Saturday, April 21, 2012

Nest Cams

Brimful Curiosity turned us on to the joy of the nest cam, last spring when tuned in to watched the Decorah Eagles care for three eaglets.

They have three again this year, but the "babies" are already fairly old, so we switched over to a couple of web cams from the Hancock Wildlife Foundation live streaming the White Rock Eagles - a nest in White Rock, BC overlooking Boundary Bay, with two eaglets just hatched.  In fact, we got to watch on, as one hatched, this morning.  You can tell Mom from Dad by size. Mom is a good deal bigger.  But, both are very active in the care and feeding of the young.

We are also watching two nest cams from Cornell Universities All About Birds site, a Red-Tailed Hawk nest with three eggs, and a Great Blue Heron Nest with five.  There is information on the site as to how to tell the parents apart, and footage of a very exciting owl attack on the heron nest..

Eagles, hawks and heron are all birds we can spot nesting right here in our own area, though we can only view our local birds' nests from a distance.

We also have a large number of osprey nests in town, so we thought it would be fun to watch the Earth Cam osprey nest in Longmont, CO, with two eggs, as well. The female osprey has brown feathers across her chest, that the male does not have.

It's quite a few nests to keep track of, especially since you never know when the action is going to happen, but it has been interesting watching the birds coming and going, and comparing their behavior, eggs, and nesting styles.  Watching birds from all over the countryside, live as they take care of their nests, right from our living room - is truly amazing.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

4 comments:

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

It is amazing. I often wonder how we lived without Internet and all the wonders it gives us :)

Tina said...

Thanks for all the great links! We are lucky enough to live close to the Decorah, IA fish hatchery (which is were the eagles nest is located- nice easy food). We went out last year to watch the eagles fly around, but it's pretty cool to see inside the nest.

Eddie said...

Thanks! The island where we spend our summers (and plan to move to) has a lot of osprey and I'm sure the kids will love the nest cam link! Much appreciated.

Judy B said...

Here's another one for you. I can see this on top of the library outside my office.

http://www.library.umass.edu/falcons