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Project Puffin Webcam - Seal Island, Maine

Human — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 00:42:09 +0000

Project Puffin was started by the Audubon Society in 1973 in an effort to restore puffins

to historic nesting islands in the Gulf of Maine. Although the Atlantic Puffin is not an endangered species (they are abundant in Newfoundland, Iceland, and Britain), they were nearly locally extinct in Maine. These days there are more than 700 nesting pairs on four Maine islands - a true conservation victory !

Puffins are often confused with penguins. They have similar colors, and both swim under water using their wings as fins, but they are not related and live at opposite polar ends of the world. Unlike penguins puffins have not lost their ability to fly. Puffins do not come to land outside of the breeding season, flying, swimming or riding the ocean surface throughout the year regardless of weather. Each puffin pair raises one chick in a burrow under big boulders, taking turns feeding their offspring fish. Find out All About Puffins here.

The video above was taken by the project’s webcam on Seal Island. The puffin cam rotates between views on a puffin loafing area, the Common Tern colony, and an underground burrow cam. The best viewing time is between 10am and 5pm EDT.

Watch this webcam live here.

Sea Otter Webcam at Vancouver Aquarium

Human — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 02:02:33 +0000

Sea otters can be observed in shallow coastal waters in the Northern Pacific. They are among the very few animals that use tools in the wild. Otters use rocks as weights when diving by holding them under their arm. After they come back to the surface they would use the same rock to break open the clams or oysters they harvested from the bottom. When sleeping or resting, instead of coming up to dry land, sea otters will float on their backs, often wrapped in kelp, so the current doesn’t carry them away. Link to Wiki article on sea otters.

The Sea Otter webcam at the Vancouver Aquarium is a live streaming webcam. There is no sound but the video stream is very clear and flows very smoothly. The video below shows 2 of the Vancouver Aquarium sea otters - Milo (Male) and Nyac (Female) floating on their backs and holding paws !

There are 3 otters living in the exhibit. Nyac is a mature female, rescued during the ‘89 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Milo is a male born in the Lisbon Aquarium. Tanu is a young female found as a pup floating all alone in Alaskan waters.
Did you know that a group of sea otters floating together is called a “raft” ? Visit the aquaruim website’s AquaFact page for more Sea Otter info.

Watch this webcam live here.

Peregrine Falcon Webcams - Northern Ireland

Human — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 17:29:39 +0000

This is a twin site project that follows 2 peregrine sites. Both falcon populations are located at a different stone quarry in Northern Ireland. These are the Kilrea Quarry and the Carrowdore Quarry. Both locations have their own live webcams, with video highlights, and an automatic recording of the last 24 hours.

Although these are not streaming cameras and there is no sound, the image refreshes every 2 seconds, which is pretty good ! Also the webcam setup allows each online viewer some controls like panning ( by clicking and dragging in the image) and zooming (right click - Zoom In).

Watch this short video highlight from the Carrowdore webcam.

Some additional cool features this peregrine webcam site offers are: 1. Ask The Experts Section, where you can ask your questions about peregrines and other raptors and read answers to past questions. 2. Did you know …? section, with interesting info about peregrines, other raptors and stone quarries. 3. Quarryman’s Diary - blog of the Project Manager for each of the 2 peregrine sites. 4. Data Trends and Analysis. 5. Quarry Timeline & Location.

Watch this webcam live.

Polar Bears Webcam - Manitoba, Canada

Human — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 03:47:49 +0000

This is a 360 degrees pan, zoom, live streaming camera. The cam is live from 4am until 10pm Pacific Standard Time. At night and during the off season it’s replaying highlights of the best cam footage recorded earlier. The webcam is hosted on the site of National Geographic and has many extras : information on polar bears, video highlights, polar bear photos & wallpapers, forum, info on polar bear behavior and more.

The snow whipped tundra fields and capes east of the smal town of Churchill, in Manitoba, Canada is the best place in the world to see polar bears. Here the bears gather in large numbers during their last weeks on dry land. The annual freeze-up arrives at the Hudson Bay around Churchill earlier than anywhere else. Hunting better on ice than on land the polar bears can’t wait for the ice blocks to form. They gather from hundreds of miles usually in late November to wait out the last 3-4 weeks before the Hudson Bay freezes.

Visit this webcam here.

World’s Biggest Elephants Webcam

Human — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 16:15:18 +0000

The web camera is located at a ‘watering hole’ at the Tembe Elephant Park in the north-east corner of South Africa, near the Mozambique border. This is a 30 second refresh camera with real time sound. The camera can pan tilt and zoom and is controlled by a remote operator. Unfortunately it doesn’t have infrared, so only the sounds are available at night. Local time is US EST + 6 hours. There is an Elephant Sightings Times chart on the site which shows that elephants visit the water whole most often around 11-12 noon local time i.e. 5-6 am US EST. But even if you’re not an early riser you can still see these magnificent giants up until the African sunset (around 12pm noon US EST).

The Tembe Elephant Reserve is situated in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. The local subspecies are THE WORLD’S BIGGEST ELEPHANTS, with males often weighing over 6 metric tons (13,000 lbs !). The reserve was established 1983 to conserve the last free roaming elephant population in this area. Traditionally the elephants used to migrate northwards into Mozambique, but due to pressure put on the population by poachers the elephants resorted to spending most of their time in the dense sand forest areas that has now become part of the Tembe Elephant Reserve. Since protected, the elephant population has began to expand.

Visit this webcam here.

An estimated 20,000 elephants are slaughtered annually to supply illegal ivory markets. More and more potentially poached ivory is now offered over the Internet where there is little risk to illegal traders of being detected or prosecuted. Ivory trade anywhere is a threat to elephants everywhere. No trade in ivory should be allowed, especially while domestic ivory markets all over the world remain unregulated. And the legal ivory trade often serves as a cover for the unbelievable levels of illegal trade that encourages poaching across Africa and Asia.

Sign the Petition for a 20 Year Moratorium Against The Trade of Ivory.

Osprey Webcam at Blackwater Refuge

Human — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 02:05:13 +0000

The Osprey cam is located on the Blackwater NWR in Cambridge, Maryland. This camera is pointed at an osprey (fishhawk) nesting platform mounted on a tall pole about 20 ft above the ground. The image refreshes every 60 seconds. The camera is also equipped with infrared vision so images are also available at night except for the hours between 11pm and 3am. During this 4 hour period images are not sent to the site to save bandwidth. Chances are viewers are not missing much action during this time as the adult osprey pair prefer roosting in the high branches of nearby trees.

Some of the additional features the site has are osprey facts page, the osprey weblog, osprey cam Q & A page, gallery of past cam images. There is the Blackwater Refuge Store, where you can buy birdhouse spy cams, Blackwater Osprey Ts, hats & caps, and osprey books. By doing so you will be suporting the refuge.

Visit this webcam here.

US Fish & Wildlife Service Eagle Cam

Human — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 23:42:41 +0000

This is a low-tech live Internet camera that updates every 30 seconds. The camera is pointed at the nest of a Bald Eagle pair. The nest is located by the Potomac River in West Virginia at the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, WV.

The eagles built the nest in 2004 and since then have successfully raised eaglets for the past 3 years. This spring the eggs did not hatch due to cold weather. The pair is expected to try again very soon.

The site has several features like nest history/updates, fun eagle facts, and daily blog where you can see the eagle images other viewers captured in the camera.

View this webcam here.

Nkorho Pan Africam

Human — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 19:28:44 +0000

Nkorho Pan is a natural water hole in the Sabi Sands Private Game Reserve, in South Africa. Nkorho Pan is named after Nkorho Bush Lodge which gets it name from the Shangaan derivative for the call of the yellow-billed hornbill, an unusual looking bird from this area. See Google Map

This webcam is streaming Live 24/7 with great resolution in vivid color image during the day and in infrared (black and white) at night. It also has live sound - hear cicadas, birds and crickets near the pond ! Local time is US EST + 6 hrs. The camera has an operator on site who can rotate it 360 degrees and zoom in and out for the best view at the wild animals that visit the water hole.

Visit this webcam here.

Fight Global Warming From Your Own Home

Human — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 19:39:04 +0000

Here are some very simple things absolutely everybody can do:

1. Try to buy goods in recyclable packaging. Biodegradable packaging is not as good - even though it doesn’t pollute, it costs a lot of energy and resources to produce from scratch over and over again.
2. Recycle religiously. Glass jars and bottles, plastic bottles and containers, old newspapers, junk mail and cardboard are all recyclable. If your town does not yet have weekly recyclables pick up, take your recyclables to a local recyclables center or deposit container.
3. Use less energy. Only buy Energy-Star rated household appliances. They will pay for themselves overtime by lowering your bills. Insulate your house well so you don’t waste energy when cooling or heating your house. Buy fluorescent light bulbs. If you just replace 5 regular bulbs in your house with flourescents you will save $60 a year.
4. Use non-oil-based natural household cleaners and detergents. Not only the oil-based products contribute to global warming but they also are a major source of allergies in your home.