This is a photo from 2014 showing a bald eagle landing on a nest.(Photo: PETER SHARPE/IWS)

Let the hours of nest watching begin.

After a long fall and winter, a pair of bald eagles is back in the Sauces Canyon nest on Santa Cruz Island.

The National Park Service posted on social media that an egg had beenlaid Thursday, and a day later, the egg seemed to be doing well.

Even though Santa Cruz is about 20 miles offVentura, thepublic can get a bird's-eye view of the nestthrough a live webcam.

Last year, people watched in their kitchens and their classrooms asbald eagle chicks hatched, grew and fledged on Santa Cruz, part of the Channel Islands National Park.

Some even posted online when they felt a baby chick got too close to the edge of a nest or when it seemed to take too long for a parent to come back with food.

Officials have said it's just one of the ways that they can bring the five-island park to people who might not get a chance to visit in person.The webcam reach has grown through a partnership between the park and explore.org.

DDT contamination took a steep toll on the Channel Islands bald eagle and peregrine falcon populations, along with many other birds.

Contamination led to egg shells being so thin that they would break in the nests. While the pesticide was banned in the 1970s, its effects off Southern California lasted for decades.

Recovery efforts that ranged from releasing young birds on the islands to artificially incubating eggs outside of the nests have helped both birds make comebacks.

In 2006, a pair of bald eagles successfully bred naturally on Santa Cruz Island. It was the first time in 50 years that had happened on one of the islands.

As of last year,officials said 124 bald eagle chicks hatched naturally and fledged from nests on the Channel Islands since then.

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Channel Islands bald eagle lays egg - Ventura County Star