The Waldo Canyon fire flickered far from the historic golden eagle nest on Glen Eyrie’s property in Colorado Springs, allowing it and its feathered occupants to remain unscathed.
“They never even left,” said Mick McCormack, Glen Eyrie marketing director, about the pair of red-tailed hawks nestled on a rock formation at least 500 feet from flames.
Observers have seen eagles in the estimated 5-foot wide by 2½-foot tall nest since the 1870s, with other bird species intermittently calling the area home for the past 20 years. McCormack compared the nest’s size to a Volkswagen.
“People normally picture a nest as something you can hold in your hand,” said Gary Cantwell , spokesman for the The Navigators, a Christian ministry that owns the property. “It’s a fascinating thing to see.”
McCormack compared the nest’s size to a Volkswagen and said it’s because of the tall walls that onlookers can’t tell what’s inside. “You just have to be there by serendipity,” he said of those hoping to see the birds enter and exit the nest.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesman Michael Seraphin said detailed information on nest occupiers from 1991 to 2001 isn’t available.
Following the nesting cycle, if in danger, any red-tailed hawk chicks should have had the wing muscle to fly before the June 23 fire began blazing.
“Wildfire is a natural occurrence in the life cycle of wildfire,” Seraphin said. “The red-tailed hawks are adaptable.”
