Grey Seal Webcam Discussion 2009

[verlit]

looks like eagle or buzzard!?

I wonder that too, given the relative size of it and distance from the camera, it could be an eagle, I think.

[yarko]

Some kind of bird of prey landed in the middle on top of the screen. Hope he is not after the pups?!

Info from Looduskalender:
There was two white-tailed eagles today in Seal-cam!

[yarko]

If Estonian-speaking members are interested - there is very good article about seals in magazine Eesti Loodus (Nature of Estonia) 12/2008
- written by seal-specialist Mart Jüssi.

[verlit]

Info from Looduskalender:
There was two white-tailed eagles today in Seal-cam!

Great to hear we were not mistaken. Less happy about potential threat to seal puppies!

[netmaster]

but what would be the result if the camera would be directed just a (very) little bit higher on the seashore and we would see about 2 centimetres less of the stones and pebbels?

I would like to clarify that a little bit. The camera itself is very good. Sensor size is 3Mpix, what is about 2048x1536 pixels. Current live stream shows only 896x512 pixels. This means, that with built in software, picture can be zoomed in 2-3x without significant loss of quality, and moved up and down for about 30% of the current image size. Live stream resolution is that small, mainly for volume of traffic, what bigger picture would make. Another problem is, that camera's CPU can't handle well pictures, where in large areas, every pixel is in constant movement, like seawater is. That's the one reason for pointing camera as low as possible.

Water level is relatively low right now, and if it rises about 10-20 cm, shore line on these shallow waters (and seals probably also) move few meters closer to the camera. Let's see...

I am willing to provide for reference, a full resolution shot from the camera, but forum allow to post only 1024 pixels wide images. Too bad...

[ergee]

ergee, showing more of the sea would be wonderful, but the case was that the moving part on web cam takes too much power or stream or whatever, ,i don`t understand the wonderful world of internet!
so this will be the view !

Kuremari, you must be a wise man/woman! I agree with you to know almost nothing about electric and pc things, but can a moving object cost more power than "still life" ?? But anyhow, I am glad we have so many cams to see! Thanks.

[ergee]

I would like to clarify that a little bit. The camera itself is very good. Sensor size is 3Mpix, what is about 2048x1536 pixels. Current live stream shows only 896x512 pixels. This means, that with built in software, picture can be zoomed in 2-3x without significant loss of quality, and moved up and down for about 30% of the current image size. Live stream resolution is that small, mainly for volume of traffic, what bigger picture would make. Another problem is, that camera's CPU can't handle well pictures, where in large areas, every pixel is in constant movement, like seawater is. That's the one reason for pointing camera as low as possible.

Water level is relatively low right now, and if it rises about 10-20 cm, shore line on these shallow waters (and seals probably also) move few meters closer to the camera. Let's see...

I am willing to provide for reference, a full resolution shot from the camera, but forum allow to post only 1024 pixels wide images. Too bad...

Ok, I am very thankful for your explanation, and believe that you know what is the
most attainable! Thanks a lot and I will watch the animals with pleasure!

[NancyM]

netmaster, thank you for this explanation - makes a lot of sense!

I am willing to provide for reference, a full resolution shot from the camera, but forum allow to post only 1024 pixels wide images. Too bad...

We do have to set a limit on the size of pictures posted in the forum (too wide makes some of us have to scroll the page to see the whole thing, and/or the file size is too large). Perhaps you could email the "reference picture" to the webmaster at Looduskalender, and it could be linked to an article about this camera. I would love to see a high res picture.

[Jo UK]

I would like to clarify that a little bit. The camera itself is very good. Sensor size is 3Mpix, what is about 2048x1536 pixels. Current live stream shows only 896x512 pixels. This means, that with built in software, picture can be zoomed in 2-3x without significant loss of quality, and moved up and down for about 30% of the current image size. Live stream resolution is that small, mainly for volume of traffic, what bigger picture would make. Another problem is, that camera's CPU can't handle well pictures, where in large areas, every pixel is in constant movement, like seawater is. That's the one reason for pointing camera as low as possible.

Water level is relatively low right now, and if it rises about 10-20 cm, shore line on these shallow waters (and seals probably also) move few meters closer to the camera. Let's see...

I am willing to provide for reference, a full resolution shot from the camera, but forum allow to post only 1024 pixels wide images. Too bad...

Netmaster, Welcome to the forum! Of course, we all want to see your picture of the area.
Thank you for explaining the technicalities of this webcam view to us.
I have asked our webmaster about the best solution to accommodate this view. Of course, we can increase the number of pixels allowed here - that could be a source of difficulty, later. Let's wait for advice from on high!

Many thanks for joining us and giving us this information.
Please, what size is the image you have?

[Jo UK]

Sorry, Bociany - I think we were posting about the same time!

[netmaster]

hello Jo UK
please, send me a PM with e-mail address where I can send the picture. Size is about 500KB.
As I understand, camera will capture a full resolution image 16 times per second, then cut off excess parts and serve a smaller one for rest of us. I don't know, how reasonable this is, but these highres pictures can be taken from the camera at any moment. Maybe this would be very cool, when selected people can take higher quality screenshots on some special occasion. If administrators think, that this is a good idea, and project leaders agree, then I can take 2 minutes of my time and write a small program for easy access to do that.

[Jo UK]

Fantastic! We have a similar arrangement with one of the eagle webcams. Thanks.
PM coming to you.

[Liis]

If Estonian-speaking members are interested - there is very good article about seals in magazine Eesti Loodus (Nature of Estonia) 12/2008
- written by seal-specialist Mart Jüssi.

Eesti Loodus has a short English summary of articles here.
Mart Jûssi discusses the effect of warm winters for the seals in the Baltic (3 species). Grey seals seem to manage a little better than ringed seals, who will not breed at all, if there is no ice: they dig cavities in snow/ice to protect their young. But for grey seal pups also there is greater risk of predators , from birds of prey as well as landbased predators like foxes, when many seals gather on the smaller areas on land. (Do wolves hunt on the seashore? )

[leanne]

camera is not starting for me :((

[Jo UK]

No seal cam for me either.

So I looked at the eagle cam, only to see it covered with snow!

[leanne]

it started finally :) and there are 2 big and a pup or maybe another behind him too.. and a lot of lovely seal sounds :)

[verlit]

No picture

Well, here are at least some photos from the weekend (I cannot upload them from my PC at home so I always have to wait till Monday and do it from work)

Two are photos of the bird of prey visitor (eagle?) and one is the group of seal including three babies, one of them sucking milk, I think. The third baby is the white "stone" between the two puppies, it was only visible when moving

[ergee]

No seal cam for me either.

So I looked at the eagle cam, only to see it covered with snow!

Since yesterdayevening no sealcam, tomorrow I had to update windows media player and restart (and I do not know anything about such things!) but now
seal cam is back!!

[Ivar Jüssi]

Thank you bociany for help -
we asked translation of Estonian word lesila -
Bo said: "I don't know if this is a translation of the Estonian word, but seals use a rookery - a land-based place for birthing, breeding, molting and rest."

Hi
the correct term used in scientific language for true seals in English is "houl-out". Rookery is more relevant to sea lions and other eared seals.

[yarko]

camera is not starting for me :((

Hello leanne and others who worried about not getting cam-picture -
as there is written in introduction - Looduskalender told us that this is so called beta version and there will be disjunctions in broadcast.
Let us just be patient.

Another thing - this camera has reasearhing purposes, mainly.
So for us - LKF members- it's sort of 'bonus' that we have possibility to observe this wonderful sight.
Surely there is going to be nice co-operation between us and seal-researcers

Kuremari already explained about camera angle and view - more water on screen would be great - but technically too demanding.