Talk about

[maertha]

White-tailed Eagle Webcams 2014

• Estonia http://www.looduskalender.ee/node/18348
• Denmark http://pandion.dof.dk/webtv
• Hungary http://www.hnp.hu/retisas.php
• Latvia http://pontu.eenet.ee/player/juras-erglis1.html
• Netherlands http://www.volgdezeearend.nl/
• Sweden http://www.webbkameror.se/djurkameror/s ... ex_eng.php
• Poland http://www.olsztyn.lasy.gov.pl/aktualno ... cin-online

[macdoum]

Posted in The Irish Mirror newspaper;

http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-ne ... ad-3210350

I am ashamed of my fellow countrymen.

[maertha]

I read the news, macdoum … very, very sad.

[maertha]

♀ International Women´s Day

Jane Goodall has “inspired a generation of female scientists all around the world to work not just in chimpanzee behavior but more broadly in conservation.”

[maertha]

So long, and thanks for the fish <")))><

Read more: independent.co.uk, 6 March 2014 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 73171.html

[maertha]

The White-tailed Eagle nest webcam in the Roggebotzand is online since today.
Visiors of the website Volg de Zeearend can follow the family life of a WtE breeding pair in the Netherlands now.
http://www.volgdezeearend.nl/

Richard Conniff suggests 13 other smart and fun ways to enjoy wildlife
http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/12 ... dlife-2014

[maertha]

Ireland's white-tailed eagles: From egg to X-ray ...

Photos by Nigel Beers-Smith, RTÉ News http://www.rte.ie/news/galleries/2014/0 ... 585-eagle/
Click here to learn more about the young bird which was, according to WtE project leader Dr. Allan Mee, "the hope for the future of the species in Ireland."

[maertha]

Good news from Hungary: A “camera eagle chick” hatched on 13 March 2014

White-tailed Eagle nest webcam, Hortobágy National Park: http://www.hnp.hu/retisas.php

[maertha]

Question of the week: Where do camels belong?

The heated debate about sea eagles in the UK is going on. Alasdair Fletcher, editor of the Scottish Farmer, called them recently ‘alien birds’, and obviously also people in Ireland disagree with the comeback of the raptors. The situation is similar in other countries. Are reintroduced eagles invaders? What are 'native', what are 'invasive' species – and do we, the ultimate invasive species, need to fear invaders?

The British biologist Ken Thompson has some answers in his new book: Where do camels belong? The story and science of invasive species.
Review by Brian Clegg

[maertha]

The Estonian nest, built by Linda and Sulev, is uninhabited this year, but perhaps the eagles in Latvia will start a family in front of the camera. Click here to read more.


By maertha

Edit: Today around noon the Latvian pair was quite busy.

[maertha]

By maertha/Latvian WTE Cam

Currently available White-tailed Eagle nest cameras:

• Denmark http://pandion.dof.dk/webtv
• Germany http://www.oessm.org/blog/?page_id=6409
• Latvia http://pontu.eenet.ee/player/juras-erglis1.html See also: http://dabasdati.lv/lv/cat/443/
• UK/Isle of Mull
  • Mull Eagle Watch (website of the Forestry Commission Scotland) http://scotland.forestry.gov.uk/visit/m ... agle-watch
    Carnyx Wild (website of the television company) http://www.carnyx.tv/CarnyxWild/Wildlif ... /Mull.aspx

• Edit:
• The chicks in the Hungarian nest disappeared during the night (online 27 January-27 March). The Polish "camera eagles" decided to skip this breeding season, and the pair from the Netherlands abandoned the nest after a heavy rain and an encounter with a marten at the end of April.
• Latvia, information from 21 May 2014: Again technical/transmission problems due to heavy rains. According to Latvijas Dabas fonds, the problem can perhaps be solved in early June.
• The Lativian nest is online again since 8 June.
• 10 June 2014: New eagle web cam goes online on the Isle of Mull

[maertha]

A new book about raptors, this time on the White-tailed Eagles of Scotland and the consequences of the local reintroduction project: The Eagle's Way by Jim Crumley. On his publisher´s website you can find an interview with the author. Here´s a taster:

What do you say to the critics of rewilding – that dangerous predators would put livestock and even humans at risk?

JC: I would say firstly that the most dangerous predator on the face of the earth is the one we see in the mirror.
Secondly, the danger to livestock is minimal and grossly overstated by many land owners, farmers and land managers.
Click here to read more questions and answers.

[maertha]

Another White-tailed Eagle nest (Germany, Lake Steinhude)

http://www.oessm.org/blog/?page_id=6409
rtsp://streams.oessm.org:1935/AXIS_Q1755/Cam214.stream
rtsp://streams.oessm.org:1935/AXIS_Q1755/Cam214M.stream

Service provided by Steinhuder Meer Ecological Conservation Center, the Hannover Regionand the Federal State of Lower Saxony

[maertha]

April 22 is Earth Day

The official theme of Earth Day 2014 is Green Cities.

Published by earthdaynetwork 20.12.2013

[maertha]

Currently available in the ARTE Mediathek: A beautiful film about the Baltic Sea coast (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania).
http://www.arte.tv/guide/fr/043006-004/ ... a-baltique

[maertha]

“Sorry to disappoint you, but lemmings do not commit mass suicide and eagles do not snatch toddlers.”
Click here to read the complete article "Killer bears and lemming suicide: Busting myths on Alaska animals" by Riley Woodford, Alaska Department of Fish and Game

[maertha]

“Current technology and human anatomy may prevent you from soaring like a bird in real life, but a team at the Zurich University of the Arts may just have the next best thing.”

Article in English/info in German/article in Dutch

[maertha]

10-11 May 2014: World Migratory Bird Day

“World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) was initiated in 2006 and is an annual awareness-raising campaign highlighting the need for the protection of migratory birds and their habitats.” Click here to read more.


Published by World Migratory Bird Day AEWA, 9 May 2014

[maertha]

White-tailed Eagle pair in the Roggebotzand (Netherlands) left the “camera nest”

The transmission stopped after a downpour on 24 April. Two days later the egg, laid on 29 March, was abandoned. Ornithologists observed on 27 April a marten at the nest, which was chased away by the eagles. According to Staatsbosbeheer, both, the heavy rain or the marten, could have caused the failed breeding attempt. Source: Volg de Zeearend

Here the video summary of the season 2014 in the Netherlands, published on 7 May by Staatsbosbeheer.

[ame]

maertha has already found the news about an adult WTE and an eaglet being found dead in Evijärvi, Western Finland, near Quarken (the narrowest part of Gulf of Bothnia). Urmas Sellis had seen a news article of this sad case in the morning's newspaper Iltasanomat and sent the link to me:
http://www.iltasanomat.fi/kotimaa/art-1 ... recommends

i write below the main points of the contents of the article. i also wrote some of my own comments in parenthesis in grey (like this).
-----------------------
the article says that the male was found dead under the nest tree and one eaglet (only i guess; they don't say it explicitly) was found dead in the nest. there was also a lot of fish in the nest but the chick had starved to death. the nest was situated in Evijärvi which is a township in inland Bothnia near Quarken which is the narrowest part of Gulf of Bothnia.
(in Evijärvi there is a relatively large lake called Evijärvi so i guess that the nest is somewhere there. in Finland WTEs have begun new nestings in territories in inland, too. this nest may be in a new site in a district where people have killed all eagles for more than a century as harmful animals even though eagles have been protected for decades already. - all this is my speculation though.)

the chairman of the Finnish Nature protectetion organization Risto Sulkava is interviewed in the article. he says that WTEs have strict division of duties in the care of chicks: males catsh and bring food and only females cut food for hicks. therefore he thinks that it is obvious that the female is dead, too, altough she or her carcass has not been found. Sulkava thinks that the female has been killed first because she hasn't been at the nest cutting food which the male has still been bringing to the nest.
(we have seen that the roles in caring for eaglets is not so simple and straightforward, at least not in all WTE families. last year Sulev was taking care of Illimar and feeding him about as much as Linda. he was also taking care of hunting almost single-handedly.)

Risto Sulkava says that the reason for death of the male is not known yet and the carcass has been sent for examination.
(so obviously the male hasn't been shot; that could probably be seen with naked eye on the eagle.)
there may be natural causes for the death of the male, like parasites. they may be found within about a week, but Sulkava thinks that in this case natural causes are unlikely. if it is question of poisoning the investigation will take longer.
----------------------------------
this is the contents of the sad news today.