Fox River Bald Eagle Chicks Die After Fall From Nest

LAKE COUNTY, IL — Three newborn eaglets died after high winds reportedly knocked their nest from a tree located along the Fox River in Port Barrington Saturday evening.

The eaglets lived in the nest at the Fox River Marina with a pair of bald eagles that are believed to have spawned between 15 and 20 eaglets over the past decade, local photographer Ken Wick wrote on Facebook. Their nest is located across from the Fox River Preserve in Port Barrington. Wick has taken and shared pictures of the pair of adult eagles and their eaglets for more than 12 years.

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Employees with Flint Creek Wildlife responded to the nest, which fell around 7:40 p.m. Friday, and found all three bald eagle chicks were dead from the impact of the fall, according to a Facebook post on Flint Creek's Facebook page.

The nest and bald eagle family has been a favorite focal point for local photographers. Wick said he recently caught pictures of the eaglets barely poking their heads up above the nest in the past week, which he shared on his business's Facebook page.

The news of the eaglets' death saddened him.

"This literally brought tears to my eyes. I have watched a minimum of 15 to 20 eaglets be raised and fly away over the years from this nesting pair," he wrote Saturday on the Ken Wick Photography Facebook page.

Wick told the Daily Herald Sunday the eagles were born last week and lived in a nest in a dead tree.

"They can weigh over a ton in some cases," he told the newspaper. "That one was a pretty big nest. My guess is it was definitely over a thousand pounds."

Photographer Stacy Greenberg also caught pictures of the bald eagles and their new babies. She stopped out to the nest on Friday to watch and photograph the "doting" bald eagle parents for two hours, she wrote on the Suburban Wildlife Facebook page.

Here are some of the photos of the family she captured, and agreed to let Patch publish.