Maine’s pair of celebrity bald eagles are starting a new family.

The two eagles made a big splash on the Internet last summer when a web camera mounted on a nearby tree turned their nest into the set of a live nature reality show. Ratings spiked when one of the couple’s three eaglets set a new standard in sibling rivalry and killed its littlest sibling.

The two surviving babies grew up and flew away last August. The parents remained through the fall and winter, getting their nest ready for a new brood.

Mother eagle laid another egg yesterday afternoon. She’s expected to lay one or two more in the coming days.

The new eaglets should start hatching in 35 days, but even the sight of the female eagle sitting on her egg – 70 feet over the Hancock County coastline in sub-zero wind chills – is inspiring drama for many of the web cam’s fans.

Of course, as last season’s violent subplot made clear, nature is unscripted and you never know what you’ll see next. Some faithful fans in recent days got a rare view of the eagles mating in the nest. Another ratings ploy?

The web cam is operated by the BioDiversity Research Institute in Gorham and has turned into a popular way to teach about eagles, as well as a surprisingly useful research tool. The web site includes archived photos of last year’s eaglets, biologists notes about the eagles and a blog where fans keep close tabs on the birds.

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