>*(I know it’s supposed to be I and the dogs but that just doesn’t sound right.)

Actually, it should be “The dogs and I…” – in English, the first person term comes at the end of the list. Of course you could also rephrase: “I take the dogs on an hour walk in the woods almost every day.”

— Steve >>>>

10:40 they’ve got a good rhythm going. It’s hard to see the exchange as the chick is mostly behind some foliage, but the angle offers a really good view of the mother adjusting her grip on the food with her left talon after each rip. This is really awesome; thanks for the link, Phil.

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? Don’t know, but at 10 minutes and counting it sure takes a long time to feed a rodent to a peregrine chick.

Well, there, now mom just flew away. About 10 minutes; don’t know how that compares to a Tootsie Pop.

Chick is wandering unsteadily around the nest.
And now it’s time for me to get back to work.

*(I know it’s supposed to be I and the dogs but that just doesn’t sound right.)

I like the foreign cams, as in travel from your PC. There are some you can move the camera in your 60 seconds of ownership. And the volcano cams when there is activity are great fun.

Until I moved to Ottawa, I’d never seen a hummingbird. Oh, I knew what they were, but I’d never actually seen one anywhere I lived.

On spring evening, I noticed large bugs hanging around some of the flowers in the back of the yard, and commented on the huge bugs. Heh. It was quickly pointed out what they were. Definitely cooler to see flyign around than they look in pictures

A few weeks after the launch, it seemed to show what a security camera was recording. The camera seemed to be mounted above a backdoor of some building. It showed a satellite dish and the edge of a parking lot. It now shows where daylight is on Earth.

No, seriously, animal-cams are the least intrusive way of observing their habits, and most notable to me is Kennedy Space Center’s “eagle cam.” Really, it’s the Southern Bald Eagle. (You can also see a great picture with the VAB in the background at this cool link of great NASA photos.

I was worried about the poor eagles during Hurricans Frances and Jeanne two years ago, as the VAB took a bit of a beating itself. Remember, it’s Merritt Island first, KSC second, but I love the juxtaposition of Nature vs Technology there. That bald eagle nest, as many know, is right off the main road and is seen by 1,000s of people per year. And the eagles keep coming back, and well, it’s a secure place to be! Except for when rockets go off.

See this page for up-to-date info regarding the birds and astronauts’ safety. Sort of OT, but two years ago I sent Mike Mullane an admittedly nutty/excited email after reading his book (I don’t know if he got it, but I didn’t get a reply, lol). I mentioned the concern about the animals during rocket launches. Now, their main concern is for the rockets and the shuttles’ integrity, but NASA does try to make everyone happy, or at least the result is such. Unfortunately, as we saw during the STS114 launch last summer, some turkey vultures just don’t get it–that rockets and such move FAST, and noone is there to shoo them away. (They do prepare for that, but as of yet they can’t control other things that fly).

Perhaps a biologist lurking here can explain why the birds are attracted to the top of the ET? I noticed over the weekend that hawks were circling one of the emission stacks at Dow Chemical: what attracts them, the heat, the chemicals–do they become intoxicated, so to speak? I’m just wondering why the two vultures were so attracted to the top of the ET and SRBs when there is nothing food-like there.

It’s a bit ominous to have so many vultures around KSC–like they’re just waiting for all the tourists, or whoever to drop dead. But they’re actually very curious, amusing birds. I prefer cams to collaring birds and mammals, despite collaring’s benefits. Some cams don’t always work well, however, such as with certain monkeys who will find the cams and play with them or destroy them.

I found this on a blog I visit regularly, it’s a camera on a bald eagle nest. The video is pretty good most of the time. Live action raptors, you can’t beat that for coolness. Bald Eagle Cam…

I like to keep them open in a browser in the background and check up on them every now and again.

Um…they don’t want you doing that:

Due to popular demand, the streaming video is on overload and is working hard to accommodate all viewers. If you are not watching the eagle site, please close the browser window to allow other users to see the birds.

I notice they stream the video using TCP. It would probably make more sense to use multicast UDP instead. No wonder their server’s load goes up with the number of viewers.