‘Nestfest,' a lighthearted competition for fans of the Big Bear bald eagles, has landed

Anyone who has lived through restorations knows that there is plenty to consider, from paint colors to trim types to the sorts of lighting that might look best in a room.

But "nestorations" are a different matter, for knobby, twisty, woodsy sticks, lots and lots and lots of sticks, are the main focus.

Birds, after all, don't need to consider carpeting or wallpaper, but they do want to put their aerie in tip-top shape before any potential baby birds hatch.

And before any eggs are laid, Jackie and Shadow, the world-famous Big Bear bald eagles, spend much of the fall "sticking" to a dedicated plan: They "nestore" their longtime nest, after spending much of the summer beyond its comfy bowl, making it just the way they like it.

This means that the sky-soaring superstars begin to alight in their lake-close nest with sticks firmly in their talons, so many sticks, in fact, that devotees of the duo keep close tabs on the process through much of the fall.

Now that "stick watch" is in full swing, Friends of Big Bear Valley, the organization behind the nest-close camera that keeps a watchful eye on the eagles, is holding a lighthearted Nestfest competition.

It's a quirky contest that asks this simple but hard-to-pin-down question: How many sticks and bits of fluff will the birds bring to the nest through November?

There's a dropdown menu with numbers aplenty, so if you think 62 sticks/fluff will arrive, choose that and send in your answer.

Certificates will be awarded to the top three guessers, who, of course, will also gain some serious bragging rights among the bird-loving set (the big announcement will be made on Nov. 30, so you won't have to wait too long).

It's a whimsical way to build anticipation for egg-laying season, which generally arrives in January.

Of course, the eagles, like all animals, are on their own schedule, something their human fans respect. So while we know the general time frame when eggs may appear, we understand that nature has a flow it follows, regardless of what we might wish.

And spying on all of the stick-focused movement around the nest is another way to check in with the birds, two icons that made worldwide headlines throughout the 2022-2023 winter season when their mountaintop home saw impressive snowfall, bringing accumulation that sometimes covered the entire nest, including mom Jackie and the eggs she was dutifully keeping warm.

No eaglets resulted from that clutch, but fans are looking forward to the coming winter and all of the baby-bird-a-tude it may bring.

First, though, there are nestorations to be completed, which involve stick after stick after stick being placed in just the right spot, courtesy of everyone's favorite avian design team, Jackie and Shadow.

By the by, the standing (er, flying?) record for "sticks brought to the nest in a single day" is 25, a record that was nearly broken earlier this week.