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Employees at OG&E's Horseshoe Lake Power Plant have been busy keeping the lights on and checking in on a new family.
The plant is Harrah, Oklahoma, is home to a pair of American bald eagles and three eaglets. The adults eagles have been nesting there for about 10 years, but eggs appeared in the nest in February.
The plant banned visitors during the COVID-19 pandemic, so researchers at Sutton Avian Research Center taught two OG&E employees how to look after the chicks.
“Jason (Childress) and Bill (Baack) essentially became an extension of our bald eagle survey team. Citizen scientists are critical to our mission of bald eagle protection and monitoring, so training Jason and Bill to be our eyes on the ground was perfect," Lena Larsson, executive director with the Sutton Center, told KFOR.
Childress and Baack are chemists, but they're also part-time eagle parents. They never interfere with the eaglets, but they have kept a close eye on them, including during February's freezing temperatures.
“That was an exciting moment for everyone. We couldn’t believe that the eggs made it through that cold weather. It was a great example of the resilience of nature and for me it brought new meaning to our company’s motto: we energize life," Childress told FOX 25.
In the past few weeks, the eagle chicks have grown up enough to fly away from the nest.
“Jason and his team did a fantastic job, and we are grateful that they were able to make observations when we couldn’t access the property. Many thanks to OG&E for taking on this project and for embracing the importance of bald eagle conservation," Larsson told the station.