Bald eagle parents welcome new addition after moving into new nest built by volunteers

A formerly nestless bald eagle pair defied the odds by laying two eggs in a new nest built by volunteers right before mating season in Tennessee.

Eagle parents Jolene and Boone have now welcomed their first baby eaglet in their new home.

“Every single hatch is miraculous, but this one for us signifies the ultimate success in rebuilding hope for the future,” eagle cam operator and moderator Sherry Wright told McClatchy News.

The daily lives of the eagles are broadcast by the East Tennessee State University Johnson City eagle cam on YouTube, where fans can tune in 24 hours a day to watch the two eagles, and now, their new chick, called JC25.

Jolene and Boone lost their previous nest when their tree fell during Hurricane Helene, McClatchy News previously reported. Volunteers came together to build a platform in a nearby tree to encourage the eagles to set up there, but “time was certainly not on their side,” according to Wright.

“Jolene and Boone were in a crucial period of accomplishing ‘nestorations’ and close to entering their very short breeding season when the devastation from Helene downed their nest tree,” Wright said in an email.

Volunteers finished the platform in early October, but the eagles didn’t seem interested.

“Our cams had been focused on an empty platform, or scanning the sky for a glimpse of the eagle pair, for almost two months,” Wright said. “We were pretty much resigned to the fact that there would be no season.”

But finally in December, the eagle pair started bringing nesting materials to the platform and made it their home, with mating season right around the corner. It can take one to three months to get a nest ready for mating season, experts say.

Jolene laid the first egg Jan. 23, about five weeks after moving into the platform, McClatchy News reported. She laid the second egg Jan. 26.

For the next month, nest watchers observed the adult birds patiently incubate their eggs while covered in snow during blizzards and chase off other animals that ventured too close.

Then a “pip” hole appeared in the first egg, and the eaglet inside hatched March 3.

“Hope was born when our adults accepted the platform, but the hatch of JC25 has been the pinnacle point of this entire surreal experience,” Wright said. “The reaction to JC25’s hatch has been great joy, immense gratitude and in many ways a sense of unbelief that this has all actually transpired.”

JC25 ate its first meal shortly after hatching and has proven to be a “feisty” chick with “plenty of eagletude,” Wright described.

According to Wright, the hatching symbolizes not only the eagles’ success, but also the resilience of the community that faced hardship from the hurricane and rallied to help these eagles.

“One of the most meaningful parallels of this project to so many others after the flooding, was the outpouring of compassion and selflessness that occurred all over our local region to see housing restored,” Wright said.

Fans celebrated the arrival of the first “beautiful fluffy baby” and now hope JC26 will hatch soon. Together the eaglets are expected to grow quickly until they leave the nest at about 10 to 12 weeks of age.

Another famous bald eagle pair, Jackie and Shadow, have gone through a tragedy to triumph story of their own after several years without a successful hatching, McClatchy News reported.

They welcomed two chicks on March 3 and March 4 in Southern California.

Johnson City is about a 60-mile drive north from Asheville, North Carolina.

This story was originally published March 6, 2025 at 12:31 PM with the headline "Bald eagle parents welcome new addition after moving into new nest built by volunteers."