Xcel Energy Fort St. Vrain Eagles (top view)

This top view looks down on the Fort St. Vrain bald eagle nest, a huge cottonwood home known as FSV-N0. The nest is about 9 by 8 feet wide and 8 feet high, with a perimeter of roughly 26 feet and a total area of about 56 square feet. It sits 57 feet off the ground and probably weighs between 2,200 and 2,700 pounds, a mass of sticks that is almost a small island in the tree.

From above, that scale becomes especially clear. You see the bowl, the adults settling into it, and, later, chicks moving against a landscape of branches and nest material. The pair usually lays eggs in late February to early March. Hatching tends to come in early to mid-April, and the young fledge in June or July. The calendar is a useful guide, but it does not write any single day in advance. The top angle is ideal for watching those chapters as they happen, from the first eggs to the restless weeks before a first flight.

It is a rare overhead seat at one of the more formidable eagle nests on a public stream.

The stream is provided by Xcel Energy Fort St. Vrain Eagles (top view). Look down on the nest as winter ends, and stay with it through the summer departure.