At Collier County’s Vineyards Elementary School, Angela Roche’s fifth grade students were heartbroken to learn that the Southwest Florida Eagle Cam eaglets had died last month. Roche’s class watched the popular cam every day, and with early rumors swirling that the eaglets died from rodenticide poisoning, they wanted to take action.

To engage her students, Roche suggested they start a letter-writing campaign to urge lawmakers to ban rodenticide. Before their letter-writing campaign took off, however, necropsies performed on the eaglets revealed their cause of death to be Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza — HPAI, or “bird flu,” as it is commonly called. Still, the events had gotten the fifth graders fired up about protecting eagles, and like any good teacher, Roche knew to keep up the momentum. Then, an amazing turn of events happened right outside the classroom window that would capture the students’ attention even further.

On a cell tower visible from the classroom, a pair of Bald Eagles began building a nest. The class spent the better part of a morning watching the birds deliver sticks to the tower, fighting off an Osprey in the process. “I’ve never seen them so excited,” said Roche.

At the suggestion of a class parent who works as a scientist at Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, Roche contacted the Audubon EagleWatch program to notify them about the nest, around the same time an EagleWatch volunteer witnessed it being built while driving down I-75. The nest was added to the EagleWatch map and labeled “CO954.” Energized by the involvement with EagleWatch, the class began monitoring the nest just as a program volunteer would, recording daily sightings and noting any changes. “2/26, 7:30 a.m. – pair on tower then 1 flew away,” read one entry in the log.

With nesting season coming to a close in mid-May, the students may just get to see eaglets hatch and fledge before they are off to middle school. “We were all just really excited to be part of something important that could make a difference in our ecosystem,” said Evelyn Clem, a student in the class. Whatever the outcome of the nest this season, Mrs. Roche’s fifth grade students can call themselves honorary EagleWatchers.

Interested in joining Audubon EagleWatch? Learn more.