Decorah eagle family has rapt following online

DECORAH - Of all the Internet attractions one can get hooked on, few are more uplifting than the Decorah eagles.

In fact, the wholesome family life exemplified by the eagle parents and their chicks is one of the most appealing aspects of the live video stream viewed by millions, according to many self-described eagleholics.

In a world gone crazy, it's calming and refreshing to watch “dumb birds do what they are supposed to do - help each other out,” said Sue Sorden, 62, of Indianola, one of more than 45,000 Facebook friends of the Decorah eagles.

Sorden, who bought a second computer so she could watch the nest in her bedroom at night, said she is “pretty much obsessed” with the Decorah eagles. “I cried when they left the nest last year,” she said.

Sorden said she reserved her strongest emotional attachment for D3, the last of last year's hatchlings to emerge from the shell. Worried that D3's older siblings would hog all the food, Sorden said she cheered when D3 waddled to the front of the line.

Though no formal survey of Decorah eagle enthusiasts has been done, women are more likely than men to be eagleholics, according to Amy Ries, webmaster of the Raptor Resource Project, whose nest-cam website was visited more than 213 million times last year.

“I think it is probably the nurturing aspect combined with the unfiltered look at wild creatures that accounts for much of the appeal,” Ries said.

A single computer often accommodates multiple viewers - especially at schools and nursing homes, Ries said.

The Decorah eagles are the leading topic of conservation at the Barthell Eastern Star Nursing Home in Decorah, just a couple of miles from their nest in a cottonwood tree overlooking the Decorah Fish Hatchery.

“I could sit and watch them all day,” said Delores Rovang, 88, who views the nest on a computer in the nursing home's activities room and on the laptop that circulates through the dining room in the hands of administrator Karl Jacobsen.

“I like to watch them straighten up their nest. They're fussy about it,” said Vernelle Dostal, 84, Her husband, W.A. Dostal, 87, said he watches the nest “three or four hours at a time” on weekends.

The Dostals' children, who reside in several states, also follow the Decorah eagles on the Ustream live feed. “It gives us something else to talk about,” Vernelle Dostal said.

Mae Schmitt, a 33-year employee of the Eastern Star home, said residents take van trips to visit the nest and look forward to periodic visits by Bob Anderson, the Raptor Resource Project director who conceived and executed the nest cam.

Sally Manson, 64, of Quasqueton, whose laptop displays the eagles nest almost round the clock, said the birds fill her with awe. “They are such beautiful creatures, and the camera shows them in their unguarded natural state,” she said.

Manson said she was thrilled to find on the Raptor Resource Project website that one of last year's hatchlings, the radio-transmitter-fitted D-1, spent March 1 and 2 along the Wapsipinicon River about two miles west of her home.

Another Quasqueton resident, LaSonda Sipe-Moreno, said her absorption with the Decorah nest stems from her spiritual affinity with eagles.

“Eagles are sacred. In the Lakota way, they carry our prayers to God,” said Sipe-Moreno, 66, a student and practitioner of Native American religion for 25 years.

Kathy Kelley, 60, of Norwalk, said she enjoys chatting online with other eagle enthusiasts almost as much as she does viewing the Decorah nest.

A highlight of her Decorah eagle experience, she said, was meeting Anderson during a visit to the nest in November.

“Bob invited us into the shed and let us manipulate the camera,” she said.