A webcam focused on the nest of a pair of expectant eagles on B.C.'s Hornby Island has become an Internet hit attracting millions of visitors.
"If you had an eagle nest in your backyard, you'd get quite interested -- you just have to watch them," said Doug Carrick, a retired accountant who helped organize the eagle cam hidden in a tree behind his house.
The eagles can be viewed at .
It doesn't stop there. Animal enthusiasts can go on-line for an intimate glimpse of everything from flamingos to panda bears and storks.
"It's something different -- you never know what you're going to see," said Greg Trepanier, a computer expert who works at a marketing company in rural Ontario.
Mr. Trepanier helped set up a webcam outside the offices of Tamarack Creek in Dunvegan, east of Ottawa, about five years ago so clients in cities such as Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto could "have a look at what's going on in the country," he said.
"People who are in their little cubicles who don't even have a window, here's a window to the world for them."
While Mr. Trepanier hasn't counted the number of visitors, he says there's a strong following for the cardinals, finches and evening grosbeaks that peck away at the feeder.
The birds are captured via a tiny webcam about the size of a tube of lipstick.
The site is addictive, he says. "I can't explain it . . . We've had a lot of people watching." The link can be found at _air.html.
Mr. Carrick said he's been stunned by the number of people interested in the Hornby Island eagles. The eagle cam, set up last October by Hancock House Publishers and Infotec Business Systems, receives about 20 million hits daily, said Infotec's Edward Clunn. It's also attracted widespread media interest, including reports on CNN and CBS.
"Our challenge is to be able to manage the network traffic that this thing is generating," Mr. Clunn said.
And traffic will only get busier as the hatch date, expected around April 25, approaches.
"It's impressive how much this has caught on," Mr. Clunn said. "We've had people watching it in Europe."
Mr. Carrick, 73, said he's been watching eagles nest near his house ever since he moved to Hornby Island, off the east coast of Vancouver Island, after his retirement, and is delighted others now find them so fascinating. He said he has learned a lot about the birds thanks to the webcam.
"They've taken on personalities which I didn't realize in my 15 years of watching," he said.
"It's such a close-up, intimate picture. I think of them as a mother and father, caring people with personalities."
Besides attracting nature enthusiasts, animal webcam sites are also a hit with teachers who like to use them in their curricula, said Scott Zoog, who runs a camera aimed at a pair of cuddly white barn owls in Benecia, Calif.
"[The owls]are like their virtual classroom pets," he said of the elementary classes that keep an eye on the owls, named Frida and Diego, at .
Mr. Zoog, 38, says the site, started more than a year ago, averages about 1,500 separate visitors daily.
"It's been awesome," he said. "We couldn't believe in the first year it was up how much traffic we got."
A glass and metal sculptor, Mr. Zoog said he never imagined he'd end up running an owl webcam and now says he can't imagine ever taking it down.
Some other interesting animal cams:
The National Zoological Park, part of the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C., has more than a dozen webcams including ones for flamingos, a tiger, elephant, panda, octopus and naked mole-rat. Go to .
The Vetschau/Spree Forest Stork Centre lets you glimpse the life of storks in the town of Vetschau, Germany, at .
The Monterey Bay Aquarium in California has webcams aimed at penguins, otters, sharks and other animals. Visit .