in Quechee.VINS<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re working in health care. It\u2019s a lot of stress. It\u2019s a lot of anxiousness for patients and providers,\u201d Walz said. \u201cSo I think for us it just gave us some therapy, some peace of mind \u2014 just a way to disconnect and watch nature \u2026 It\u2019s a nice little escape from the chaos in here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some eagle-watchers keep an unusually close eye on the nest. Lisa Levesque, who lives in Connecticut, created a Facebook page<\/a> for fellow fans and posts screenshots and videos of the birds daily . <\/p>\n \u201cIf I\u2019m honest, I probably spend 14 hours a day with it on,\u201d she said of the live-stream.<\/p>\n Even when she goes out to dinner with her family, Levesque, 54, places her phone on the table in front of her, keeping an eye on the nest.<\/p>\n \u201cI know that sounds really obsessive, doesn\u2019t it?\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m really enveloped in it.\u201d<\/p>\n The Vermont institute is hardly the first entity to host an eagle cam. They\u2019ve been around for at least two decades<\/a>, and some, such as the Southwest Florida Eagle Cam<\/a> and the Decorah Eagles<\/a> in Iowa, have drawn hundreds of millions of views. Levesque previously ran a fan page for a Colorado eagle cam<\/a>. <\/p>\n But the phenomenon has been slow to catch on in Northern New England, perhaps because the comeback of bald eagles has taken longer here than elsewhere. The species was nearly eradicated in the 1960s due to the widespread use of the pesticide DDT. Reintroduction efforts began in the late 1970s but didn\u2019t reach Vermont until the early 2000s. The first successful nest was identified in 2008. <\/p>\n Now, according to Margaret Fowle, a conservation biologist for Audubon Vermont, there are around 60 identified territories in the state hosting a pair of breeding bald eagles, largely in the Connecticut River and Champlain valleys, Fowle said. The bird is no longer on the federal or state endangered species lists. <\/p>\n \u201cThe story of eagles is a success story,\u201d said Jillian Kilborn, a nongame bird biologist for the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department. \u201cAnd it\u2019s one of the great success stories we\u2019ve had in the Northeast.\u201d <\/p>\n VINS has long hosted captive birds on its 47-acre campus, just upstream from the Quechee Gorge, but it wasn\u2019t until February 2025 that a researcher noticed a pair of wild eagles carrying nesting material to a perch above a bend in the Ottauquechee. That spring, staff spotted an eaglet from a tower VINS had erected as part of its forest canopy walk<\/a> \u2014 a boardwalk network suspended between trees.<\/p>\n \u201cWe started asking the question: How can we bring people closer without disturbing the eagles?\u201d Smith said. <\/p>\n The following winter, when Dewey and Windsor were away from the nest, VINS staff worked with arborists to mount two cameras nearby. The pair returned on Valentine\u2019s Day<\/a> and Windsor laid an egg on St. Patrick\u2019s Day<\/a>. V-2 hatched<\/a> April 24. <\/p>\n VINS staff have at times been uneasy about the project, Smith said, worried about leaning too far into technology or anthropomorphizing the animals. Some even questioned the wisdom of giving the eagles names.<\/p>\n \u201cI was not a fan of doing so, for the reason that they are wild animals. They\u2019re not part of our lives,\u201d said Anna Morris, the institute\u2019s director of wildlife ambassador programs. <\/p>\n In the end, they reached a compromise: to follow the naming convention used for VINS\u2019 captive birds, based on where the birds originated. Windsor was named for the county in which the nest is located and Dewey for the pond below. V-2 earned its name because he was the second eaglet hatched on the VINS nest. <\/p>\n It can be hard to avoid imparting human characteristics on the birds, particularly as viewers come to think of them as friends. During a recent online forum hosted by VINS, one member of the public asked whether eagles experience loneliness, suggesting V-2 appeared forlorn as its parents spent more time away from the nest. <\/p>\n \u201cOh, this is a sweet question,\u201d Morris responded, gently steering the viewer away from that conclusion. \u201cI don\u2019t tend to ascribe human emotions to these animals, which is not at all to say that they don\u2019t experience emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n The outcome VINS staff have most dreaded is some sort of live-streamed calamity \u2014 particularly one that could be ameliorated with human intervention, putting the institute in an impossible position. The survival rate of eaglets is only 50 percent in their first year of life, according to Fowle, the Audubon biologist. <\/p>\n \u201cNature is harsh,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are a lot of other eagle cameras out there, and there have been some difficult things to watch.\u201d <\/p>\n VINS has committed to letting nature take its course. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019d be devastating in many ways,\u201d Morris said. \u201cBut I comfort myself with the reminder that there are dozens of other Bald Eagle nests in the state of Vermont without cameras on them, where things happen every day.\u201d<\/p>\n For now, the news out of the nest is good. V-2 is growing stronger, flapping its wings and learning to eat bigger prey. Within the next month, it\u2019s likely to take its first flight. That also means the nest will soon be empty \u2014 at least until next year. <\/p>\n Levesque expects she\u2019ll be \u201ca little emotional\u201d when she can no longer track V-2\u2019s every movement.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat will I do with my whole day now?\u201d she asked with a laugh. \u201cMy family will probably say, \u2018Thank god.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n But, Levesque said, for V-2 to take flight is \u201cthe happiest part. That\u2019s the ultimate goal.\u201d<\/p>\n Paul Heintz can be reached at paul.heintz@globe.com<\/a>. Follow him on X @paulheintz<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/72XB5U2KL2GXFODT2RWEQLRZWE.JPG\")
A live-streamed eagle’s nest, as seen from an observation tower, on Jun. 24.Paul Heintz\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ZZPNLVTRSKJUTPFOQPYKYETWNM.JPG\")
An adult bald eagle brought a squirrel to the nest on May 27.VINS<\/p>\n