-- Fantasies ;-)) --

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While awaiting any other news, perhaps just some entertainment today... 'tis the season of avian webcams. Bird nestcams are among the most wonderful, extraordinary uses of the internet. My favorite nestcams are of hummingbirds and Barn Owls (also enjoy European white storks on rooftops), but there are many other fabulous ones including eagles, falcons, Ospreys, Barred and Great Horned Owls, penguins, and other species (including this year a popular Laysan Albatross nest). The best cams are live in real time, and often even include infrared photography for night viewing... a world that was largely hitherto unknown to scientists has been revealed by all this gadgetry.

The site below lists a GREAT MANY birdcams, though not sure how many of them are currently active:
http://www.beakspeak.com/index.php/birdcams/

Two of my own favorites are this Allen's Hummingbird in California:
http://www.bellahummingbird.com/

and these Barn Owls in Texas:
http://cams.allaboutbirds.org/channel/42/Barn_Owls/

The famous Decorah Bald Eagle nest in Iowa though has long been a crowd-pleaser as well:
http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles

(WARNING: these sites are addictive)
 
I mention all of this because of recently noting to an emailer my own personal fantasy for Ivory-bills from the last couple years... no reason not to share it, runs like this:

I wake up one morning and an email note, or science news headline, or an RSS feed, or instant message, or whatever, directs me to a new webpage... yeah, you guessed it, it's a live-stream website of a remote camera, deep in green-laden woods, on an Ivory-bill nest cavity. The parents fly in and out; two chicks occasionally pop their heads out the hole and look around... it's live, it's real, it's high-definition and it hardly even requires explanation.
There's no announcement from Wash. DC.; no friggin' article in a science journal; no press conference from the Cornell Lab; no ornithologists in research-disclosure mode; and definitely no description of where this location is; just the unmistakable visual evidence that nobody can discount and everyone can partake in 24/7 (...and a whole LOT of birders calling in to work sick for the following week)... ohh, and hey, maybe there's a banner above the page that reads: "Ivory-bills LIVE!!!" ;-)))

We can all fantasize.... (although as my emailer properly warns, marriages might be imperiled, if there ever actually was an IBWO nestcam!... be careful what you wish for ;-).
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