Boyd Deep Canyon Desert Research Center
The Agave Hill Camera Project
Location:
On Cliff overlooking the Deep Canyon Drainage
Click on any image to enlarge view, or click on 
to view slide show of archived images.
Images are updated every hour.
 |
 |
 |
|
| Boyd Center |
Palm Dessert |
Canyon Drainage |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
| Sunset View |
Big Horn Sheep Location |
Cactus |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Water Hole |
Toro Peak |
Cliff Nest Site 1 |
and 2 |
Live View | Javascript
View
Activly control the camera's pan zoom and tilt settings over the
web.
ARCHIVED IMAGES
Movies created using stored images
This is a database of images taken by the camera on Agave Hill.
This is a web page with archived images saved from this camera
that the reserve found especially interesting.
 
 
These are images taken from the camera by Mark Fisher.
|
  
Raptor visiting Nest Site 1
 
Peregrine Falcons at Nest Site 2 |
Agave Hill Camera
Overlooking Boyd Center Below.
|
The Agave Hill camera site is located on a promontory overlooking
the Deep Canyon gorge and floodplain. The site is remote, difficult
to access, subject to extreme desert conditions, and heavy wind
loads. We chose this site to test the limits of off-the-shelf
components deployed in the real world. Our goal is to create
a reliable imaging system for use in research, teaching, and
management.
The Agave Hill camera is a wireless, solar powered system with
connectivity to the Boyd Center local area network and the internet
via the High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network
(HPWREN, http://hpwren.ucsd.edu
). The camera has pan, tilt, and zoom capabilities that can
be controlled by any user with an internet connection. We will
also create a database for repeat imagery of fixed locations
to document seasonal and long-term habitat changes. Opportunistic
images can include raptor nesting locations and bighorn sheep
activity.
Remote surveillance allows researchers to observe animal behavior
without the disturbance of a human presence that can alter the
normal behavior of an animal. Another benefit of remote sensing
is that it reduces impacts to soils and vegetation that result
from frequent visits to an area.
The mission of the University of California includes education
and public outreach. Remote sensing facilitates educational
opportunities and provides virtual access to sensitive areas
that are otherwise closed to the public. The James Reserve (www.jamesreserve.edu),
a unit of the UC Natural Reserve System, has an established
K-12 education program that makes extensive use of several web
cameras deployed at the reserve. In the future Boyd Deep Canyon
will join the James Reserve in public outreach and education
facilitated by remote sensing technology. |
 |
Agave Hill Deployment
We installed a Cannon pan and tilt camera at a location that
will give the user the ability to analyze the habitat as well
as the wildlife that frequently visit this area. This camera
can be controlled by any user with an internet connection. The
user has complete pan tilt and zooming control of the camera,
which returns a live streaming image to the user’s computer.
We will also integrate the camera’s functionality with
an image database, which automatically move the camera to a
specific location and store the image to be viewed later by
any user over the web. This is very helpful in determining habitat
growth patterns over time as well focus on areas where animal
activity is commonly spotted. We anticipate the ability to spot
bighorn sheep herbs and focus on a cliff where hawks and falcons
have been known to nest. We also will see how the dessert transforms
over the course of the year and relate this information with
weather and GIS data.
Remote observation of wildlife and vegetation allows researchers
to study the areas without the disturbance that human presence
typically causes. We can now observe wildlife behavior in
there natural environment without the human interference that
can alter that behavior if detected by the animal. It also
allows us to minimize our impact on the soil and vegetation
in the area. Another beneficial aspect is the time and cost
to the researcher that is saved by reducing the need for frequent
visits to remote locations and that can now be reached through
a computer monitor. These camera deployments allows us to
provide this information to a much wider audience of researchers,
including grade school and high school students.
Kevin Browne - UCNRS Information Manager
|
|
