Estonian white-tailed sea eagle nest camera 2018

[ame]

Estonian white-tailed sea eagle nest camera 2018

i started to construct this topic for the new season in hope that Renno, Urmas and their co-workers will find out where Anna and Uku are planning to build their nest for the next season, and that they will manage to install a camera on this future nest.
On Jan 28 Urmas gave us some update of the situation, but this information brought up more alternatives rather than fixed anything.
http://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/view ... 39#p562139.
Now it seems that they have found a suitable place for a nest camera. So far (Feb 5) we have not received any information where this nest is. Hopefully Urmas will be able to give us more information.

Welcome to the Estonian white-tailed sea-eagle 2018 topic!

Here we shall (hopefully) follow the nest life of a pair of white-tailed sea-eagles (Haliaeetus albicilla, WTE's for short). In the first posts you will find some information about the nest, its location and surroundings, and its inhabitants. Also some other relevant information on for example the camera system will be given. Some posts are reserved for further information.
After that the topic will be freely open for all us eagle friends.

Camera links

- the link in EeNet:
http://www.eenet.ee/EENet/merikotkas
- direct stream:
http://tv.eenet.ee/merikotkas.html
http://pontu.eenet.ee/player/merikotkas.html (JWPlayer)
- VLC player, Potplayer and Android:
rtmp://193.40.133.138/live/merikotkas

iPad and iPhones:
http://tv.eenet.ee/hls/merikotkas.m3u8

Youtube stream started on April 9. Streaming now (Apr 22) in:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhMfZcNsc-w

Update Nov 24:
The stream is running occasionally.
Youtube address may sometimes change. Search for the channel of Urmas Lett, and you will find all Estonian nest cameras which are streaming on the Youtube.

Please let us know if some of these links don't work.

Pontu archive

The address of the Pontu archive starting from Feb 14 2018:
http://193.40.124.24/2018-merikotkas/
In the archive only videos are saved, not still pictures anymore.

For information about how Pontu archive works and what can be found there please read here:
http://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/view ... 00#p433900
In these instructions Juras-Erglis should be replaced with the word Merikotkas. Otherwise the instructions should be similar. Please let us know if it is not so.

We shall update more information later. If you see that something is not working like as explained here please let me know about it and i'll try to find solutions.

[ame]

Urmas Sellis reasoned that it is rather probable that the male owner is Sulev, the same male whose life we have followed in years 2009-2010 and in 2013. The territory is Sulev's and the tail spots look similar to the ones on old Sulev's tail. It is unlikely that another male with so similar tails spots would have replaced Sulev.
http://www.looduskalender.ee/n/en/node/2206

It was therefore decided to call the male at this nest Sulev. Sulev is a character in the Estonian national epic poetry Kalevipoeg.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalevipoeg#Characters

Then the members voted for a name for the female. The majority of votes were given to the name Suvi, meaning summer in Estonian.

So the parents on this nest are Suvi (♀) and Sulev (♂).

[ame]

Important events at the nest

The list of important events will be updated in this post during the season.


18.3. The first egg was laid 16:25.
viewtopic.php?p=568643#p568643
Expected hatching date 24.4. (38 days later)

21.3. The second egg was laid at 17:21.
viewtopic.php?p=569564#p569564
Expected hatching date 27.4. (38 days later)

5.4. One of the eggs was seen broken in the morning.
viewtopic.php?p=572562#p572562
We have no idea if it was the first or the second egg.

23.4. A pip on the egg was seen and loud egg talk was heard from about noon.
viewtopic.php?p=578031#p578031

24.4. The chick hatched at about 7:25.
viewtopic.php?p=578275#p578275

7.6. The eaglet was ringed in the evening at about 19:30. The invidual code on the all-black left ring is E372, and the code on the Estonian blue-over-white right ring is M1248.[/b]
https://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/vie ... 90#p592590
The male Sulev returned to the nest on the next day at 12:54.
https://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/vie ... 77#p592877

17.6. The eaglet was named Sulvi after a vote among the forum members.
https://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/pos ... 8&p=596130

6.7. Sulvi flew out of the nest at 15:59 at the age of 74 days.
https://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/vie ... 30#p601830

[ame]

reserved

[ame]

Nest location

Originally the camera was attached to a tree where Renno Nellis found a WTE nest in 2015, and the nest was not much older than that. In 2015 no eaglets grew up here, and thus installing the camera was a bit of a risk, wrote Urmas Sellis in his introduction to the nest in the Merikotkas-news in the beginning of season 2016. He continued: "Quite many different birds visited the nest in the first half of February, among them an adult bird that seems to be the owner of the nest. We saw a white-tailed eagle in the nest for the first time on January 28th; however, we were not able to watch earlier either."

In season 2016 the young eagle parents Anna and Uku raised 3 eaglets on the nest. The strain of three big eaglets stomping on the nest was too much for it: the nest gradually disintegrated in June 2016 when the eaglets were almost ready to fledge. Only two or three sticks remained on the tree.

The camera was non-operational during the Autumn but re-opened on Dec 10th 2016 for test runs. Then it was seen that the eagles had not started to rebuild the nest. Eagle's calls were heard a few times from rather large distances. On Jan 7th 2017 Urmas Sellis and Renno Nellis fetched the camera from the tree for maintenance. They also built a platform on the tree for a new nest.

The present nest

On Jan 21 2018 Urmas Sellis with his team installed the camera at a natural nest in the tree together with a renewed camera. At the same time the nest was fortified with some bigger branches to support it more securely. The original nest tree of Linda and Sulev (2009 and 2010) can be seen from the present nest. It was located in West Estonia in the Saunja bay region. We have previously watched Linda and Sulev's lives in three seasons (see forum).
Transmission from the nest began at about 3 pm on Jan 21 2018.

The Silma nature reserve (Silma looduskaitseala in Estonian) is located in this region. The very first nest of Linda and Sulev was in Silma NR. About the present nest we have no absolute information so far, but it may be in the nature reserve. Haapsalu is closest big city. The Google map of the region can be found here:
https://www.google.fi/maps/place/Silma+ ... 4Q_BIIfDAK



Map of Western Estonia. Nature Reserves are marked green. In the top right is a piece of Leidissoo Nature Reserve.

More exact information of the location is not given due to safety reasons. If you get a more precise idea of where the nest is located from some things that you either see or hear over the camera please don't discuss or share your information anywhere in the internet. Eagles are very sensitive birds to any human disturbance during breeding season and no nest tourism may be encouraged. - Thank you for your co-operation!

More information about Saunja bay here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silma_Nature_Reserve
Another map of the Silma Nature Reserve:
https://www.protectedplanet.net/silma-l ... re-reserve
Silma looduskaitseala in Estonian:
https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silma_looduskaitseala



View on Saunja bay from the Saunja bird watching tower.

Last updated Feb 11 2017

[ame]

The camera equipmet

THIS WILL HAVE TO BE TOTALLY UPDATED!
ooops, it seems that i haven't done it...

The camera and all other necessary equipment were installed in mid-January in 2016 by Urmas Selllis, Renno Nellis (whom we already know) and two other crew members Omar and Triin. The work took two days in very cold weather, around -15⁰C. Later Renno and Omar returned to adjust a few minor details.

The camera system is equipped with a light-sensitive switch which turns off all power-consuming devices in the evenings and back on in the mornings as light returns. This saves energy significantly and there will be no need to change batteries during the season. Such a trip might disturb the nest life of the eagles. The batteries are charged by solar panels which were mounted in a tree. Solar panels work well when they are not covered by snow and the sun shines. Later in summer days will be longer and it is expected that camera image can be transmitted all day and night.

In last year's topic there is a more detailed description with pictures of the installation:
http://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/view ... 66#p438766
For more details about the camera system please read the description by Urmas Sellis. This description is also the source for most of the information here.
http://www.looduskalender.ee/en/node/26484

[ame]

Previously on Anna and Uku

Season 2016

In 2016 we were privileged to watch three eaglets growing up in Anna's and Uku's nest. The female Anna wore Estonian ring blue-over-white ring on her right leg. The colours on the left ring were black over blue with individual code B450 on the left leg. The colour combination of the left ring together with the letter B indicate that she was ringed in 2009 (as a chick). The male Uku had no rings. Their eaglets were ringed on May 26 and given names Nord (E332), Rahu (E331) and Taibu (E333).

Three growing eaglets making increasingly vigorous wing exercises were too much strain for the nest: it disintegrated gradually in the latter half of June 2016. Eaglets were not harmed because they were big enough to stay on the surrounding branches and continue their exercises. Finally there were only a few branches left of the nest.

A more detailed description of the family in 2016 with pictures is given in the beginning of the 2016 topic:
http://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/view ... 62#p438762

Season 2017

In the onset of camera transmission tests on Dec 10 2016 only the same few branches were still remaining of the nest. The eagle parents hadn't begun to rebuild it for the coming season in the same place. Urmas Sellis and Renno Nellis made a trip to the nest site on Jan 7 2017 to see what the situation was. They found no evidence of eagles at or near the nest site. They built a platform in the tree for a base of a new nest in hope that the eagles would return. They also took the camera with them for maintenance service.

The camera was re-installed at the nest on Jan 21 2017 and the season really got started.
http://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/view ... 41#p508141
To our disappointment it turned out that Anna and Uku had decided not to use the artificial nest platform built by Urmas and Renno as the basis for their nest. However, we could see every now and then an eagle carrying sticks to the right side of the view.

The camera started to work unreliably and the connection was lost for good on 31.3. (March 3).
http://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/view ... 12#p518212

On June 6 2016 Renno found Anna's and Uku's new nest almost by accident. It was near the old nest site in a place were there had been nothing in winter when he visited the place previously. Renno also saw that there were two eaglets in the new nest. Naturally it was not possible to set up a camera at the new nest anymore.
http://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/view ... 42#p534142

[ame]

Other information

Weather in Saunja

Silma Nature reserve in Saunja bay is near the nest site.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silma_Nature_Reserve
One can search for weather information for using Haapsalu, too, since it is the closest larger city near Saunja bay.
- Note that in Estonia there are two villages called Saunja. 'Our' Saunja is in Western Estonia in Lääne county.

Here are some websites where one can see the weather forecast for Saunja.
https://www.yr.no/place/Estonia/L%C3%A4 ... aa/Saunja/
https://www.accuweather.com/en/ee/saunj ... ast/129206


Sky in Saunja

This is a nice site where you can create the sky map for any location on any time.
http://www.fourmilab.ch/yoursky/
Here the co-ordinates of Silma Nature reserve are applied to create a horizontal view:
http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/Yourhor ... &elements=
The above link creates a horizontal view looking to North. Under the map there are 'swiches' with which you can change the viewing direction, or change to sky map. There you also change the time from 'Now' to to a certain date and time. Note, that in the latter case the program requires the UTC time which is 2 hours less than local time in Estonia in winter time and in summer time 3 hours less.

[ame]

Fingers crossed for a season 2018

[ame]

we have started the new topic for this year.
welcome and enjoy!

the scenery looks almost the same as before, but this can't be the same.
the base seems to be artificial but it seems that there is perhaps also some new material on top of it, brought by eagles. not as much as in the Latvian nest though.

[Jo UK]

ame, thank you for this excellent introduction. I do hope we can see WTEs nesting, this year.

[ame]

i just read what we have so far and it is not much. i realized that we know practically nothing yet about the nest and the whereabouts and the expected inhabitants. the majority of the information above is outdated, about the old nest(s).

hopefully Urmas will soon give us more information. maybe this evening after they get home.

[Triin]

A couple of familiar faces from somewhere...

[Triin]

the scenery looks almost the same as before, but this can't be the same.
the base seems to be artificial but it seems that there is perhaps also some new material on top of it, brought by eagles. not as much as in the Latvian nest though.

This is not an artificial nest, but Urmas added some supporting branches under the nest.

[laranjeiras]

happiness and joy
thank you!

[ame]

thank you Triin for the pictures and information!

at the moment the stream is off. i hope it will be only temporary.

[Janne+Ais]

we have started the new topic for this year.

Thank you for the hint in the 2017 topic!

[Liz01]

Ame, thank you for opening this topic

Triin, thank you for the nice pictures from our eagle man in the tree

[Liz01]

14:36 The cam is online again

[ame]

the stream is back on (i don't know how long the break was).

Urmas sent me some mail about 55 min ago. he wrote some things that Triin already told us but something new as well. here's a quote of part of his mail. i have 'bolded' the part which i think is important and promising.

Will send you some preliminary information, but official introduction we prepare a bit later - first it is better to check, if nest will be occupied and who are birds there. I hope forum people stand that suspension of information!

During the weekend we were together with Renno, Omar and Triin to install the cam. ...
We did not see adult WtEs during our work there, in Saturday it was snowing and visibility was quite short, but yesterday weather was almost clear.

Nest is natural one, but I fixed couple of branches on the nest rim to avoid falling down of the nest material (the curved one in front of nest for example. There is visible, that at least one nest has been fallen down before and quite bunch of fresh branches also under the nest tree. I was first who climbed to that nest this weekend.

So lets wait for eagles. Saturday morning before snow fall it was possible to see that nest has been visited before that. Small feathers on twigs and snow tramped in the nest bottom, also fresh green twigs in the nest. During two days we show only one immature individual flying over. In the reeds there are several (probably four) Rallus aquaticus wintering in open water places (natural quells there in mire). They are probably to hear from audio of this cam.

the colours in the camera changed to darker a while ago. i think that they are still there maikng some adjustments.
edit: maybe the colours changed to darker because a cloud covered the Sun?