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The Great Bittern Botaurus stellaris (L.) nest in Latvia is located in the vast reedbeds of Lake Engure. The nest was found on April 24th, 2015 with three eggs in it and later one more egg was laid. 

The species has only one brood in a season, 3-7 eggs are laid in March-May and incubation lasts 25 to 26 days. The female is the only one to feed the young. The species starts incubating after the first egg is laid, thus the chicks age in one nest can differ by 2-3 days.
Operating season for this webcam is expected to be shorter than we are accustomed to when watching nests of birds of prey. This is because after hatching, the chicks spend about two weeks in the nest and then start to disperse amongst the reeds.

The web camera is installed within the project “Restoration of Bittern habitats in two coastal lakes in Latvia” (COASTLAKE LIFE12 NAT/LV/000118). The project is financed by the European Commission LIFE+ program and Latvian Environmental Protection Fund.

Transmission of data is provided by courtesy of LMT, Mikrotik and EENet:
LMT channels transmit the data to Internet;
The EENet server creates the stream and handles distribution to users as well as stores pics and videos;
Mikrotik provided a special 4G router;
Jānis Rudzītis made the system installation and configuration in Latvia;
Jānis Ķuze, Roberts Šiliņš, Jānis Reihmanis, Māris Maskalāns and Zane Kuriloviča helped to install the system in Latvia.

The activities are directed by Jānis Reihmanis.