Well, it’s officially the start of summer so that means it’s
time to stay inside and avoid the heat!
Where I grew up it was during the wintertime that you had to get used to
being inside. We’d get our first big
snowstorm at the end of October and it wasn't too unusual to get our last
measureable snow sometime in late March or early April with the potential of
being snowed in for a few of those days.
I remember going from the house to the car and the car to the house, limiting
my outside time to just a few minutes because it was too cold. It’s taken a few years but I now practice my
“winter” during the summer down here.
Instead of avoiding the cold, I’m avoiding the heat! Now, doesn’t seem as bad as previous summers
but unless you plan early morning activities it’s just not that fun to be
outside. So… what to do if you still
want to experience the outside?
Webcams!
Webcams are a great way to visit other places and learn
about different areas without ever leaving your house. I’ve listed some interesting nature related
webcams below. There are literally
thousands of webcams from all over the world.
There’s even a camera to view people trying to cross Abbey Road, Beatles-style.
The nature cams show nature at it’s finest, unedited and
live. It is a little glimpse of some
area you may never have thought about physically visiting or even knew
existed. But someone knew about it… and
thought the world needed to know about it, too.
My favorite cams from
below are the Sea Otter cam from Vancouver and
the Barn Owl cam from Texas. If have a favorite nature webcam post it in the comments!
Enjoy the webcams and stay cool!
Terrestrial and
Extraterrestrial (!) Webcams:
NASA! Streaming the
International Space Station:
National Park Service webcam looking into Upper Geyser Basin
(with Old Faithful!) at Yellowstone National Park:
Critter Webcams!
Giant Panda Cam! He
eats a lot of bamboo…
The Vancouver Aquarium has a Sea Otter cam:
Student led aquatic cams from mostly Florida:
National Park Service Brown Bear Cam from Katmai National
Park in Alaska. The cam is not active
just yet but they’re showing a great video of the bears catching fish on the
river:
The Georgia Aquarium has a Beluga Whale cam:
The Florida Museum of Natural History has three butterfly
and two bat cams!:
Bird Webcams…
because putting a camera in a nest box or near a nest is easy!:
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a Barn Owl cam located somewhere
in Texas:
Rio Grande Valley Chapter TMN has a feeder cam:
Hummingbird cam from Maryland: