WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Last night and this morning, world famous female bald eagle ‘The First Lady’ hunkered down over her two fragile eggs, protecting them from Winter Storm Stella. For several hours, her mate ‘Mr. President’ added an extra layer of warmth inside their wild nest at the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, DC — also warming the hearts of cam viewers across the globe.
Millions of people are awaiting the hatching of eaglets DC4 & DC5, which are expected to arrive the last week of March. The DC Eagle Cam Project (dceaglecam.org) is a cooperative public education project between the American Eagle Foundation (www.eagles.org, headquartered at Dollywood) and the US Department of Agriculture.
ABOUT THE D.C. EAGLE CAM PROJECT
In 2015, American Eagle
Foundation (AEF) staff traveled to D.C. to install state-of-the-art
cameras, infrared lighting, and other related equipment in-and-around
the nest tree with the help of volunteers and experienced tree climbers.
The USDA’s U.S. National Arboretum ran a half-mile of fiber optic cable
to the cameras’ ground control station, which connects the cameras to
the Internet. The entire system is powered by a large mobile solar array
(containing several deep cycle batteries) that was designed and built by
students and staff from Alfred State College, SUNY College of
Technology and was partially funded by the Department of Energy and
Environment. USNA has implemented a backup generator that will kick-on
if prolonged inclement weather causes the solar array to provide
insufficient power to the system. In 2016, APEX Electric Inc. (Kenmore,
Washington) traveled to D.C. to assist the AEF in successfully
installing audio equipment in and around the tree. The AEF uses Piksel
to stream the video images to viewers around the world, and AEF
volunteers are trained and coordinated to pan, tilt and zoom the cams,
as well as educate the public via LIVE chats while viewers watch the
eagles on the Internet.