About nesting sites of
birds: live pictures...
(last update 7. Jan 2003)
season 2002 finished, expecting 2003...
Active sites:
description:
live picture:
| The first link I present is no web camera, but also essential.
The reason is simply, that only the scientific latin names of the bird
species are international and therefore language independent. But they
are not known to not specialized people. A translation mechanism is clearly
required... |
Bird
Name Translation Service
| This Belgian site offers an excellent help for identification of bird
names. You can use it as well in different explaining languages as well
for translation into nine different European languages and also the latin,
scientific name. Simply a requirement, when surfing through the net after
birds...
 Diese belgische
Homepage bietet eine exzellente Übersetzungshilfe für Vogelnamen
an. Man kann sie sowohl in verschiedenen Sprachen benutzen, als auch die
Namen in 9 indoeuropäische Sprachen sowie den wissenschaftlichen,
lateinischen Namen übersetzen lassen. Für die Suche im Netz nach
Vögeln unentbehrlich...
Because above service is limited to birds in the Western Palaearctic (Europe, Northern Africa and Near East), you
may use for birds not present in that region the following
Bavarian service (aside from the scientific names limited to English and German, sometimes also Spanish and
French names are available):
English version Deutsche (Original-)Fassung
|
| Now I present the web cameras themselves. For the above explained reason
I use primary the latin names and list than in brackets the name in the
most important indoeuropean languages: English, Spanish, French and German.
The mostly watched species seems to be the Falco peregrinus, which
is along with the Pandion haliaetus the only world wide distributed
bird of prey. Another important factor are the differences between time
zones on Earth, which were introduced to compensate the longitude difference
with respect especially to the Sun. The superfluous and expensive so-called
daylight time tends to make things even more complicated, but luckily at
least the times of change from it to the normal local time are now widely
identical. Therefore only the other half of Earth (north-south divided)
has a different time schedule. This is, because the summer and winter times
are exchanged between the southern and northern half of the globe. All
cited cameras are on the northern hemisphere and so are most people living
on Earth. That is it, why I will ignore this complication. Also most nesting
sites lie in midth-northern latitudes, which has a certain impact on the
sunshine time. It's during the relevant time of year in most cases longer
than half the day, clearly exceeding 12 hours per day.
One final important remark: checking often back daily and several
times a day even to one of the sites can be quite expensive in various
countries (especially in Germany). So you have to consider, if you want
to watch it really periodically... |
Falco peregrinus
(Peregrine Falcon, 
Halcón común , 
Faucon pélerin ,
Wanderfalke)
| About this extremely fast and elegant flyer there are at least five
web
cameras alone. This bird is despite it's world wide distribution in many
areas of the world threatened by humans. The worst are the criminals, who
steel eggs and even chicks out of their nests and sell them at prices at
excess of 100,000 $ per "piece" to the also criminal buyers mostly in the
Arabian countries. Please keep this in mind. Now I present the links along
with the time zones. Also the at now active cameras are signed as to be.
 Montreal
Falcons camera seems to be vanished!
| Timezone (North American) Eastern Time (ET), therefore five hours behind
Universal (=Greenwich) Time (UT).
At the stock exchange of Montreal is a first camera to check out. Their
is also an explanation of the history of the falcons and the rescue program
created for them. In many parts of the world the only chance to save them
was and is the direct guarding of their eyries. It seems there were live
pictures this year very late, but you may read respective watch all the
other good stuff. JavaScript support is needed for the 30 seconds popup window. |
|
Pittsburgh
Falcon nesting site
seems to be cancelled!
| Again timezone ET = UT - 5 hours. Be aware, for it automatically updates
the picture all 25 seconds, which is comfortable, but can be especially
expensive. |
NSP
web camera season
2002 was running on three locations again!
| Timezone is UT - 6 hours (the Chicago one). It's obvious, that they have
more cameras --- you can try others then these three yourself? CAUTION: this page also
updates automatically, in this case really hard to determine (some M$ polluted scripting shit, sorry!). At last they changed
the URL and (ab-)use JavaScript for refreshing instead of HTML meta refresh. |
Seattle
Peregrine Project season
2002 has finished
| Timezone is Pacific Time PT = UT - 8 hours. They present also a number
of further falcon web cameras by a link list. 1999 the falcons didn't breed
at their usual nesting site (weather, age or any other reason(s)). So what
remained were only archives and links, but in 2000 and now in 2001 they came back... |
Hamilton
Peregrine Camera season 2001 is finished, season 2002 no transmission!
| This Canadian site has ET = UT - 5 hours. It belongs to the Canadian
Peregrine Project and has a refresh set to every single minute. For the refresh countdown you have to enable JavaScript, as well, as to get a picture only
window (after the opening of it you can deactivate JavaScript again, if you
don't need or want the countdown!). |
Falco tinnunculus
(Kestrel,
Cernícalo vulgar ,
Faucon crécerelle ,
Turmfalke)
| This is the only Falcon species, which is frequent in Europe and not
endangered anyway so far. It's most typical behaviour is "hovering" in
the air without movement and even with low winds doing so without moving
the wings. At now I can present two sites, one is alive: |
Austrian Kestrel Camera
| Timezone is again CET = UT + 1 hour. Falco tinnunculus uses very often
human buildings as nesting site - more often than his "big brother Falcon"
peregrine. This school location is no exception. Continuation in 1999 questionable.
In Österreich brüten Turmfalken an einem typischen Platz, einer
Schule (Zeitzone ist natürlich MEZ). Es ist unklar, ob überhaupt noch Live-Bilder geboten werden.
BBC Kestrel Cam
After the success with the barn owl real video camera (see below) the animal
presenting famous BBC offers now the same for Kestrels. After downloading
the *.ram file which steers it, you can live without your browser by laying
the continuous life video in your RealPlayer alone ---- if you
can afford the related costs. Sadly it's no longer offered live.
Timezone is of course the british one, what means GT = UT.
|
Pandion haliaetus
(Osprey,
Águila pescadora ,
Balbuzard pêcheur ,
Fischadler)
| The other cosmopolitan among the birds of prey is a very specialized
fish eating animal. It was several times reported, that they drowned by misjudging
the size of an attacked fish and their unability, to lose their especially constructed
tight grip on them early enough. There is a very good site, active relatively
late in the year: |
The
Scottish Osprey Cam --- sadly closed down!
Timezone is Greenwich (Median) Time = GMT = UT. This camera is installed
at the Scottish Highlands and due to the cold climate, they begin their
nesting business later in the year as the above ones. The BBC is participant
of that project, known for excellent animal documentations. Due to unknown
circumstances there are no live pictures for 2000 - at least not yet. You
may enjoy meanwhile some of the other presented webcams about penguins,
Barn Owls and so on(?).
Kings Plant
Osprey Cam
2000 to 2002 no activity
Timezone is again UT - 6 hours (Chicago time), but the position is not
well assigned. An usual safety measure against potential egg and chick
thieves, generally especially done for falcons and true eagles (the osprey
ist not a close relative of them!). Automatic refresh occurs every
115 seconds. |
Haliaeetus leucocephalus
(Bald Eagle, Pigargo Americano , Pygargue à tête blanche , Weißkopfseeadler)
|
The heraldic bird of the USA is a close relative of the European species
Haliaeetus albicilla and its designation hints to the most striking difference
between them: the bald eagles white head, which is brown as the rest of the body with its
European relative. Nowadays this big bird of prey is relatively effective
protected in Northern America and has partly regained its distribution and
numbers before the arrival of the white man with guns and deadly chemistry (especially DDT). Like the osprey, the bald eagle is no "true eagle" (only the
species with aquila as scientific first name are such "real eagles"!).
One site in USA (Massachusetts) is presented here:
Northeast Utilities Bald Eagles breeding in 2001 came to a sudden end --- in 2002 it was successfully: both hatched! at the moment down
Timezone is again ET = UT - 5 hours. The transmission is sometimes suspended
on weekends, so it's not sure if you will have the chance to see the chicks
hatching... Automatic refreshing seems not to be active, an actual image occurs every 5 minutes (load by yourself); JavaScript is needed (only) for the top menu
bar activation. 2001 remark: the late, but harsh winter days
have extinguished the three eggs... Such things can happen even to experienced
pairs of bald eagles; probably they have more luck next year again.
|
Ciconia ciconia
(White Stork,
Ciguëña común ,
Cicogne blanche ,
Weißstorch)
| This great bird is in actual danger to be extincted by us, the dangerous,
aggressive mankind. We do this by destroying the living ground of him,
but ironically the nests are since centuries and also nowadays mostly on
top of human houses. There is a German site with live pictures of it:
German
Stork Camera chicks left nest/Junge haben Nest verlassen/no 2001 pictures/keine 2001 Bilder
Timezone is also CET = UT + 1 hour. It's part of a greater page of the
German NABU (a nature protection union of private type).
Diese deutsche Homepage bietet Bilder des Weißstorchs aus dem Havelland
in Brandenburg. Es gehört zum Angebot des NABU (NAturschutz-BUnd).
Another German Stork Camera live pictures in 2002, expected to recur
Another German stork cam (despite this bird has become very rare here in Germany as already mentioned).
It offers as well a Java applet, which refreshes permanently, as a live real video
stream streaming on an acceptable rate even for 56k modems. Timezone again CET = UT + 1 hour.
Eine weitere Storchenkamera. Es gibt sowohl ein sich ständig aktualisierendes Java-Applet als auch einen live-Realvideo-Strom, der auch noch mit 56k Modems
annehmbare Ergebnisse liefert.
|
Parus major
(Great Tit, Carbonero común
, Mésange charbonnière
,
Kohlmeise)
|
Contrary to the above mentioned species Parus major is so common in Europe,
that I read once the description about presence: "at all places with trees".
And this tiny bird (compare to the other mentioned birds) mass-produces
eggs and chicks, so it is a welcome object for observation.
Here is a German site showing a nest of it:
Meisen-Kamera
can be on- and offline rapidly, due to
the short timespans required by them, transmissions in 2002 were shown!
Timezone is also CET = UT + 1 hour. Obviously a German university is
partly responsible for the camera and site. There is some JavaScript involved,
but it seems not to be essential for watching. Automatic refresh
takes place every 30 seconds(!). After the short nesting period you can check out the gallery for the "milestones". Diese Seite wird von der Universität
Karlsruhe mit getragen. JavaScript wird verwendet; scheint aber für die
Verfolgung der Bilder/Gallerien nicht notwendig zu sein. Ein automatischer Refresh erfolgt alle 30 Sekunden(!). Nach der kurzen Periode im Nest kann man die
Gallerie ansehen, in der die wichtigsten Augenblicke dokumentiert sind.
|
Tyto alba
(Barn Owl, Lechuza común
, Chouette effraie
,
Schleiereule)
|
This owl with the somewhat strange white "face" is also suffering from the
way, in which humans shape the landscape (respective the remains of it).
Mainly active in the dawn and at night as most owls are, the inner view with
light of a nesting facility is generally preferable... Two sites listed:
BBC Nature Webcam Barn Owls only "archive" still available
This camera system is especially remarkable, because you can choose among three
options: inner view, outside view (the usual stills, taken in certain time spacings) and streaming live picture by Real Video(!). Regretfully this seem to be
only once performed, in 2000, and afterwards closed down(?).
The timezone is of course UT (UK).
|
French Site with Clips in 2001 active, but not realtime life material (summaries)
|
At this site you can watch Real Videos and MPEG-1 streams from some more
owls of this species. The timezone is CET. Frames are used, but the navigation
is not too difficult despite some texts are in French exclusively. You can
JavaScript turn off --- better keep it turned off! ---, because you lose just
an annoying pop-up ad if you do so...
|
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suggestions, remarks etc. to: stefan.urbat@apastron.lb.shuttle.de
(URL: http://www.lb.shuttle.de/apastron/birdCams.htm)