‘None of us are ready for this’

While she has lived out her life within the public eye during the past 20 years, Redding’s most prominent bald eagle is doing something eagle observers say is unprecedented this year.

The eagle known as Liberty has lived to the estimated age of 26, fought off Caltrans’ efforts to kick her out of her nest, outlived two previous mates and laid dozens of eggs that have hatched to increase the bald eagle population throughout the region.

But for the first time in at least 20 years, Liberty this year did not lay any eggs at her nest just north of the Highway 44 bridge that crosses the Sacramento River in Redding, according to Terri Lhuillier, who has observed the eagles during the entire time the eagles have nested near the bridge.

Friends of the Redding Eagles has a camera set up high in a Cottonwood tree just north of the Highway 44 bridge. The camera streams video onto YouTube, giving viewers an intimate view of the activities of the nest that Liberty shares with her mate, Guardian.

Lhuillier said that Liberty typically lays two to three eggs, with the first arriving sometime between Feb. 6 and Feb 15. But that didn’t happen this year.

“Well, that came and went. No egg. And we’re going, ‘OK, what’s going on?’ And then it started getting later and later. And then we thought, well, she didn’t lay, but maybe she’s going to do a late clutch,” Lhuillier said.

But March has come and gone, and still no eggs, and with the egg-laying window closing, Lhuillier said Liberty will not likely produce any young this year.

“So we are in uncharted waters right now, because we’ve never experienced that before,” she said.

The most recent development with Redding’s eagles caps off 12 months of change for the birds. The couple’s two offspring died last May before they were old enough to leave the nest. And the tree where they nested for many years had died and the branches where the nest was located broke off and fell down in December 2024.

Liberty and Guardian built a new nest in a nearby tree within view of the bridge, but all their work did not yield eggs. Lhiullier said the lack of eggs is not the only issue facing Liberty.

Another female bald eagle has shown up at the new nest and may be vying for control, she said.

“Liberty and Guardian have been on the defensive, and what we’re thinking might be happening is what happened in 2013 with Liberty’s first mate is that Liberty’s being challenged,” she said.

Liberty is 26 years old, so even if she survives a challenge from the younger female, she may be at the end of her reproductive years, Lhuillier said.

“We don’t know how it’s going to end, but we’re watching very closely. None of us are ready for this chapter with our Liberty to end, but, but we know that at some point it will have to happen. She’s just been such a constant in our lives,” Lhiullier said.

But David Hancock, who has been studying eagles since the 1950s and keeps track of some 65 eagle nests in the Vancouver, British Columbia area, said Liberty may not be through laying eggs.

Hancock said he has known Lhiullier for many years, and he keeps up with what is happening with the Redding eagles. Liberty and Guardian may not have eggs this year, Hancock said, because of what happened with all the events surrounding their nest in 2024 ― namely, the loss of their two offspring, the destruction of their old nest and having to rebuild.

“In all likelihood she’ll lay eggs again next year,” Hancock said.

This isn’t the first time Liberty has faced adversity. In 2007, state officials placed a large black plastic cone in Liberty’s nest to try to get her to leave. Caltrans wanted her to build a nest downriver because the agency was planning to widen the bridge across the Sacramento River and didn’t want the noise and activity to disrupt the nesting activities.

But Liberty and her mate at the time, Patriot, started building a new nest in a nearby tree. Caltrans then had the new nest torn down. That’s when Lhuillier got involved.

Lhuilllier and her husband had been watching the eagles for several years while hiking in the area. So she was upset Caltrans was trying to drive away the eagles.

When she saw crews move in to disassemble the second nest, Lhuillier said she jumped into action.

“And that was when I said, ‘OK, enough. You can’t do this.’ I know there are laws protecting eagles. And so I just started calling biologists and talking to people and you know, becoming a squeaky wheel on that, because I just didn’t think that was right, you know,” she said during an interview with the Record Searchlight in 2021.

While bald eagles are no longer an endangered species, they are still protected federally and under state law.

She persuaded Caltrans to let the eagles nest stay and Caltrans installed a camera to monitor the nest and streamed it online so the public could watch the birds.

The Friends of the Redding Eagles, which also maintains a Facebook page, has since purchased its own camera to monitor the eagles.

Lhuillier still walks the trail on the north side of the Highway 44 bridge and stops to take photos of the eagles in their nest. On a recent spring day, Lhuillier watched as Guardian landed in the nest while Liberty sat atop a tall deodar cedar on the south side of the bridge.

“She’s given us so much. I mean, she’s laid over 43 eggs. She’s had at least 29 offspring that she’s brought into the world, and so she’s really populated the Redding area with eagles,” Lhuillier said. “She’s given us everything she could give us.”

Reporter Damon Arthur welcomes story tips at 530-338-8834, by email at damon.arthur@redding.com and on Twitter at @damonarthur_RS. Help local journalism thrive by subscribing today!

This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Redding bald eagles, Liberty and Guardian, facing major changes