After receiving a lesson about the birds and the bees from concerned citizens, crews temporarily stopped work on a section of the Sea-to-Sky highway from Vancouver to the Whistler ski resort, where several Olympic events will be held, to avoid disturbing the eagles nesting nearby.

The birds are abundant in the region, but are endangered in the rest of Canada and protected by legislation. So, crews put off blasting rock cliffs near their nest until they can determine if the pair are expecting offspring anytime soon.

If there are eggs or fledglings in the nest, construction will not resume until after they mature and leave the nest, likely in mid-August, said highway construction manager Rob Ahola.

"There are quite a few bald eagles in British Columbia, but these two have become part of the community, so to speak. They've been here a couple of years and have grown on people," he said.

Also, tourists and wildlife photographers come from all over the world to see eagles in the area, he added.

The nest is 30 metres (yards) away from the highway, which hugs the base of local mountains on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. About 12 dynamite blasts are needed to carve out a portion of the mountain to fit a wider highway on this small stretch.

"Blasting would startle the birds and maybe cause them to abandon the nest," Ahola said.

The 600-million-dollar (475-million US dollar) highway project was due to be completed six months before the Winter Games in February 2010. Ahola insists the lovebirds will not make workers miss that target, even if they have to wait until August to resume blasting.

But, observers worry that plans will be derailed and scores of visitors to Canada's westernmost province will be driving up an unfinished and dangerous road at the start of the Games.

Several other Olympic-related projects totalling more than three billion dollars (2.4 billion US dollars) have been delayed and construction costs have risen significantly, but organizers still expect all will be ready in time, an organizing committee spokesman told AFP.

Meanwhile, highway crews are planning to erect a crane near the eagle nest to see if the pair has actually laid any eggs, but even this reconnaissance mission is ruffling some feathers.

"Eagles will tolerate a lot of things, but they won't tolerate humans getting too close to their nest," said Lawrence Ruskin of the Nest Environmental Stewards Team (NEST), a group dedicated to protecting the eagle duo.

"They have this huge (expletive) crane that they're going to erect next to the nest to look into it. This will surely drive them off," he said.

Crews have also learned that they must take care not to disturb several other wild animals during construction, including tailed frogs, black bears and a bird species called a marbled murrelet.

None of these have been bothered by the construction. Rather, nobody has stepped up to claim construction noises are disturbing their love-making.