Live! Osprey Cam
Check back with us in May of 2012. We hope to have the osprey cam up and running for the season then.
Welcome to the Live Osprey Camera at the Creston Valley Wildlife Management Area. To view the live osprey stream click on viewer below. The link for mobile devices can be found below the viewer.
TAP ON THE LINK BELOW IF YOU ARE USING AN iPhone, iTouch, OR iPad
2012 Updates
Check back with us in May of 2012!
Background
Seasonally, a camera is installed on an Osprey nest perched above the wetland of the Creston Valley Wildlife Management Area.
From approximately May to August, live images from the camera are streamed from our website and on large flat screen TV’s at the Wildlife Interpretation Centre. The camera gives a spectacular up close and personal look into the lives of a pair of Osprey and their young.
If you are interested in supporting this project, you can help us out by making a donation.
A special thanks to our partners, the Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program and Kootenay Wireless.
Footage From Previous Seasons
Please enjoy the following video clips from previous seasons.
Clip 1 Clip 2 Clip 3 Clip 4 Clip 5 Clip 6
Osprey facts
Ospreys (Pandion haliaetus) return to the same nest year after year. The nests are made of sticks and man made items (string, twine and fishing line) and are often located on man-made elevated structures such as power poles, buoys and bridges as well as cliffs and snags.
The female lays between two to four eggs, one to five days apart. The eggs are incubated for 35 to 40 days.
The diet of an Osprey consists nearly entirely of live fish.
Ospreys can become completely submerged when diving for fish and still take off with their prey, unlike Bald Eagles which pluck the fish from the surface.
There have been reports of Ospreys drowning after locking into a fish that is too big and strong to bring to the surface. Ospreys were once threatened around the world primarily due to the use of DDT and other pesticides, but their numbers have rebounded in recent in decades.
They are the most widely distributed bird of prey, found on all continents except Antarctica.
Ospreys in the Columbia Basin usually migrate in winter to the southern United States or Mexico.
Ospreys are unique in that they have an opposable toe that can face forward or backward. When sitting on a branch it usually has three toes on the front and one on the back. When holding a fish it usually has two toes on each side of the fish. When flying with its prey the Osprey invariably flies with the fish head first to reduce wind resistance.
