"She was adamant she was gonna keep them safe," said Loraine Robbins.
"She" is Star, mother of two, who was prepared to sacrifice herself to protect her eaglets, just three and five days old. The drama was captured on video thanks to carefully mounted cameras recording their every move.
It started when dad came in for a bit of a crash landing. His high-placed perch fell just feet from mom and babies. Then the winds picked up, threatening to knock it right into the nest. That's when maternal instinct took over. "When she hunkered down over them and knew the branch was coming down she prepared to take the blow for it," said Garry Robbins.
Mom used her body to shield her young from the four-inch-thick, 10-foot-long branch. Garry and Loraine could only watch and worry.
The branch that fell on the mother eagle may not seem that big, but to put it in perspective, imagine a 10- pound log falling on you, and only being able to use your teeth to move it out of the way.
The mother eagle had to move the branch off the nest and out of harms way. Dad wasn't around to help, so she picked it up with her beak and pulled it off to the side. It was a close call for the closely watched family.
"That shows you Mother Nature at her best," said Garry.