Can't wait for next winter to watch a bear birth a cub while hibernating? Are you hankering for more hawks live on your computer? Still jonesing after your addiction to the heron cam?
Then check out ospreys online.
Two live cameras are now broadcasting live video from osprey (Pandion haliaetus) nests in western Montana. Their eggs are due to hatch any day, so there is still time to throw baby showers for the feathered families. Shopping for ospreys is easy, they just want fish.
Osprey excel at fishing and feed their young exclusively on the catch of the day from lakes and rivers within a few kilometers of the nest. Ecologists can study the health of local bodies of water by monitoring the health of the chicks.
Osprey were nearly wiped out by DDT poisoning, since they soar at the top of the food chain and toxins from their prey build up in the bird's bodies. Since DDT was banned in 1972, their populations have recovered but ornithologists are concerned that mercury and other pollutants are building up in the birds. University of Montana ornithologists have been monitoring the osprey population in western Montana for 6 seasons.
One pair of osprey were local stars even before scientists' webcams made them a national hit. Osprey usually mate for life, and this pair of romantic raptors have been building a nest atop a telephone pole at the Dunrovin Guest Ranch in Lolo, Montana for the past ten years. But this is the first year they've raised their brood live on the web. The female laid her clutch on April 23.
The 24/7 osprey cams are a collaboration between the University of Montana and Cornell University.
IMAGE:
As osprey near Kennedy Space Center in Florida (NASA, Wikimedia Commons)
