Critter Cams Get You Up Close and Personal

By Kathy Knotts

Everyone loves watching wildlife. Taking a break to see nature in action is a wonderful change of pace when you are stuck at your computer all day. Perhaps your children want to really know what a peregrine falcon sees from way up high. Wildlife cams make it happen.
Get to know some of the cameras keeping an eye on the wilds of the Bay. It’s must-see TV.

Osprey Cams

    Chesapeake Conservancy, Stevensville: Calico Tom and Audrey have returned to the nest on the Eastern Shore. Watchers are waiting anxiously for an egg to drop: www.chesapeakeconservancy.org/osprey-cam
   Severna Park High School: A pair has settled in and may be sitting on eggs: www.severnaparkospreys.com.
   Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Annapolis: The male osprey’s nest was relocated with some help from BG&E from atop an electrical pole. Watch as a good mate joins him on his new platform: www.cbf.org/cbf-osprey-cam-live
   Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, Cambridge: The osprey pair have yet to lay eggs, but it could be soon: www.friendsofblackwater.org/camhtm.html.

Eagles

    U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service/The Outdoor Channel/Friends of National Conservation Training Center, Shepherdstown, W.Va.: See two eaglets that are almost a month old be fed and eventually fledge: http://outdoorchannel.com/eaglecam
   Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, Cambridge: The eagle eggs were abandoned by parents and eaten by predatory birds, so there may be nothing to see here until the next mating season: www.friendsofblackwater.org/camhtm2.html
   National Arboretum/American Eagle Foundation, Washington, D.C.: Bald eagles Mr. President and The First Lady have two growing eaglets, both born in late March. Watch for feeding and eventually fledging: www.eagles.org/dceaglecam
   Earth Conservation Corps, Anacostia River, Washington, D.C.: At least two eaglets in this nest are growing fast: www.earthcam.com/usa/dc/eagle/?cam=eagledc

Peregrine Falcon

    Chesapeake Conservancy, the TransAmerica Building, Baltimore: Falcons Boh and Barb await the hatching of their four eggs. Falcons have been nesting here for more than 35 years: www.chesapeakeconservancy.org/
peregrine-falcon-webcam
   Delmarva Ornithological Society, Wilmington, Del.: Trinity and Red Girl have laid a clutch of five eggs, due to hatch this week: www.dosbirds.org/falcon_cam2
   Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Harrisburg: This camera changes angles every few seconds, giving great views of Mom sitting on her four eggs, due to hatch any day now, and Dad delivering meals atop the 15th floor of the Rachel Carson State Office Building: www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/falcon
Great Blue Heron
   Chesapeake Conservancy, Eastern Shore: This new camera takes you inside a rookery in the tops of loblolly pines. Rell and Eddie are taking turns incubating their eggs, due to hatch this month. The other nest on camera is a supply closet for the herons, with many stopping by to take sticks to their own nests: http://
chesapeakeconservancy.org/blue-heron-webcam

Black Vulture

Tristate Vulture Cam, Newark, Del.: Watch two adult black vultures take turns caring for their recently emerged hatchling and waiting for the second egg to hatch this week: http://chimneyswifts.net/tristate/?page_id=294

Brown Pelican

Virginia Living Museum Peli-Cam, Newport News: This camera watches pelicans and other feathered friends in the coastal aviary: www.beachcamsusa.com/va/newport-news/virginia-living-museum-peli-cam

National Aquarium, Baltimore

Visit Blacktip Reef, where sharks, stingrays, tropical fish and Calypso the turtle make a great live screensaver: http://tinyurl.com/z98ssu4
Pacific Coral Reef features puffins, anemones, clownfish and black guillemots: http://tinyurl.com/z6pla3a

National Zoo, Washington, D.C.

    ElephantCam: Watch inside the elephant enclosure: https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/webcams/elephant.cfm
   LionCam: Prepare to see a lot of napping: https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/
webcams/lion-outside.cfm
   PandaCam: Mei and Bei Bei loll, nap and chow down on piles of bamboo on-camera. Choose from two cams, one inside the nursery and one in the enclosure: https://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/Web
Cams/giant-panda.cfm

For more cameras, visit Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s map of web cams around the region: http://tinyurl.com/jttlnu6