First live webcam installed at steel mill eagle nest at U.S. Steel Irvin Plant in West Mifflin

Anyone with internet access soon can watch the formerly endangered bald eagles that reside on the grounds of the U.S. Steel Irvin Plant in West Mifflin.

In December, a webcam trained on the bald eagles nest will go live. It will be the third such webcam in the state. The Pennsylvania Game Commission recently granted U.S. Steel a special permit to install and operate the webcam. It joins a camera showing life in the eagles nest in Pittsburgh’s Hays neighborhood just up the Monongahela River from the Irvin plant and a nest near Codorus State Park in Hanover east of Gettysburg.

The live feed will be broadcast by PixCams.

The Irvin plant’s eagles took residence there almost three years ago. They built a massive nest in a sycamore tree, finding a quiet and remote site about 100 yards from the mile-long steel finishing mill.

The two are the only known bald eagles nesting on the grounds of a steel mill in the state, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission. Bird experts are not aware of any other eagles in the nation roosting at a steel mill.

“It’s an honor and privilege that they made U.S. Steel’s Irvin Works their home,” said Don German, the plant manager.

Steelworkers often see the birds fishing near the mill’s pump house, said Robert Bevan, a steelworker who photographs them and the eagles at the Hays nest. He has documented the birds nesting for the past two years, with one young raised in 2020 and two young in 2021.

The birds do well there catching a bounty of fish, he said.

The birds with the telltale white head and tail and dark chocolate-colored body are often seen perched around the mill’s south yard. The eagles seem oblivious to the squeal of the mill’s short-line railroad and the clanging and banging from workers moving steel slabs destined for Irvin’s hot strip mill to convert to steel coils.

This past summer, a pair of juvenile eagles were seen testing their flying skills trying to lock talons in the south yard.

A carpenter at the mill, Dave “Breeze” Hvozdik, was water skiing with friends over the summer and stopped the boat hoping to show his friends the eagles, but the steel mill nest was empty.

“When we got ready to leave, I turned and saw an eagle coming 3 feet off the water soaring right at us,” Breeze said. “It came right over the top of the boat and landed in the nest. It was a neat experience to witness. They are pretty awesome birds.”

When German walks the floor of the mill, workers often ask about the eagles. “Everybody enjoys them,” he said. “We wanted to see if we could do our part to share these beautiful creatures with the community.”

What a view it will be, said Bill Powers, owner of PixCams of Murrysville.

“U.S. Steel afforded us power and internet so we can stream at a much higher resolution, almost eight times the resolution of the Hays nest,” he said.

The tilt and zoom camera will allow operators at PixCams to zoom in for close-ups and long-distance shots of the birds hunting along the river.

“U.S. Steel is allowing Pittsburgh to see another eagle nest just six miles away from the Hays nest,” Powers said. “People are just going to love this, especially the eagle fans.”

PixCams operates the nature webcams at Hays and 28 other sites. It set up the camera earlier this month with the help of Rob Kruljac of Arborel Tree Service, an arborist who scales tall trees.

“It’s pretty awesome to see a nest in this well-developed and historically not-so-great location,” said Sean Murphy, state ornithologist for the Pennsylvania Game Commission, who grew up in Pleasant Hills and spent time along the Monongahela River.

“The birds are doing well,” he said. “They have tolerated the ambient disturbances from the mill and train tracks, and have gone about their business.”

Murphy expects the eagle population to continue to increase in the region.

“In the future,” he said, “we won’t be as surprised to see birds show up in an industrial spot.”