Fraser Point Bald Eagle Nest 2 powered by EXPLORE.org

On The Nature Conservancy's property on Santa Cruz Island, California, this camera sits beside the nest now used by the Fraser Point bald eagles. The pair moved here from their historic nest, and the new site has become the place to watch them tend eggs, raise chicks, and come and go along one of the wilder shores of the Channel Islands.

These eagles are part of a bald eagle restoration project on the California Channel Islands that has been underway for more than 40 years, conducted by the Institute for Wildlife Studies. The live stream is a public window on that long effort, made possible through the cooperation of Explore.org and the Institute. Knowing that history does not make the nest less immediate. If anything, it adds weight to an ordinary afternoon at the rim: a stick delivered, a chick fed, an adult keeping watch, all of it happening in a landscape that eagles once had to reclaim.

The camera is close enough to make the birds feel present, and wide enough to let the island remain part of the picture.

The stream is provided by Explore Eagle Nest Cams. Follow this newer Fraser Point nest, and you are also watching a decades-long recovery at work.