looduskalender.ee

 

 Arne Ader

 

Ten years ago, in late winter, we started Looduskalender, where the nature stories were illustrated with images from Arne Ader’s photo library.Then, 10 years ago, an informative web site with stories illustrated every day with photos was a rare thing. At New Year we installed the first webcam outside Arne’s home office window – the winter bird camera.

 

In early spring the next year we already made plans with Urmas Sellis for a black stork nest camera, and thanks to Urmas Lett at EENet the image from the camera went out to a wide world. Development and test work still goes on today. Different enterprises and specialists have offered us technical support, and with most of them cooperation goes on to this day. They will always be remembered and gratefully acknowledged; by now many of them have become our friends and fellow planners. Thank you to all of you!

 

A few years later an internationally active forum in English moved to Looduskalender. Their doings confirm that the cooperation of enthusiasts and professionals in recording events and times and creating a collected overview of the breeding period are essential achievements. In periods of intense field work eaglemen for instance will not have the time to sit looking at a webcam screen, and checking all the 24/7 recorded material on the hard drive during winter is prohibitively time-consuming. The responsibility of managing the web setup, by then already voluminous, was shouldered by Kaido Einama. Justly praising these people is difficult – they are simply fantastic.

 

How many co-authors, advisers, information providers does Looduskalender have? 

 

The people who create the contents are spread from one end of Estonia to another: to sum them up in a number is difficult. They are engaged in what happens in our nature, and they want to share it with readers.

 

There are few Estonian nature photographers whose works we have not seen in LK, in addition to the events in nature captured by enthusiasts which in itself has a documentary value, and at times even more.

 

Readers will surely have seen that for several years already Looduskalender comes in several languages. The first English translations, about black stork and eagle projects, were extended and carried on by voluntary LK forum members. A German  team in turn translates the English texts into German. Webcam projects are presented in Spanish as well. The Russian edition from the early years has been taken up again. This group of wonderful and competent people deserves sincere praise – heartfelt thanks to you all!

 

 Such, briefly, is Looduskalender's story.

 

Looking forward to spring,

Yours,

 

Gennadi Skromnov

Editor of Looduskalender

 

On Osmussaare