Estonian Osprey Nests Ilmar & Irma ~ DISCUSSION~ 2014

[Owlie]

... When I remember right, owners of commercial fishponds in Estonia can make application for financial compensation from the government, when they can prove, that Ospreys or White tailed Eagles are fishing regularly in their ponds. ...
I think financial compensation is also a way to avoid fishfarmers using these dangerous nets over ponds. They are life-endangering for raptors, as well as for White and Black Storks, Herons and more! ... ...

Thankyou, Bea, for the information that the migrating birds will be taken into account - as well as for that the fish farmers do get a compensation for their cooperation with the nature. It is good to know - hopefully meaning peace between fish farmers and wild nature!

[Joanna]

Many thanks, Bea, Kukelke an NancyM

All these informations are very interesting. Thank you all so much.

About the size of fishes - at one of the last days of their stay we saw Ilmar with a tremendous fish (a carp?) it had a golden belly.
So there should have been more than one place, to get fishes, not only the little ones.

Ilmar could be in Angola in some weeks , I suppose

[Owlie]

... Ilmar could be in Angola in some weeks , I suppose

http://birdmap.5dvision.ee/index.php?la ... son=Autumn#

EDIT: I have severe abstinence symptoms to cope without the nest cameras, that is why I report of the migration news

If I read correct, the female osprey Tiiu got her transmitter around 16th August somewhere nearby Ilmar's territory
(EDIT see Urmas' notice below: viewtopic.php?p=346838#p346838) and she migrated right after that.

Tiiu is now (18th September) in Tunisia. She has chosen the western route over the Mediterranean Sea.
EDIT 21st September: location Burkina Faso.
EDIT: since 28th September she has been on the Ivory Coast near the border to Ghana and seems to stay there.
EDIT: the 30th September she moves a short trip - less than 50 kms, maybe ca 30 kms - to northwest.
EDIT: the 1st October Tiiu turned around and the 2nd October returned to the location of 28th September: Agnibilékrou

EDIT: since 30th September Tiiu has flown back and forth several times quite exactly the same route from Agnibilékrou to northwest some 30 kms. I wonder if she has a nice pond with especially good fish species over there and still something nice at the start point (from 28th September) where she seems to return within two days after every tour ... Or what could be the reason for her to make that zigzag movement regularly ... ?
@ Kukelke, @URMAS - any guesses?

-----

- Ilmar's migration has been tracked on the spring 2013 to take a more straight (eastern) path over the coasts from the African region Angola-Namibia border to Estonia. He is supposed to take the same path back and forth every year.

This autumn Ilmar as well as the both chicks Aino and Elar were last seen at the camera on the nest 12th September.

viewtopic.php?p=302925#p302925

Last year, too, the youngest chick Kenno and Ilmar were seen on the nest last time before migration the 12th September:

viewtopic.php?p=217199#p217199

EDIT the 21st Sep:

I don't know how exact the data on the migration map can be read, but in the graphics Autumn 2012 I could follow Ilmar's tracked migration starting from Estonia the 16-17th September and arriving (staying) at home in Angola the 26th October - so the migration took 39-40 days for him.

IF Ilmar started this year the 12th Sep (what we cannot prove) his arrival according to the 2012 schedule at home in Angola would happen around 21st October. (Correct if my mathematics fail!) I do understand that weather, wind and sight conditions during the migration can vary and affect flying - and I don't mean that these dates by any means would be a fact. But maybe a clue of the length of the journey he does every autumn and spring - a strong guy as he is.


According to the migration map graphics and when Ilmar still wore his transmitter:

In the spring 2013 Ilmar left Angola the 20th March and arrived at his home nest in Estonia 22nd April - so the migration in that direction took him 33 days.

[Joanna]

thank you so much Owlie for your maths

Just now I mused about who of these four was my favourite and I came to the decision, that I like them all samewise.
Each of these family members has his/her own charakter. Each of them highly loveable.
Btw Elar had to steal fish - he is the little one, therefore he needed more food, because his journey is not shorter than that of the others

[Owlie]

Migration news:

"27th September: Osprey Tiiu has made quite a surprise, previously no one Estonian Osprey has went to western Africa. Seems Tiiu wants to stay in Cote d'Ivoire."

She was trapped for transmitter set up nearby Ilmar's territory (EDIT see Urmas' notice below: viewtopic.php?p=346838#p346838) this autumn just before her migration, the tracking by her transmitter began 16th August (according to the migration map) when she started her migration.

[Urmas]

Tiiu was trapped quite far from Ilmars nest, but at fishing pond of Madis, who visited the pond same hour.
The most probable nest of Tiiu is situated 8km of trapping place (known as not occupied kalakotkas2 cam nest from year 2012, after that we moved this camera system to Ilmars nest 65 km northward). For sure we can say about Tiius nest only if Tiiu returns.

[Owlie]

Thankyou, Urmas, for correcting my misunderstanding! I hope Tiiu will return next spring and we can get more information of her.

[Chimega]

Tiiu was trapped quite far from Ilmars nest, but at fishing pond of Madis, who visited the pond same hour.
The most probable nest of Tiiu is situated 8km of trapping place (known as not occupied kalakotkas2 cam nest from year 2012, after that we moved this camera system to Ilmars nest 65 km northward). For sure we can say about Tiius nest only if Tiiu returns.

Thank you for the information, Urmas. I wonder what has happened to Piret and if she was in the area, too, but just not seen at that time. If she is ok, no doubt she is somewhere in Africa by now as well. Safe travels, Piret!

[Owlie]

How old is the osprey female Tiiu estimated to be?
As I see her linear movements back and forth regularly at her home region on the Ivory Coast I think she must know the region very well - does it mean that she has been there before?

[Kukelke]

@Owlie,

Tiiu has been breeding for 2 years that we know of, and since most ospreys only start to breed first from 3 years old (some begin to breed at 4, 5 or even later, and only on very, very rare occasions an osprey breeds already at 2), we can assume that Tiiu is at least 5 years old now, but she could be a fair deal older too.
So yes, she knows her wintering grounds well.

[Owlie]

Thankyou, Kukelke! I had missed the information of her age, it was perhaps mentioned in the birdmap text ...

Also Urmas' notice tells that Tiiu has probably been breeding in "the 2012-cam-observed-non-occupied nest" - maybe both summer 2013 and summer 2014:
viewtopic.php?p=346838#p346838

There seems to be the river Comoé (Komoé) nearby where to Tiiu makes her 30 kms tours from the start point Agnibilékrou - I cannot see any bigger waters at Agnibilékrou, where she still prefers to return after her 30 kms zigzag tours in every day or two ...

EDIT 22nd Oct Wintering of ospreys
I don't know any better forum to discuss Tiiu, so I continue to comment here ...

I wonder what can make Tiiu to stay in / fly back to Agnibilékrou - I understand her regular moves these 30 kms approximately every two days to the river Comoé where there must be nice fish. In the start point (Agnibilékrou) I see no bigger waters for fishing. She has to eat every day I suppose. And she stays sometimes a couple of days at each address. So what makes her to move to and fro between these rather close addresses regularly? Just for a change? Or can she happen to have two different delicious fish menus in these two addresses?

EDIT 23rd October:

This male osprey in North Finland got his transmitter this autumn and 'comes' from very very close where I live, it is extra exciting to follow this bird from one's home county (the local press follows his migration, too):

http://www.luomus.fi/en/satellite-osprey-jaska

[Bea]

...EDIT 22nd Oct Wintering of ospreys
I don't know any better forum to discuss Tiiu, so I continue to comment here ...

Migration map topic is an all-in-one topic and is a proper place for all interpretations, comments and questions about Tiiu´s tracks
viewtopic.php?f=65&t=411

I fear that questions and comments, which appear as edits in already existing posts, will hardly or not be noticed here.

[Owlie]

Thankyou, Bea. The LK is so big that I had not found the migration map topic - I am very glad to see how much information Kukelke has already gathered there!

[Kukelke]

There seems to be the river Comoé (Komoé) nearby where to Tiiu makes her 30 kms tours from the start point Agnibilékrou - I cannot see any bigger waters at Agnibilékrou, where she still prefers to return after her 30 kms zigzag tours in every day or two ...

EDIT 22nd Oct Wintering of ospreys
I don't know any better forum to discuss Tiiu, so I continue to comment here ...

I wonder what can make Tiiu to stay in / fly back to Agnibilékrou - I understand her regular moves these 30 kms approximately every two days to the river Comoé where there must be nice fish. In the start point (Agnibilékrou) I see no bigger waters for fishing. She has to eat every day I suppose. And she stays sometimes a couple of days at each address. So what makes her to move to and fro between these rather close addresses regularly? Just for a change? Or can she happen to have two different delicious fish menus in these two addresses?

I've tried to analyse Tiiu's movements in the migration topic (see from here and onwards: viewtopic.php?p=346857#p346857), and I have consulted some other people too who know more about this than I do. We think that the pictures on google maps are taken in the dry season and that there are many ponds and shallow lakes west of Agnibilékrou right now in the wet season where there's good fishing until the dry season kicks in. This dry season is about to begin, so I expect Tiiu to be more often fishing at the Komoé River in the time to come, or perhaps even fly further south, to the shallow lagoons near the coast.

When you zoom in to the max you can see there are quite a few small ponds there in the southeast of her range. And an osprey doesn't need a big lake to fish, as Finnish tracked osprey Birgit, who has been staging in the Netherlands for more than 7 weeks now, already has shown. She often prefers to fish in narrow canals which sometimes are only a few meter across: http://koivu.luomus.fi/info/tracking/in ... autumn2014. Also the ospreys at Pohtiolampi in your native Finland (http://www.ospreycenter.net/) fish in rather small ponds too.

[Owlie]

... When you zoom in to the max you can see there are quite a few small ponds there in the southeast of her range ...

Thanks a lot, Kukelke, Mr Osprey, again, I am almost exhausted of all your knowledge - but I warn you: I still hunger for more every time I wonder something

[-Thumper-]

Eagerly awaiting the return of these two!

[Tonia]

Me too!

[Bea]

A little appetizer, until we get an Osprey cam back and can take our own shots





Both pictures by Kristofer Rowe

[Birdfriend]

Nice pictures,Bea.
Hopefully, that we not must so long waiting until they comes!

[-Thumper-]

I hope we don't have to wait much longer. I miss this couple!