looduskalender.ee

A nice little report on the doings of Miina, member of the ELF flying squirrel project team. Link http://www.looduskalender.ee/node/2205 is to the Looduskalender notice, with photos of Miina. Translation here below. Hope we will hear more about Miina!
Jo – I really didn’t know where to put it, feel free to move it around! "Other animals” seemed most reasonable.

(Text: Uudo Timmel & Kadri Rennel, ELF)
"Christmas is a quite peaceful time for the Flying Squirrels. They do not hibernate, even in winter they make regular trips outside for feeding and other activities. The recent storm did not only do harm to humans but also sent some flying squirrels out househunting, when their nest trees were brought down.
Our flying squirrel Mina, equipped with a transmitter, did not fare so badly. Her nest tree did break at 10 meters, but luckily the nest hollow is in the remaining stump and Miina can still use it for some time. But in time she too will have to find a new nesting place. It will not be altogether easy because there are few suitable tree hollows left in the very production-oriented forests, and there may be a long way to the next suitable living place and with obstacles, like clear-felled and rejuvenation areas in between that have to be crossed somehow.”
Liis
PS. ELF, the Estonian Fund for Nature, (Eesti Looduse Fond) has put out an appeal for funds for their flying squirrel project (the larger part of the text in Looduskalender). Some more in English about the project, http://www.elfond.ee/eng/projects/forest/flying_squirrel.

About the Tawny Owl, Estonia's Bird of the year for 2009:
A Tawny Owl nest will be on webcamera, starting March, link will come on the Bird of the Year home page http://www.eoy.ee/kodukakk.
(Better get a nice big screen, to run many webcams ...)
Kodu-kakk = home owl, literal translation.
Tawny Owl sounds (=”Häälitsused”), come in this order on its web page here, look for the loudspeaker symbols:
- Normal territory cry of male bird
- Vibrating hu-hu-hu, more rarely heard
- Courting & mating cries of male and female
- Courting cry of male; calling cries of male (low keu-ve) and female (shriller kiu-vi)
- Alarm / warning sound (kuek-kuek-kuek)
- Young in nest begging food (adult birds in background)
- Fledgling young outside nest begging food

A list of other owls in Estonia is under the heading “Eesti kakud” (Estonian Owls), with some sound illustrations: use link Loe edasi (Read on) for each bird, then look again for loudspeaker symbol.
There are about 1000-2000 Tawny Owl breeding pairs in Estonia, about 3000-6000 overwintering individuals. Nearly 1400 have been ringed 1922-2007, and 48 have been recovered, only 2 of them outside Estonia. 5-7 years are oldest known found in Estonia, record is 23 years (England).

Thank you Liis! I look forward to the Twany Owl Camera

About yellowhammers http://www.looduskalender.ee/en/node/2417 - Bird dialects?
"Little bit of bread and no cheeeeeeeeese" - yellowhammer (talvike) song in English.
"Ett, två, tre, fyra, fem, sex, sjuuuuuuuu" , in Swedish (counts to seven)
"Siit, siit, siit läheb Riiiiiiiga" in Estonian (From here, here, here to Riga)
So - one syllable less in Estonian, or did they just forget to write them all?

But that is the song of the Chaffinch!!
I am confused

Go HERE and click on 'Play'

Ah - wait a minute - I have just listened to the Yellowhammer HERE
It is as you describe!!

I will have to find out more about this bird

Yes, I see what you mean, too - or rather, hear!
But here http://www.wildlifegarden.co.uk/birdschool/the_yellowhammer.html it sounds a little more like the memo-phrases.
At least in Scandinavia the yellowhammer was hit very hard by the mercury treatment of grains in the 60es-70es. The population recovered, eventually, but now may have ever harder to find good living places. They seem to prefer medium-scale, varied farming/village landscapes: some open spaces, shrubs and hedges, spilt grain, all very much disappearing. The fashion - and passion - for riding may well be their saving around big cities.

Tawny Owl, Estonia's bird of the year
- oldest known yet lives in Cumbria, UK http://195.222.15.17/?artikkel=430567 So, all Forum people from UK, your birds are news here!
Article in Estonian, but briefly: she (it is a she) was ringed 1987, usually hatches 2 young, who all live nearby, and that year - report from 2008 - there were 3.
Said UK birdwatcher: "She is really amazingly good-looking".

Arvi -
about that owl, camera address in your post here - thanks, of course! - is that the EOÜ Bird of the year / Tawny owl project, or one more nest camera?

Yes, it is tawny owl.

It looks like camera is in artifical nest (some tree trunk is hollowed, the infrared camera is fixed to removable lid)

Raven Haven, a home for rescued ravens in UK.

http://www.ravenhaven.co.uk/index.php

I am in the middle of reading Tarquin's story, at Raven Haven - laughing and crying!

Now that snow makes it possible to see these foot (paw) prints, is this the UK Yeti?

We know that some kind of big cat exists in the wild here, but "experts" always deny it, in spite of eye witness and photographic evidence- which makes us wonder about the quality of their expertise!

http://tinyurl.com/b9gxvh

Can anyone say what kind of animal makes these tracks?

It looks like canine paw for me. Cats have claws hidden when walking, and their pawprints are of more round shape..

I have to agree, Arvi. Good observation.

Big dog!

¨

Hound of Baskerville, perhaps?

i agree with you Arvi;
besides - paw (also foot)prints are getting much bigger when snow is melting. I mean for few hours after ,making' the prints even German Sheperd's pawprints look really big if temperature is on plus side.
And with gigant breeds one can easily think that it was Yeti who made the track:)

about sizes of pawprints in snow.
i measured today pawprint of Great Dane.
-print ca 1,5 hrs 'old', temp.+2,8*C
and guess what! it was 14,5 cm long.

I have a crofter friend up on South Uist (Hebrides). She has been rearing chick - two hatched yesterday. She says the smallest one nearly didn't get out of the egg (I expect she helped it!)

Wonderful picture, Jo - the "faces" of those chicks...

And Yarko & Arvi, about pawprints in snow - the puzzling thing is that they grow larger, but still stay clear, for quite a while. Badger prints in late winter sometimes managed to become almost miniature bear paws.

Any news of Mina the flying squirrel - anybody with useful contacts around?

I shall cheer for the small chick (can't call it underdog)