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When Hurricane Helene took out the white pine that held their nest, the fear was that they would not return.
Photo Above: Jolene soars!
Photos Courtesy of Ryan Rice.
For 11 years, in the tallest pine tree on top of a hill in Johnson City, Tennessee, stood an eagle nest. This nest was home to Shima and Noshi, a famous eagle pair.
They were famous because East Tennessee State University had live cameras on their nest. As the years went on and the local eagle population increased, younger eagles, Boone (in 2021) and Jolene (in 2022), took over the territory and nest. Human emotions made it hard for us to let go of the eagle pair we had come to love, but the changing of the guard is a sign of a healthy eagle population. This nest has produced 24 hatchlings and 22 fledglings over the years. It also provided thousands of hours of entertainment and education about eagle behavior.
Then came Hurricane Helene in late September 2024 and its unprecedented destruction in Northeast Tennessee. The floodwaters and wind caused devastation to humans and animals alike. The 100-foot white pine succumbed to the storm and snapped in half. The nest fell and became a pile of debris on the forest floor.
Eagles are fully capable of rebuilding a nest without human intervention, but since this was so close to the period when eagles start restoring their nests, a group of people decided to try to offer help to the homeless eagle pair. The plan was to construct a platform in an adjacent tree to entice the eagles to rebuild near the existing camera infrastructure. A hickory tree was chosen because of their known sturdiness. Some of their previous nesting materials were gathered from the ground and placed on the structure.
Hope faded that Jolene and Boone would take the offered platform as their home, as over the next couple of months, Boone and Jolene were seen less frequently on camera.
Then in December, just a month before most Northeast Tennessee eagles lay their first egg of the season, Boone came for a visit and brought a couple of sticks with him. Over the next few days, he continued to bring more nesting material, as Jolene often sat nearby and watched.
Then came the big moment when Jolene accepted the platform and joined in the nest rebuilding project. Together, they completely covered the human-made platform with the traditional shape of an eagle nest. Starting with larger sticks, they built what are called the rails. Then came the softer materials, called fluff. Within weeks, it looked like it had been there forever.
Eagle pairs often build multiple nests. It was assumed another nest had been constructed during their absence from the cameras, so the camera viewers were still not sure this nest would be chosen. But as Jolene and Boone started regularly laying in the fluff — called “testing the bowl”— our confidence grew. Then came the truly “eggciting” moment on January 23. In full view of her fans, Jolene laid the first egg of the season on this new platform nest. Their new home had been chosen! Jolene laid her second egg on January 26.
In the end, this was more for the humans who had suffered so much from the storm. The eagles would have persevered without the hand of man, but if it had not been able to be viewed and enjoyed by so many, it would have been one more thing taken from us by Helene.
To watch and follow this eagle pair go to youtube.com/@ETSUEagleCameras
The story above first appeared in our May / June 2025 issue.
