Bald eagle cam hits continue to soar

Already viral and global last year, the Decorah Bald Eagle Camera has set new viewership records in its second year of operation.

"We did good," said Bob Anderson, director of the sponsoring Raptor Resource Project, referring to "the small army" of volunteers whose efforts helped the project succeed.

Last year, 86,000 unique visitors from 102 of the world's 195 countries logged onto the site, which features a camera mounted over a bald eagle nest 80 feet above the Decorah Fish Hatchery.

This year, as of Monday, the site operated by Luther College had recorded more than 325,000 unique visitors from 125 countries, and nearly 3.9 million site visits as viewers logged in repeatedly to check the progress of the three chicks hatched there in early April.

Besides the 325,000 unique visitors to the Luther site, another 53,000 accessed the nest cam through a site operated by Xcel Energy.

With the eaglets now testing their wings and spending increasingly less time at the nest, Anderson said the camera will soon be shut down for the season, though an exact date has not yet been set.

"The parents are still bringing them food, but they will become self-sufficient in a few more weeks," Anderson said. When that happens, usually in August, 'It's almost like a switch turns on. Boom. They just disappear,' Anderson said.

Luther College publications director Greg Vanney said he's still amazed by the response, which surged in early April when the fuzzy chicks began breaking out of their shells. Site traffic has slacked off somewhat from the hatch peak, but viewer interest has remained high, he said.

"It took awhile to figure out how to handle the load. Once we started limiting viewers to 15 minutes at a time, the system worked really well," Vanney said.

This is the second straight year the adult eagles have raised three chicks.

Anderson said he's not sure if the site will be back next year.

"We're getting many requests, but it will be up to the owner of the property on which the nest tree sits," he said.

Vanney said Luther would welcome the opportunity to participate again next year. 'It generates a lot of traffic to our website and a lot of good will for the college,' he said.