Live video of Wolds owls proves to be a worldwide hit
Webcams showing the day-to-day lives of owls and kestrels in North Yorkshire are a hit with viewers around the world.
Up to 20,000 people from as far away as South Korea, Japan, The Philippines, the US and more tune in each day to watch the nest cams on wildlife artist Robert E Fuller’s YouTube channel.
It led to Robert, who has a farm and gallery at Thixendale, to be featured on ITV’s This Morning, BBC Breakfast, The Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio Two.
We were so amazed that this family was watching on their mobile phone in a street in New York as they waited to go up the Statue of Liberty, we asked the rest of the community where they were.
robert fuller
One bar in the Netherlands has switched its big screen from sports coverage to the live feed of owls.
Robert, who began sharing the screens in lockdown when fans of his artwork expressed a ‘need for nature and green spaces’, said he was amazed at how popular the owls had been.
“I’ve always wanted to learn more about the daily lives of the animals I paint, but I had no idea so many other people were as fascinated as I am in their secret lives,” he said.
Last week, fans gathered onto livestream chat as they waited for a barn owl chick to hatch.
Among them were a family in the queue for the Statue of Liberty.
“We were so amazed that this family was watching on their mobile phone in a street in New York as they waited to go up the Statue of Liberty, we asked the rest of the community where they were,” said Mr Fuller.
“The response was amazing. There was someone watching from Japan, another in South Korea and a bartender in a bowling alley in the Netherlands who streams the webcams on the big screens in the bar instead of football.”
Niels Van Dalen, who works in a bowling alley in a small town near Rotterdam, said he noticed that people who had finished bowling would come for a drink but barely looked up at the screens.
About the day that the barn owl chick was due to hatch, Niels said: “The cycling was on, so I switched it over to Robert Fuller’s stream.”
Since then he has been pleased to see how many people who come for the bowling also enjoy the owl cams.
“It’s so much more peaceful than the sports where everyone is shouting,” he added.
Robert said: “We follow the lives of individual animals, so we know all about their family lives, from the moments the parent owls or kestrels pair up, through their early, awkward romances, to the day that their eggs are laid and then on to watch the chicks’ first meals, wing flaps, and eventually their first flights.
“The characters on the webcams are now stars in their own rights.
“The fans have given them names and they tune in at all times of the day and night to find out how they are getting on.
“I think it provides comfort to some people.
“I’ve had people who have children with autism tell me that the stream calms them down and I once even had a message from a Ukrainian family who told me how it brought them peace at such a turbulent time.”
