Sign up for chat | Troubleshoot viewing issues | Stream Quality issues | Troubleshoot Facebook issues
Where can I watch the eagles and falcons?
Choose your species or nest here: https://www.raptorresource.org/birdcams/ or here: https://explore.org/livecams/raptor-resource-project/decorah-eagles-north-nest or here:
You see a login message on one of our streams
Neither RRP nor Explore.org require login to view our streams. Email me at [email protected] and let me know if you get a log-in message on the video below.
How Do I Sign Up For Moderated Chat?
Our live chat uses chatroll. You have three choices to log into chat:
- Chatroll! If you already have a Chatroll account, you can log into it on any of our chat pages. If you don’t have a free Chatroll account, you can sign up for one at https://chatroll-cloud-1.com/.
- Facebook! You can sign into Chatroll with your Facebook account. It is very easy and Chatroll does not post to Facebook on your behalf.
- Twitter! You can sign into Chatroll with your Twitter account. It is very easy and Chatroll does not post to Twitter on your behalf.
Signing in is easy! Go to any of our interactive chat pages and use your preferred sign-in method under the chat!
Troublshoot viewing problems
All of our birds are being streamed via Youtube. All three streams are using HTML5. Go to your device’s app store to get the viewing app for explore.org or YouTube if you don’t already have it.
Clearing cache and cookies
If you can’t see one or all of those three streams, refresh the page. If that doesn’t work, clear your cache and cookies, shut the browser, and re-open it to the page you want to watch.
The stream isn’t live on youtube
If you appear to be watching a video instead of a live stream, you probably bookmarked an old stream that is no longer current. The live stream (and latest youtube feed) can always be found by going to our website or Explore.org’s website. If you have an old bookmark that is taking you to a video instead of a live feed, visit our site or Explore’s site and bookmark that. If you really prefer to watch on youtube, visit one of our sites, click the youtube logo on the bottom of the feed, go to youtube, and bookmark that!
If you still can’t see the stream, the most likely possibilities are:
- YouTube is glitching. We’re not sure why, but ‘log in’ messages have started appearing on embedded streams. We don’t require login to view and neither does explore. If you see a ‘log-in’ message on a video feed, follow this link: https://explore.org/help.
- Your youtube account is set to restricted mode. Read this if a message about ‘Restricted Mode’ appears where the video should be. Or:
- Your browser or app doesn’t support HTML5. Read this if you are seeing a hazy screen that resembles white, grey, or black noise, but no message. Or:
- Your browser or app doesn’t accept third party cookies (and a few other issues). Read this.
Restricted Mode
You need to disable youtube’s restricted mode. If you have a home computer, follow these instructions: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/174084?co=GENIE.Platform%3DiOS. If you are accessing through work or school, you may need to have an IT person or system administrator help you.
No support for HTML5
If you are seeing a hazy grey screen that resembles white, grey, or black noise, your browser or app is most likely not compatible with HTML5. To test, follow this link to our stream page at https://www.raptorresource.org/embed-test/ and note which of the three streams you can see.
If you can’t see streams #1 or #3, visit https://www.youtube.com/html5 to see whether your browser supports html5. If your browser is not compatible, we strongly suggest upgrading. Adobe is end-of-lifing Flash, our former presentation method, in 2020. Many newer browsers have very uneven support for Flash!
Third-party cookies, privacy seetings, compatibility mode, and youtube blocking
If your browser supports HTML5 but you still can’t see our streams, check your third party cookie and privacy settings. You can also check to see whether youtube is blocked on your computer. If you have IE, check your compatibility mode. If you have the compatibility mode turned on, try turning compatibility off, adjusting your settings, or watching live at youtube: https://youtu.be/R4b_1rUNCUY.
Can I watch your streams on my phone or tablet?
You can! You can use your browser or download the Explore and Youtube apps. To download, go to your device’s store and search for Youtube and Explore. Download and install the free apps and start watching! I’ve been able to watch the stream via an IPad, an IPhone, an Android phone, and Gen 10 Kindle Fire.
You will need to use your device’s browser to chat.
Security Warnings
Our website forces https, which means that all connections between the server and your browser are encrypted. The Decorah Eagles, Decorah North Eagles, and GSB Falcons streams are all served via https, but some content on our forum is not. Click the shield to allow http content on raptorresource.org. We aren’t collecting data from you, so the lack of encryption shouldn’t be an issue.
Final Steps
If none of these steps work, you may have a more complicated problem.
- Are you using Net Nanny or a similar piece of software to mediate online interactions between your family or students and the internet? Check the settings to make sure they allow participation.
Troubleshoot Choppy Stream and Stream Quality Issues
The stream is super-choppy. Why?
There could be more than one reason for that:
Bandwidth: At my house, a choppy stream is usually due to low bandwidth, especially during evenings and weekends. As shown in the image below, youtube allows you to manually select the resolution that best meets your bandwidth. Click the HD button just below the stream to access your options. Drop it down to 360 or even 240p to reduce bandwidth consumption, or throw caution to the wind and see if you can stream at 720p or 1080p!
Hardware Acceleration: Thanks to 7streetoak for this tip! Browser-based hardware acceleration can impact stream quality. If it is on, try disabling it.
Facebook Issues
I follow you on Facebook, but I’m not getting your notifications and posts. Why?
Make sure per the image at right that you are signed up to receive notifications in your newsfeed. If you are, comment on one of our threads – even with just one word! – and we’ll be back in your news feed. Keep commenting and sharing pictures and posts to keep seeing us. Facebook algorithms no longer show content that people don’t interact with, as documented here: http://bit.ly/1JLx5D5 and here: http://slate.me/1ReLjWx. Limiting your news feed to things you are interacting with makes your feed more rewarding and reduces your changes of encountering a bot that scams you, gives you malware, or locks up your hard drive.
This SUPER-ANNOYING Facebook pop-up won’t let me see your page unless I have a Facebook page too! It didn’t used to be that way…
The all-caps annoyed person is me. I am ALL-CAPS ANNOYED that Facebook is spamming people with a register screen if they aren’t logged into Facebook. We do not have any control over this, although we did file a ticket with Facebook to complain (in a polite non-caps way). We are a business page and as such are supposed to be available to the public, Facebook or not.
To block the pop-up, add adblockplus to your browser if you don’t already have it. Ad-block currently has a version for all of the big browsers used on standard Macs and PCs. Add these two lines to your filter:
www.facebook.com#dialog_0
www.facebook.com###pagelet_growth_expanding_cta
Don’t know how to add filters? Check this tutorial out: https://adblockplus.org/getting_started#add-subscription. This will not remove the option to register or login at the top of the page, but it will stop the pop-up from covering the page.
If you aren’t interested in blocking the pop-up, you can reduce it. Try pressing the escape key when it pops up. If it doesn’t go away, click the x on the right-hand side to reduce it (outlined inside the red circle below). We will also be posting news and video round-ups on this website.
The ‘X’ is non-ADA compliant for contrast, which is why it is so hard to see. We made sure to notify Facebook of this problem as well.
We hope you enjoy watching!
The Raptor Resource Project