My last eagle cam

Last night, for no reason that anybody knows yet, this beautiful 11-week-old eaglet died. I have watched his progress since he was born at the end of April, and I loved him. Nobody knows for sure if he was a he or a she, but Phoenix will always be a guy to me.

I showed many of my followers this eagle cam back when the egg was first hatched, because I was thrilled to watch Mom and Dad Hornby, two mature eagles in their twenties, care for this tiny little life, and try to bring him to fruition. Last year, I watched another eagle cam that had three eaglets, and I began to worry about the safety of each one. I stopped watching just before the first eaglet fledged, because I had learned that fledging is a very difficult time in the life of any eagle.

Today I went on a wonderful hike in the wilderness, and I saw, twice, two bald eagles flying overhead, and I thought of Phoenix and the trial awaiting him in a week or two. Then, as I was getting ready to write a post about today's hike, I read my email and found that Phoenix died in the nest last night.

I went to the Facebook page for the Hornby Eagles and learned that his body was taken from the nest and will be autopsied to try to learn the reason for his death. About Monday he began to lose interest in eating, and, well, that was the beginning of the end. I found this page on Vancouver's Time Colonist to give the latest, as of now, that anybody knows.

I'm done with eagle cams. I cannot deal with this, because I've got tears streaming down my face for an eagle I watched grow from a tiny little egg to this beautiful eaglet. I have enough loss and change in my life, and for all of you followers who feel the same as me, I am sorry that I caused pain in your life. As someone said a while back in the chat room on the website, this is not a Disney movie. You can't make it all come out right in nature.

Goodbye, my beautiful Phoenix. May you rise again from the ashes in my heart.
:-(