Jim Spickler here....and no, i wasnt tied in

This was one of those rare situations were being tied in might have actually have been more of a hazard. The tree was about at 40ft, and the nest structure was stable but rather heavy for the supporting tree. if the crown were to have collapsed, being tied in would have meant that i was lashed to the nest and would probably have ended up buried under a ton of nest debris. In this situation my best option was to have the ability to jump clear, hopefully landing in the dense ground _layer_ and praying that it padded my fall. I should say that i know this tree well, having climbed it before this event. Also, it would be nearly impossible to fall out from the nest to the ground due to the virtual maze of dense branches that this has. In fact, its super difficult to get in to this nest because you literally must squeeze yourself between the branches.

On a sad note, A63 (the eaglet shown in the video) was hit by a car and killed somwhere over in Nevada several months after it had left the nest. Unfortunatly, the life of a young eaglet is often short. The first year is always the most difficult for them...

jim