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A White-tailed Eagle Database Project

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maertha
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Re: Talk about

Post by maertha »

The above mentioned Facebook message contains useful advice not only for the Irish but for everybody who is interested in White-tailed Eagles and nature conservation. So here is the full text, republished with kind permission of the Golden Eagle Trust.

Code of practice for kayakers, canoeists and waterway users in White-tailed Sea Eagle breeding areas

The Golden Eagle Trust is the Charity which has managed the reintroduction of the White Tailed Sea Eagle to Ireland in partnership with the National Parks & Wildlife Service. Reintroduced eagles are now establishing nest sites on Ireland’s coasts and inland lakes. The Golden Eagle Trust is appealing to kayakers and other waterways users not to disturb eagle nest sites during this hugely important phase of the project.



The eagle nesting season runs from nest building in February to chicks leaving the nest in July or August. Eagles are highly prone to disturbance and encroaching on nesting areas may result in nest abandonment or failure. Eggs and small chicks are vulnerable to chilling or predation by crows when parents are disturbed at the nest. Eagles are protected by law and it is an offence under the Wildlife Acts to disturb eagles at or near nests. The White Tailed Sea Eagle Project needs everyone’s help in ensuring the success of the 2015 breeding season.

  • We are asking kayakers, canoeists and waterways users to adhere to the following guidelines:
  • Please stay at least 200m away from nest sites and perched eagles.
  • If you suspect eagles are nesting nearby please do not attempt to find the nest. If you withdraw and keep your distance you may be lucky enough to see an adult on the wing!
  • If you unintentionally come upon a nest area please withdraw immediately, do not land near to or approach the nest.
  • Please do not attempt to photograph a nest, this can only be done under license from the NPWS.
  • Please keep nest sites confidential. If you are informed of a nest please remind others that disturbing nest sites is an offence and eagles are prone to disturbance.
  • If you happen to see eagles when out on the water do report sightings to the project manager at: allanmee@goldeneagle.ie. All GET released birds have coloured wing tags on both wings detailing the year they were released and a letter or number identifying the individual. Sightings from the public are invaluable for monitoring the eagle population. Pleas help keep Ireland´s eagles and their chicks safe this summer.


The Golden Eagle Trust has given the general permission to print, share and distribute this text
maertha
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Post by maertha »

Scottish farmers claim rise in sea eagle numbers threatens their stock
  • Image
    By James Audubon, 1899. Public domain
But there are always two sides to every story. According to Mark Avery, “White-tailed Eagles put far more turkey on crofters’ tables this Christmas than they remove, and the value of the eagles is spread through the Scottish economy too.” Read more: http://markavery.info/2014/12/23/sea-ea ... mas-table/
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Post by maertha »

Danish Eagle-TV: Second breeding attempt?

The camera is currently not available due to some technical issues, but Dansk Ornitologisk Forening (DOF) is trying to solve the problem. According to a new DOF Facebook message, the birds were observed near the nest last Sunday. So there is still hope for another TV nest season. The first clutch of two eggs was destroyed by a marten on March 20th, see video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... Y8k4&gl=US.
Live cam and information in Danish http://pandion.dof.dk/webtv

Edit, 15 April: The camera is online again. Looks promising ...

Image
Screenshot: maertha/ http://pandion.dof.dk/webtv
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Post by maertha »

Latvia: The miracle of life – it´s an eagle!

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Post by maertha »

Danish Eagle-TV: To be, or not to be - that is the question
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Post by maertha »

Second breeding attempt in Denmark confirmed: A new egg in the nest today. Congratulations!
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Post by maertha »

Ireland: Poisoned White-tailed Eagle found dead in nest in Connemara

According to The Golden Eagle trust, the six year old female eagle, which was discovered dead in the nest on 1st April, was within a few days of laying eggs. This is the 13th confirmed poisoning of a White-tailed Eagle in Ireland since the start of the reintroduction project in 2007, and the death of the adult bird is a serious setback.
Read more http://www.goldeneagletrust.org/index.p ... Itemid=132
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Post by maertha »

Some details on second clutches of the Bald Eagle, which is closely related to the White-tailed Eagle:

Eggs from bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) nests were removed for conservation purposes in Florida “from 1985 through 1988 to determine if pairs would lay again and to evaluate how egg removal affected subsequent productivity. Of 58 pairs that had first clutches removed, 45 (78%) laid a second clutch within an average of 29.4 days.” (Wood P.B. & Collopy M.W. (1993) Effects of Egg Removal on Bald Eagle Productivity in Northern Florida. The Journal of Wildlife Management, 57, 1-9)

For comparison: The first clutch of the Danish "TV eagles" was destroyed on March 20th, a new egg was laid today, April 17th. Edit: Egg #2: April 20th

Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) egg
Image
Coll. Museum Wiesbaden, by Klaus Rassinger and Gerhard Cammerer, Museum Wiesbaden (Eigenes Werk)
[CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0), via Wikimedia Commons


White-tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) egg
Image
Coll. Museum Wiesbaden, by Klaus Rassinger and Gerhard Cammerer, Museum Wiesbaden (Eigenes Werk)
[CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0), via Wikimedia Commons


The above mentioned study is free available via Google, search term: “PDF Effects of Egg Removal on Bald Eagle Productivity in Northern Florida”
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Post by maertha »

Mallards are venturesome birds …. Do you remember Maisy´s breeding attempt in the Estonian White-tailed Eagle nest? Read more: http://www.looduskalender.ee/en/node/10121
The outcome was not a happy one for her. http://www.looduskalender.ee/en/node/10124 Now another brave duck tries her luck in a similar luxury home in Hungary. The previous tenant was an Imperial Eagle (Aquila heliaca).
  • Image
    Eastern Imperial Eagle (Aquila heliacal). Naumann, Natural history of the birds of central Europe, 3rd Ed. Public domain
Webcams (eagle feeding ground and nest) here: http://imperialeagle.hu/content/webcam
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Post by maertha »

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Post by maertha »

Netherlands: Eagle triplets born in de Biesbosch

The arrival of three chicks in one nest was confirmed today. White-tailed Eagles have bred successfully in the West European country on the North Sea since 2006. Triplets were observed as yet only once. Photo and article in Dutch here http://www.hetkompassliedrecht.nl/lokaa ... 12792.html
National Park De Biesbosch: Scroll down the page to find a brochure in English http://www.np-debiesbosch.nl/documents/home.xml?lang=nl
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Post by maertha »

Germany: White-tailed Eagles exposed to unregulated wildlife tourism

Last Saturday the location of a new breeding site in Lower Saxony was revealed by the local nature conservation authorities in the hope to prevent any disturbance to the rare birds during the critical periods of incubation and rearing. But the public announcement turned out to have the opposite effect: The place became a hot spot for “eagle tourists”. A newspaper article, which reported that two trails had been closed for unspecified nature conservation reasons, had caused much speculation in the region since February. Both trails were highly frequented by hikers, horse riders and mountain bike riders. Such activities close to an active nest can cause White-tailed Eagles to abandon eggs or chicks.
Responsible wildlife watching:
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Post by maertha »

Earth Day celebrates 45th anniversary today Image

Rapper and activist Richard Williams aka Prince Ea wrote an interesting letter to future generations.

Published by Prince Ea, 20 April 2015
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Post by maertha »

Denmark: Good news, bad news
  • A second egg is in the “TV-nest” since April 20th, so tomorrow we´ll see if the repeat clutch will contain two or three eggs. As reported, the first clutch was lost in March. Webcam http://pandion.dof.dk/webtv
  • Another White-tailed Eagle died from suspected poisoning: The adult male bird was found on a field on Monday. He exhibited signs of poisoning and was brought to a vet but died shortly after arrival. The dead animal was sent to the National Veterinary Institute for examination. Facebook, Dansk Ornitologisk Forening (DOF), 22 April 2015 https://da-dk.facebook.com/birdlifedk Thanks for the news to forumist b.h-p
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Post by maertha »

Replacement clutches in eagles – some notes and sources

Speaking to the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung newspaper, a German raptor expert for the Middle Elbe Biosphere Reserve said recently that a replacement clutch, common in other bird species, doesn´t occur among eagles.

If he has been quoted correctly, the statement is obviously not accurate. The Danish TV-nest example shows that the Scandinavian White-tailed Eagle pair replaced the lost clutch in almost the same time as the Bald Eagles in Northern Florida in the here already mentioned study: “Of 58 pairs that had first clutches removed, 45 (78%) laid a second clutch within an average of 29.4 days” (Wood P.B. & Collopy M.W. 1993).

According to the Hornby Eagle Group Projects Society, southern Bald Eagle females “attempt second clutches if the first eggs are lost in the early stage of incubation. Females that breed further north have a smaller window of opportunity and appear to attempt second clutches rarely.” Edit: In 2016, "because of unusually severe weather during January and February (...), several pairs of Florida's eagles have produced second broods." See also: “The Laying of Replacement Clutches by Falconiforms and Strigiforms in North America” by Michael L. Morrison and Brian James Walton, PDF available via Google.

Some sources report successful replacement clutches for European Bonelli´s Eagles (2009), Booted Eagles (Ignacio S. Garcia Dios, Spain 2001), the Eastern Imperial Eagle (Horal, Czech Republic 2011: “In one case (2006), a fully adult pair laid the eggs as late as the end of April or the beginning of May. This was highly probably a replacement clutch”) and the Black Eagle. In the latter case the observation was possible via webcam ("Black Eagle Beats The Odds As Eaglet Hatches From Second Clutch of Eggs", Africam.com 2013). According to Dixon (1937), replacement clutches of the Golden Eagle “were produced in California some 28 days after the first” (in: The Golden Eagle, Jeff Watson).
  • Image
    Sea Eagle's Nest. Bruno Liljefors 1907, public domain
Ian Newton (Population Ecology of Raptors) states that replacement laying is rare among eagles. In the same book the re-nesting interval for White-tailed Eagles is specified as “19 and 29 days” (his source is Fentzloff, C. Erfolgreiche Zucht und Adoption von Seeadlern (Haliaeetus albicilla). Deutscher Falkenorden 1975:28–40).

According to John A. Love, sea eagles “in captivity have been known to lay a second, replacement clutch if the first is destroyed or removed. The time needed to achieve this is about three weeks, and it usually only takes place if the clutch has been lost at an early stage” (Eagles, John A. Love 1989).
  • Wood P.B. & Collopy M.W. (1993) Effects of Egg Removal on Bald Eagle Productivity in Northern Florida. The Journal of Wildlife Management, 57, 1-9
  • Garcia Dios, Ignacio S. (2001) Probable replacement clutches by Booted Eagles (Hieraaetus pennatus) in the Tietar River Valley of central Spain. Raptor Res. 35 (4) 75
  • David Horal, Eastern Imperial Eagle (Aquila heliaca) in the Czech Republic. Acta zool. bulg., Suppl. 3, 2011: 55-59. (See also: “In two cases, a replacement clutch was laid as late as in the end of April/beginning of May.” David Horal, Imperial Eagle in the Czech Republic. VII. International Conference on the Conservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle 2- 5 October 2013, Bratislava, Slovakia. Book of Abstracts)
Image About the Danish eagles

As reported, both eggs of the first clutch in the Danish nest were destroyed by a marten in the early morning of March 20th (05:17) in 2015. The eggs of clutch A were laid egg #1 February 27th (assumption, not confirmed yet), egg #2 March 2nd. Clutch B: Egg #1 April 17th (about 12:30) and #2 April 20th (about 10:15). A video documentation is available, see below. In the early evening of April 23rd there are still two eggs in the nest, so the replacement clutch is probably complete. Edit: Chick #1 hatched in the morning of May 23rd; #2 arrived on May 26th. Both (one male, one female) were ringed on 20 July. Data: Weight: female 5150 g, male 3780 g; length of wing: female 474 mm, male 398 mm; length of tail: female 253 mm, male 175 mm; length of beak, female 64,05 mm, male 58,63 mm (information by Dansk Ornitologisk Forening via Facebook/data translation by forum member b.h-p). The young birds left the nest around August 20th.

The White-tailed Eagle became extinct in Denmark and around the Baltic Sea in the early to mid-20th century. The large raptor disappeared due to persecution in many European regions at that time; in the UK and Ireland even earlier. During the 1950s and 60s the use of DDT and other pesticides in agriculture decimated the remaining WtE population. A first sea eagle pair came back to Denmark in 1995, and since 1996 the White-tailed Eagle is again a breeding species in the country.

In the record year 2014 the Eagle Project within the Danish Ornithological Society (Dansk Ornitologisk Forening/DOF) registered 61 occupied breeding territories. 46 of these pairs raised a total of 83 young (14x1/27x2/5x3). For detailed information (tables, maps, charts) on the current status of the population of the White-tailed Eagle in DK see: DOF publication list 2015, Pedersen, L., E. Ehmsen & I. H. Sørensen (2014), 2015: Projekt Ørn 2014 – årsrapport. PDF available, click here.

2015 is the third Danish eagle-webcam season. The nest is located on Lolland, the fourth largest island of Denmark.
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Post by maertha »

Video documentation: Loss of the first clutch and laying of a replacement clutch in a White-tailed Eagle nest in Denmark, March/April 2015

20 March: Marten destroys clutch A


17 April: Clutch B, egg #1


20 April: Clutch B, egg #2, both parents in the nest

Videos published by DOFBirdLife

8 May, update: Everything is fine


20 May: The webcam was offline due to technical issues until today. Both eggs are still in the nest.
23 May: Chick #1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZBJMUv ... e=youtu.be
26 May: Chick #2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Utxpdz-EP5c#t=20
28 May: Garfish and coot for the chicks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqKVdcP ... e=youtu.be
1 June: Chick #2 injured by female parent bird https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCWQ4V9 ... re=youtu.b
21 July: The chicks (one male, one female) were ringed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHxOyycFny8

Source and webcam: Dansk Ornitologisk Forening (DOF) http://pandion.dof.dk/webtv
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Post by maertha »

Latvia: White-tailed Eagle loots Black Stork nest

Article in Latvian: delfi.lv, 24 April 2015 http://www.delfi.lv/mansdraugs/zveru-dz ... rka-ligzdu
Video by forumist blorian. For detailed observations in English, more videos and screenshots click here and scroll down the page.

Published by Blorian Yang, 24 April 2015

A similar scene was captured in May 2011 in Estonia. Video by forumist fireblade1. Read more: http://www.looduskalender.ee/en/node/10124

Published by Mattes2412, 4 May 2011

See also: White-tailed eagle drove off young black storks from the nest, August 2013 http://www.looduskalender.ee/de/node/17484
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Post by maertha »

Image Walpurgis Night, Mayday and the Celtic festival of Bealtaine

Don´t forget to wash your face with dew tomorrow morning. :rolleyes:

The fair maid who, the first of May,
Goes to the fields at break of day
And washes in dew from the hawthorn tree,
Will ever after handsome be.
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Post by maertha »

I would like to recommend two beautifully illustrated texts about eagles and black storks.

The first one is a 48-page booklet (© Scottish Natural Heritage 2010) which contains plenty of information on the White-tailed Eagle in general and the Scottish reintroduction project in particular, written by John A. Love, a manager of the local eagle project in the 1970s and 80s. I introduced his books`The Return of the Sea Eagle´ and ´A Saga of Sea Eagles’ here a while ago. Booklet available as a free PDF download at Scottish Natural Heritage. Click here http://www.snh.gov.uk/publications-data ... l/?id=1525
The second one is a 16-page brochure about eagles and black storks in Estonia (© Kotkaklubi 2009), printed with the support of the LIFE-Nature project and also available as free PDF document. Text: Fred Jüssi, Tiit Randla, Urmas Sellis, Ülo Väli. You can find it at Kotkaklubi (Estonian Eagle Club)/Documents/Other Documente/Eagles and Black Stork in Estonia http://www.kotkas.ee/eagle-life/documents
  • Image
    Screenshot: maertha/LK WtE cam, Estonia 2013, Linda & Sulev
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Post by maertha »

Mysterious death: Danish White-tailed Eagle shot and mutilated

A dead eagle was found on March 26th underneath a stack of wood planks on the island of Lindholm near Møn - head and feet had been cut off. According to the DOF article, x-rays revealed a fractured wing bone, but the raptor did not die from this gunshot injury. What makes the case even more peculiar is that Lindholm is not open to the public and can only be visited by prior appointment. The small, state-owned island is home to a virological research institution, a branch of the National Veterinary Institute. Source: Dansk Ornitologisk Forening (DOF), Jan Skriver, 6 May 2015. Thanks for the hint to b.h-p. Photos and Video here http://www.tveast.dk/artikler/havoern-b ... forbudt-oe
  • Image
    Livestock, by Lily Stockman. Public domain
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