looduskalender.ee

One could compare these bears with what we are learning about Black Bears over in the Lily and Hope thread.
The winter dens seem to depend on the individual bear and the possibility of digging out a den in a suitable place. It seems to vary according to the bear and his willingness to dig.The oppertunity too,I suppose.
A shallow ditch,well lined and when it snows the covering of snow seems to provide adequate insulation.
We have only seen a mother bear's den,maybe chosen and dug for safety
But the experts have spoken of other choices.
One could find all the info. probably on the http://www.bear.org site.
It seems early for those bears to leave the den,esp as the snow is still so deep.
Will they find some food already ? I wonder what they eat in Estonia ?

Bear diet:
Now and in early spring in Estonia, according to article today in Eesti Päevaleht, happily clearing off carcasses of the many perished animals. They sit down and sniff the air, feel the smell (stink) from kilometres off. Later as the forests get sunnier and ants come out, a bear may lie lazing beside an anthill for hours, just putting in a paw every now and then for ants to lick off it. All sources say that they are really fond of berries, particularly bilberries (blueberries). Seem to remember a US source saying that a bear polished off 185 000 berries in one day.
I don't know if brown bears go fishing.

PS. Correction: More than 3000 bears in Sweden, it appears.

Here is more information on bears' dens. How they choose and how the differ from one bear to another.;
http://www.bear.org/website/bear-pages/ ... -dens.html

Thanks, Macdoum ! It still feels very strange to think of a bear lying like an oversnowed boulder in the forest.
Meanwhile - so Estonian hanerivi (goose row) can be Indian file in English? The boars marched past the nest in a "hanerivi" in Urmas' review of the previous nesting years of Linda and Sulev. "Gåsmarsch", goose march, in Swedish.
And on the radio they told about green woodpeckers competing with bears for ants: woodpeckers mark out anthills in their territory already in autumn and in winter may sit a meter or more literally dug into the nest gobbling ants and eggs for hours where it isn't frozen.

In A Letter of Thanks To Photographers (front page)

Photos by 1850 photographers were entered to the competition Nature Year Photo 2011. The number is unbelievable - 450 more than last year. But it does not end there. The jury, headed by Rein Maran, now begins its work of judging the photos.

The winners will be announced and Dancing Wolves will be handed out on April 24 in the Estonia Concert Hall. Till then we will also have the new Nature Photo Year Book 2011 ready.

I am wondering where one finds 'Dancing Wolves and how will they be handed out ?..
I have a sneaky feeling Google has something to do with that.

Oh no, Carmel, the statue that is handed out as a price has the name "Dancing Wolves". http://www.looduskalender.ee/en/node/9633

Oh,'scuse me then..falsely accused google. My apologies to Looduskalander.

It looks a little like a Dancing Bear ... Do wolves dance?

And about bears and bear dens - a strange story from Sweden:
Last Friday 4 schoolboys, 12-13 years, were out skiing downhill in Härjedalen (up north, very roughly around where our Tõnn spent his summer). They passed over a bear's den. Two really passed, but woke the bear up. The third boy fell into the den or possibly the bear grabbed him. He was bitten, mainly in the legs, but escaped, and all managed to get to people and help. The bear run off.
The boy is reasonbaly well, and according to today's headlines, pleads for the bear not to be shot. Environmental board people say it shouldn't be necessary, bear hasn't shown aggressive tendencies, but they are surprised it had a den so near people.
The story, in Swedish, in very respectable newspaper Svenska Dagbladet HERE

aww the poor bear got a rude awaking. !! Can't even hibernate in peace now.

Sequel to bear story:
There were / are 2 cubs in the den. Area is at the moment cordoned off, to give Ma Bear a chance to return. Opinions differ on the chances - and how long the wait can be - for the cubs. A wild animal park has offered to take care of them.
The boy who skid (hmm - skied?) into the den is getting on well, with shots of anti-biotics + -tetanus.
Note from game warden: some bears never build proper dens, just make do with branches for mattress and a tree for shelter. As your information said, Macdoum.

According to the bear cam folks in Ely, the bears there were terrified when a moose walked by in the middle of the night -- skiers skiing over the top of them would seem to be a bit more terrifying.

Brit has a post to their blog here
viewtopic.php?p=95569#p95569

One of today's front page articles is about the kestrel
http://www.looduskalender.ee/node/9823
Headline "Who treads the wind?" is not as mystifying in Estonian - its Estonian name tuuletallaja means wind treader.
There is another "treader" among Estonian birds, the "water treader", veetallaja, the phalarope.
Anyone remember the somewhat off-topic discussion on whether there really were phalaropes in the novel "Too late the phalarope" (yes, there were)?

I see on the front page an article about the Birch Tree..
http://www.looduskalender.ee/en/node/9824 and I wonder what use the sap has.
O.H got some to drink from a family member to 'Clean-out the system' ?

The use of birch sap is new to me, too. It seems to be like syrupy water, and can be used as a tonic, whatever that means!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birch_sap

O.H. drank about two litres of the stuff. I even had a glass myself. I am still alive.
It does taste like sugar-water. We aren't jumping aound like spring lambs,yet.!

Macdoum!

Liis
Thank you for the video links shown on Biodiversity Day page.. I can blame you for late nights.. ..and I have only got to
"Vaika Saared"..yet..

Glad that you liked them! Vaika islands by the way belong - almost - to the Vilsandi protection area.
(check the eagles too - Kotkad - and meet our Urmas)
And I learnt that cows like to graze reed banks (Roostikud clip) because young reed (Phragmites) shoots taste sweet. Sugar cane fields for cows ...
There would surely be an interested audience if the Environmental Board would translate the texts.

Lily-of-the-valley starts flowering in Estonia. There aren't many other flowers with that fragrance - I think I know of 2; one of them is the Actinidia kolomikta, the garden climber with the 3-coloured leaves (white, pink, green), related to kiwi, and actually also with small white slightly bell-shaped flowers.

But the other??

Wikipedia didn't give any English name for the A. kolomikta - but a Japanese ... Miyamamatatabi. Wikipedia also says that cats love it to destruction - never noticed that they do?

Orchids - from the devil or heaven? And fists or paws?
http://www.looduskalender.ee/node/10367

About the early purple orchid, Orchis mascula, the Naturegate site - http://www.luontoportti.com/suomi/en/, Finnish origin, Finnish/Nordic nature, nice pics, multilingual, English includes some tough botanics vocabulary - says
"Like its relatives, it uses deception to achieve pollination. Before the insects feeding behavior has been established they visit suitable nutrition plants looking for the most impressive flowers – e.g. orchids. Early purple orchid blooms early in spring or summer, at which time inexperienced, even newborn bees are easy to cheat."
(no nectar in the flower).

The "käpp" in kuradikäpp and jumalakäpp really means paw. But fist is probably more like the root tuber. Another quote from Naturegate : "They [the roots] have been used – and are still used in some places - in southern Europe as the basis of a drink that is claimed to increase mens’ virility"...

The "kuradi-sõrmkäpp" - literally Devil's finger fist - the spotted orchid, Dactylorhiza maculata, named at the end of the article is a very saintly "Jungfru Marie hand", Virgin Mary's hand" in Swedish. And one of the most common orchids here.