Up close and online: View the Finnish wilderness with webcams

Residents and visitors alike love to experience Finnish landscapes and catch a glimpse of the country’s wildlife.

For anyone who can’t get to the Finnish outback, for whatever reason, luckily webcams exist. Strategically placed cameras show the rich variety of the natural world, which you can enjoy in real time from the comfort of your own home. Many of them are live only during particular seasons, but they often also feature recordings that you can watch at any time of year.

Birdlife, seal-life and snake-life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JuPc0Tuxjg&feature=emb_logo

The osprey is one of the most popular Finnish webcam subjects. The annual arrival of the giant fish-eating birds at their nests is even mentioned in the news. People eagerly await the first egg, and count down to when the chick is expected to hatch. The University of Turku maintains a webcam beside an osprey nest (background info here) overlooking the gorgeous Turku Archipelago in southwestern Finland.

Lake Saimaa in southeastern Finland is the home of the Saimaa ringed seal, where WWF (World Wildlife Fund) Finland has set up a webcam to catch them basking on a favourite rock. One of Finland’s most beloved animals, the freshwater seal is also gravely endangered because of disturbances caused by commercial and leisure fishing activities and equipment, and because of warmer winters that have made it difficult for the seals to find proper nesting sites. (Normally the seals would burrow into deep snowdrifts on top of a thick layer of ice on the lake surface.)

Whenever a Saimaa ringed seal shows up on camera, Twitter explodes with the hashtag #norppalive, letting you know you need to tune in. (Norppa is the Finnish name for the seal.) WWF Finland has a whole playlist of seal webcam videos.

If birds and seals aren’t your thing, how about cute reptiles? WWF Finland also has an adder cam featuring Finland’s only venomous snake. If you’re lucky you might see one exploring dead leaves or warming up in the morning sunlight. In fact, WWF Finland maintains a page called WWF Wildlive with live webcams and recorded footage of all sorts of animals, from reindeer to wolverines.

Fantastic landscapes and seascapes

A camera atop a lighthouse shows the harbour of the remote island of Utö. (The webcam link is included in the article text below.)Photo: Screenshot, uto.fi

Utö is a small island far out in the Archipelago Sea between Finland and Sweden. The rocky isle only has a few dozen year-round residents, but it is popular with tourists thanks to its picturesque landscape and 200-year-old, 24-metre-high lighthouse. The lighthouse also boasts a webcam, so you can look out over the sea, the harbour and the little red cottages on the shore.

Oulanka National Park is next to Finland’s eastern border and close to the Arctic Circle. It features several webcams focused on a spectacular creek in a gorge surrounded by stately trees. In the spring the creek roars with water from melting ice and snow.

If you want something quieter, how about a beach, such as Yyteri, just outside Pori on Finland’s west coast? The city was founded in 1558 and is home to the world-famous Pori Jazz Festival, which has been held annually since 1966 but, like many other events, had to cancel its 2020 edition.

Finnish urban jungle – and the real Santa

https://youtu.be/UwSJ26G9hns

While it’s fascinating to watch ospreys and rushing streams, many people also like to watch city life. The Confederation of Finnish Industries, an organisation that represents the business community, maintains several webcams in downtown Helsinki (two of them are also shown on ThisisFINLAND’s webcam page). You can see everything from ships in the harbour to people sitting on the steps of the cathedral.

Of course, we can’t forget Finland’s most famous resident: Santa Claus. The city of Rovaniemi keeps a webcam at Santa Claus Village, where he has a workshop and a post office. You can watch people come and go on official Santa business, as well as keep an eye on the thermometer on the Arctic Circle. If you’re lucky you might even catch a glimpse of Santa himself, at home in his natural environment.

By David J. Cord, May 2020