HANOVER, Pa. — The Hanover eagle camera is back online after the livestream that draws hundreds of thousands of eyes across the world lost power in September.
Power to the camera was restored on Christmas day, a gift that many Hanover eagles faithful consider as the best gift ever.
"Best Christmas present ever! We’re seeing our eagles again. It was just pandemonium when we had the cameras back," said Karen Lippy, a woman who has been watching the popular eagle nest since 2003 and has been keeping the community up to date with pictures and videos when the livestream was down.
HDOnTap, the company who runs the cameras, discovered power to their devices from a nearby home had been cut when the home was removed in September. The company looked into solutions to bring back the camera, and they discovered the cost of trenching and restoring power was much higher than anticipated. Lippy encouraged the company to start a fundraiser.
The fundraiser was posted online and in less than a week, more than $10,000 was raised to fund the repairs.
"There are so many people that have a passion for these eagles that I was pretty sure we would get the money raised," said Lippy.
Construction immediately began, and in just about two weeks, the beloved camera was back just in time for Christmas.
"HDonTap put a picture with a Christmas gift and a red ribbon on it [online] and it made me think we might get it on Christmas day, but when it went until noon and we hadn’t had the present open yet, I didn’t think it was going to happen," said Lippy. "So, it was a lot of elation when he pulled that ribbon off and we got to see our eagles."
This is the 10th year that the HDOnTap's Hanover eagle camera is running, and this time around there is a new pair, named Duke and Duchess, inhabiting the nest.
The Hanover eagle camera livestream can be found on HDOnTap's website.