Back to Massabesic Ospreys

Osprey CAM

The Osprey Nest. Viewing Ospreys at the Nest Live video from the nest is being recorded from dawn to dusk at The Massabesic Audubon Center, and will be available for public viewing there when the center is open. The video picture on this page is updated every 3 minutes. In addition to the current picture, we are providing a history of the last four images received from the camera. There is also a library of interesting pictures that will be added as time goes by. The OspreyCam is funded by The Samuel P. Hunt Foundation and the Verizon Foundation. 4 Most Recent Images Osprey Cam Library The Camera In 2000, we added a new aid in our study of ospreys at Massabesic -- a video camera. This tiny camera is located on the branch directly above the nest and provides incredibly close views of the nesting activity. The actual camera is less than the size of a lipstick. It is placed inside the waterproof housing of a Mag-lite flashlight and attached with a specially-designed mounting bracket. The camera is operated by a power supply located at the Massabesic Audubon Center. A single continuous fiber-optic strand carries the image from the camera to the Massabesic Audubon Center where it is displayed on a TV monitor and recorded onto video tape. Beginning in May of 2000, the image broadcast on this web-site was linked to other osprey research web-pages world-wide. A Special Note of Thanks Our thanks to Winemiller Communications, Inc of Carlisle, PA for their wonderful work on redesigning and improving the Osprey Cam. We are not sure exactly why the first version gave such a poor picture; there was obviously something wrong with the automatic aperture on the lens which resulted in the blue, burned out images. The new camera works beautifully and has perfect color balance and exposure. The engineers at Winewiller also found a weather-resistent microphone which is now placed just underneath the nest and will provide wonderful audio of the osprey's activity through the television monitor in the Massabesic Audubon Center. Winemiller's troubleshooting and responsiveness has resulted in a finished "product" that we can all be proud of. We also thank Dan Geiger of Oakhill Environmental Services, Loudon, NH for once again climbing the tree and installing the new camera and microphone. We couldn't do it without Dan. Credits This project was made possible through a grant from the Samuel P. Hunt Foundation and the Verizon Foundation. Technical assistance was provided by WMUR-Channel 9, John Munier & Gran-Net Innovative Technologies Group, Craig Joyce of the Joyce Sales Group, Lightyear Cable Products, Winemiller Communications and Great Northern Video.