Hays bald eagle nest gets new webcam for upcoming breeding season

Unseasonably warm temperatures but still frozen ground made for a seamless reinstallation of a live webcam now in its seventh year at the Pittsburgh bald eagle nest in Hays.

The Hays bald eagles, one of the region’s half-dozen known breeding pairs of the formerly endangered birds, are in their eighth year of nesting on the same steep, uninhabited hillside above the Monongahela River near the Glenwood Bridge.

The camera installation team and media required a special vehicle from JASE Corp. to traverse a rugged dirt road and then ropes to safely rappel to the nest site, where one of the bald eagles glided by Monday morning.

The area is so remote that the webcam is operated by cellular and solar technology.

“We know the birds are here working on the nest,” said Brian Shema, director of operations for the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania, which cosponsors the webcam along with CSE Corp. “There’s new material in the nest, they’re underway and, a month from now, they will be busy.”

Bald eagles in the region will be visible more consistently at their nests starting in mid-January as they prepare to breed. They typically lay their eggs starting in mid-February.

Rob Kruljac of Arborel Tree Service, president of the Pennsylvania-Delaware chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture, volunteered to climb about 80 feet up an oak tree next to the bald eagle’s nest to reinstall the camera.

“The nest looks good and everything looked clean up there,” Kruljac said of this primo vantage point above the nest while swapping out the old camera with a new one.

The live webcam has attracted more than 7 million views since 2013. In addition to the general public, dozens of school districts in southwestern Pennsylvania use the live feed in classrooms for science education.

“Our education department continues to work with education opportunities with local schools and looks forward to getting these birds into even more classrooms across the region,” Shema said.

CSE Corp. of Murrysville, a cosponsor of the webcam, has 13 wildlife webcams, including ones monitoring the bald eagles, Benezette elk and other animals.

“The new cam went up easily and we can’t thank everyone enough,” said Bill Powers, director of environmental and surveillance systems for CSE Corp.

“It’s a great Christmas present for the City of Pittsburgh and region this year,” Powers said.

The Hays bald eagles are the first pair of bald eagles to nest within Pittsburgh city limits in more than 150 years.

Watch the eagle webcam live on the websites of the local Audubon chapter and CSE Corp.