ORANGE BEACH — Have you ever wanted to see how an osprey lives in the Alabama Gulf Coast during nesting season without leaving the comfort of your own home?

With the return of ospreys Josephine "Jo" and Elbert "Bert" to the Wolf Bay Osprey Cam in Orange Beach, anyone, anywhere, can check out the one-of-a-kind livestream of the nest platform, which hosts regular feathered visitors.

A partnership between the Alabama Coastal Foundation (ACF), the City of Orange Beach and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) created the osprey nest cameras to educate the public on "environmental conservation in coastal Alabama" using a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

A joint team of Katherine Baltzer with TNC, Mark Berte with ACF and Philip West with Orange Beach created a project description on the Wolf Bay Osprey Cam for Gulf Coast Media.

The team said in the 12 years the project has been going on, only two seasons have lacked a nesting osprey.

"Ospreys mate for life and return back to their nests after migrating," the team wrote.

An osprey makes up part of the ACF logo, hence why it was selected for the live steam. It was also selected to "raise awareness about this important indicator species," which is a species scientists can watch to indicate occurring or potential change in the ecosystem. Orange Beach was selected as "the location that worked the best," so the team worked together to set up the camera.

"Osprey nests are located on or near water and are often very high so they can spot their main source of food, fish," the team wrote on the nesting process. "Ospreys build nests in the wild, but they have been known to build their nests on artificial structures such as utility poles."

According to the team, ospreys are commonly known as "fish hawk" or "sea hawk" as they typically live "along the coastlines." Starting in the early 1950s and continuing to the early 1970s, "osprey numbers declined" along with other birds' numbers due to pesticides, namely dichlorobiphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT).

"These pesticides were sprayed on crops to cut down on the number of insects eating the crops," the team said on DDT. "The fish would then ingest the infected insects, and, in turn, large birds would eat the fish."

The team said DDT caused the birds to lay eggs with thin shells that would "crush as they sat on them to keep them warm." DDT was banned in 1972, and after that "osprey populations began to grow again."

Lesson plans, consisting of eight total lessons centered around the osprey, for third-grade teachers have been created by ACF. These lessons include content on the Wolf Bay Osprey Cam and tie in to the "Alabama State Course of Study Science Objectives for Third Grade." More information for teachers can be found on the ACF website.

Osprey nesting season typically lasts from spring through summer, the team said, so check out the osprey livestream while they're still around. Make sure to look closely to keep a check on the presence of osprey eggs.

The City of Orange Beach website's section on the camera states, "This is a natural, unfiltered setting. Intervention in the nesting process of these protected species is against federal law."

The City of Orange Beach's official Facebook page stated the return of the osprey was "exciting news for all our nature lovers!" In the post, the city said they were "thrilled to support their habitat" with the use of this platform.

"The Orange Beach Coastal Resources Projects Division built and installed a brand-new osprey nesting platform on Thursday," the post reads, "and we can't wait to see it in action! Check out the live Wolf Bay Osprey Cam to watch in real time as these incredible birds return for nesting season."