On the Web

On the northern coast, a photographer posts a new shot of Cannon Beach most mornings; nice archive.

This site links to three cool cams in Clatsop County, including two you can direct with a remote control.

Just an hour north of the California border is Port Orford. This cam is trained on Battle Rock Beach, near a bed and breakfast.

Just an hour north of the California border is Port Orford. This cam is trained on Battle Rock Beach, near a bed and breakfast.

Check out Mt. Hood and the Columbia River Gorge from this cam east of Portland.

It's hard to beat Northern California for scenic spots. These webcams overlook vistas in the upper half of the state.
It may be hard to get a table on the deck at Nepenthe in Big Sur, but the webcam is always free.

Dreaming of the houseboat life? Check out Sausalito, on the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Watch the Cabernet vines growing below the Vaca Mountains in this Napa Valley vineyard, located in St. Helena.

This one's pointed at Mt. Shasta, which tops 14,000 feet.

As temperatures start to drop, the deserts come to life. Have a look at some of them via these webcams.

Here's a sweeping vista as seen from Belle Mountain in Joshua Tree National Park.

Multiple webcam shots combine for an interesting panorama of the Tucson, Ariz., area.

This one is mounted in Tsegi Canyon, on the Navajo Indian reservation in northeastern Arizona.

See what's happening in the town as well as the environs of Palm Springs (click on "Palm Springs Live Cam").

Check out the nifty time-lapse sequence from this cam in Utah's scenic Zion Canyon.

Missed the sunrise this morning? You may catch it elsewhere in the world via these webcams.

This one's on the beach in Estartit, Spain. Check out the day's archived shots for a morning sunrise.

From the Greek island of Zakynthos, you can see the turtle-shaped island of Marathonissi (click on "webcam").

See the sun between the two sacred rocks called Meoto Iwa in Japan.

Catch an early North American sunrise and a lovely sweeping view of the harbor in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

They've always got their eyes on the skies at Florida's Cape Canaveral; so does this cam.

The Gerace Research Center in San Salvador operates this harbor cam.

Webcams don't seem to abound in Mexico, but it's worth tracking them down for the ocean views. Here's a sampling.

You'll wish you were in the water. This cam's perched at a resort in San Jose del Cabo.

Catch vistas from the cam pointed toward the Puerto Vallarta Malecón, or beach walkway.

Focus on Playa del Carmen, about a 45-minute trek south of Cancun.

Check out the waves at Majahual, Costa Maya, about a 3 1/2-hour drive south of Cancun.

The Sea of Cortez, and San Felipe as well, can be admired on this Baja cam.

Take a virtual dip in some of California's lakes with these cams.

At Bass Lake, a warm-water lake owned by PG&E near the southern entrance to Yosemite, keep an eye out for great blue herons.

Until mid-October, you can take a spin in a boat or personal watercraft on Shaver Lake, 55 miles east of Fresno.

Lake Tahoe shows off its late-summer glory on several webcams, including these two.

This cam's pointed at Mono Lake in Lee Vining, a birder's paradise at about 6,300 feet.

Folsom Lake near Sacramento is part of an 18,000-acre state recreation area, which offers hiking, boating, bicycling and now wi-fi.

For great views of both earth and sky, you can't beat an observatory.

Images are updated every two minutes at the Astronomical Observatory of Rome, where the view includes the Monte Porzio skyline.

The Lick Observatory is perched at 4,200 feet on Mt. Hamilton, near San Jose.

Here's a labor of love: a small, privately owned and operated observatory in Fairless Hills, Penn. It's in a backyard.

Halifax Harbour and the shores of Dartmouth are in the line of sight from Burke-Gaffney Observatory, part of St. Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

If you can't get on the water yourself, these cams will give you a boating fix.

Images from this cam at Lido Marina in Newport Harbor also can be viewed as a cool time-lapse sequence from throughout the day.

Watch riverboats roll along the Mississippi with Old Man RiverCam in New Orleans.

See Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong, where archived shots also show the scenic change of light at noon and at 5 p.m. daily.

The lovely waters of Mexico's Sun Coast are on view from this cam perched along Punta Langosta pier in Cozumel.

Saturday and Sunday are the best days to see boats along the Hillsborough River in Tampa, Fla.

Log on to these webcams for a glimpse at critters around the world.

The National Audubon Society recently added live streaming video of Maine seabirds at Matinicus Rock, site of its Puffin Project.

The "big five" of African creatures may appear at this watering hole in Pilanesberg National Park, South Africa, which is visible even in darkness. A word of warning: Accessing the cam is free, but users must register.

A pair of ospreys returns to this platform at Blackwater Refuge in Cambridge, Md., each spring and summer to raise their young — you can even watch mom bring dinner home.

The popular baby-panda cam at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., is often overloaded, but it's worth persisting for a peek at Mei Xiang and her wee one.

Six resident seals are in perpetual motion at the Ocean Sciences Center in Logy Bay, Newfoundland.

Sneak a peek at the great outdoors from your desk via webcams stationed in national parks and forests.

Several cams are distributed throughout Montana's scenic Glacier National Park.

Medicine Lake volcano and several cinder cones are visible from this cam at Lava Beds National Monument in Tulelake, Calif.

Check out a miles-long view and see the current weather particulars at Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee.

If you're feeling the heat, click over to this shot of snowcapped Mt. Rainier in Washington.

Closer to home, drop in on two webcams at Yosemite. The views are from Turtleback Dome and below Sentinel Dome.

Some are steeped in history, others are relatively new, but all of these sites offer lighthouse-area views.

The black-and-white lighthouse of Cape Hatteras has long kept sailors safe in the wreck-laden waters of North Carolina's Outer Banks.

The lamp at Portland Head Light at Cape Elizabeth, Maine, was first lighted in 1791.

Four cameras perched in Point Lonsdale Lighthouse in Victoria, Australia, show the area surrounding the entrance to Port Phillip Bay, a tight squeeze known as the Rip.

Visitors come and go at Amphitrite Point Lighthouse on a rocky shore battered by crashing waves, south of Ucluelet, British Columbia.

The view toward Cape May Lighthouse, which dates to 1859, at the southern tip of New Jersey.

The surf's always up somewhere in the world.

If you're mulling over a day at a local beach, check out L.A. County's live views of the sand and surf from Cabrillo to Zuma.

On the other side of the world, check out scenic and surfer-speckled beaches in Australia and New Zealand.

Isracam has several webcams stationed along beaches in Israel that feature panoramic views.

Across the country, spy on Cahoon Hollow Beach in Cape Cod, Mass.

Cubicle rats can stare at these peaks.

Check out Cascade Mountain, which towers above Banff in the Canadian Rockies.

Always worth watching the sun set on Taos Mountain in New Mexico.

A moving panoramic of western Europe's high point, Mont Blanc, and nearby peaks.

See why the highest dot in the Blue Ridge range is called Grandfather Mountain.

Five views to choose from in Glacier National Park; this one features Mt. Wilbur.


The film "March of the Penguins" captured compelling footage of migrating penguins. Here are some sites to hold you over until the sequel comes out.

Don't be put off by the zippy music that accompanies these penguin home movies at a place called Hedwig's Penguin Home.

The good news: A premier place to see real-time Gentoo penguins migrate. The bad news: They aren't due back until September.

Spy on blackfooted penguins, not the snow-and-ice lovers but those that dwell in the cold currents off South Africa, at a cushy home in the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

For the patient penguin watcher, stare at a wide-angle view of an iceberg in Antarctica's Ross Sea and wait for the big birds to appear.

Don't be put off by the zippy music that accompanies these penguin home movies at a place called Hedwig's Penguin Home.


Take the plunge with these webcams that point at waterfalls around the world.

A lovely look at Niagara Falls, the granddaddy of waterfalls, from both sides of the border. May inspire a sudden desire to elope.

This cam pans from a street to an 80-foot waterfall in Isola del Liri between Rome and Naples in Italy.

A humble but pretty waterfall on the Mohawk River as seen from a U.S. Geological Survey station. Most picturesque when the river stage is above 10 feet.

This one's trained on Neuhausen Rhine Falls in Switzerland, the largest waterfall in Europe, where 700 cubic meters of water rush down each second.

Tune in to the sounds of wildlife at these sites.

This top-notch site by the British Library features recordings from spots as diverse as the London Zoo, South Africa and Colombia. A high note is the eerie hooting of a crested gibbon.

This review of "The Singing Life of Birds" by Donald Kroodsma by the Audubon Society includes sound files and sonograms of assorted birds, including chickadees, towhees and wrens.

A collection of Montana wildlife sounds, maintained by a commercial site. A haunting wolf call, the grumping of a grizzly and the call of an eagle put you out in the wild mountains.

They love birds in Northamptonshire, England. Eavesdrop on the chiffchaff, the nightingale, the yellowhammer and the rather insultingly named common snipe.

Just for fun, listen to recordings of native speakers demonstrating spoken words for various animal sounds in different languages. Who knew oink translates so differently around the world.


Go deep to view these sites.

Watch the waters of Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park in Florida for the intriguing, yet somewhat comical, sea creatures; lots of good shots archived.

Wrass, gobies, jellyfish and seals may cruise past this kelp forest in a nature reserve off the island of Lundy in the United Kingdom.

Relax while considering the Fisheye View Cam, aimed at a living reef aquarium in (where else?) Coral Gables, Fla. Researchers use the time-lapse shots to study coral behavior.

Check out a shipwreck under 60 feet of balmy Caribbean water off Bonaire using what's purported to be the world's first permanently mounted underwater reef cam.

Try to catch an online blast at one of these sites.

Get a panoramic peek at the active Pu'u O'o vent on Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano, where humans aren't allowed to venture.

Sometimes Mt. St. Helens fogs over, but sometimes it's a cool view of the Washington volcano from the Johnson Ridge Observatory at 4,500 feet.

The volcano at Colima, Mexico, seems to be perpetually smoking, according to this all-Spanish site featuring the local university's volcano cam.

If none of the volcanoes proves exciting, you can always count on Old Faithful at Yellowstone National Park. But be patient, the image takes a while to update.

Check out your critter-cam of choice at these sites.

Baby's first flap? Close-ups of newly born birds in 10 nests -- from owlets in Texas and Oosprey in Kentucky to Western bluebirds in Oregon.

Be patient while you watch a variety of bird feeders -- some filled with mealworms, some with nectar -- for landings and takeoffs at the James Reserve in the San Jacinto Mountains. And for the truly patient, there's always moss cam.

It's pretty hard to find wolves in the wild, so your best bet at seeing one -- live and unplugged -- is via three cameras at the International Wolf Center in Ely, Minn.

OK, how many toys do sea otters need? Watch them play at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. If you get bored, you can always switch to shark cam