EstLat Eagles

Eagles Cross Borders cooperation between Latvian Fund for Nature and Estonian Ornithological Society was officially finished by the end of September. The aim of the project supported by ESTLAT program and Environmental Investment Centre was education of public in terms of bird protection, in particular there were more actions addressed to two target species – White-tailed Eagle and Osprey. During more than two years the conservation measures and awareness were the main topics for the project.

In Estonian Osprey nest kalakotkas2 there two chicks of three are fledged, but the youngest one died because of unknown reason. Her body is still in nest visible. The male in nesting pair, Ilmar got the transmitter year ago, but it stopped to transmit data couple of months ago. We tried to trap Ilmar about two weeks ago, but not successfully. Ilmar was more clever as us. Now we made another attempt and we succeed - Ilmar flew into net installed at night.

Despite of late spring we were able to observe first osprey in Latvian webcam nest near the end of March and after a week also the mate arrived. Into the nests in Estonia the ospreys arrived about three weeks later, so also the eggs were laid later.
About Latvian osprey nest with web camera it is possible to read more on web site of our partner Latvian Fund for Nature.

The activity of eagles at winter feeder is somehow less visible last days. There is no surprise, because eagles pay more attention to the nest sites in early spring. Of course those who have the nest already. Others either are immatures or have no nest inhabited, yet. One nearly adult white-tailed Eagle you can observe moving around on our migration map. This is five years old male White-tailed Eagle A531 (so he was named by Latvian colleagues, according the ring code he has).

We started autumn migration on migration map with 23 birds presented and of those 7 were juveniles. Biggest is the juveniles percentage among Cranes. At the same time we know well, that due the natural selection big proportion of juveniles do not reach wintering grounds. So we can see on wintering grounds only two Cranes, Ahja2 and Juula2. Both of them winter in Tunisia, though Ahja2 spent last winter in Turkey. Changes of wintering areas are possible to see also among Finnish Cranes.

Like during last winter we managed in ESTLAT Eagles cross borders project to install web camera to the eagles winter feeding place in western Estonia, Läänemaa county. So everybody has the possibility to observe the eagles, mainly the White-tailed Eagles, called also as Sea Eagles. There are several individuals present during a day, but by now the most of them are coming from Finland. The unringed eagles origin we don't know. Webcam is supplemented with audio channel, so you could hear the voices as well, though the microphone situated about 30m of feeding spot.

The field work season is almost past and so there is some more opportunity for summing up. Members of the ESTLAT Eagles project team and subcontractors prepare for the project Steering Group meeting on November 27 to 28th in Setumaa (SE corner of Estonia).

The bird migration has been intense during the last weeks and all who have been outdoors have seen different kinds of migrants. The departure of some (cranes for instance) is clearly noticeable, others simply disappear at some moment.

Over a month ago we wrote that the Estonian osprey chicks were quiet at feeding as good table manners require but the "Latvians“ made a racket. Today all has changed – at the Latvian nest all has gone silent; the juveniles have evidently started their migration.