looduskalender.ee

INTRODUCTION

Observations of white-tailed sea-eagles (shortened hereafter as WTE) visiting the winter feeding ground during the season 2012-2013 will be summarized under this topic. Special attention will be paid on observations of eagles carrying rings, because the special zoomable camera used at the feeding ground allows viewers to read ring codes and to take snapshots of them.

WTEs have been ringed (or banded) with two rings both bearing two coloured stripes. The colour codes are given in the picture below (by 0Hansen).

Chart updated on Apr 8 2013.

The colours on the ring on the right ankle (or tarsus) show the country where the eagle was ringed. Some countries are geographically so large that they have been divided in several regions with their own colour codes. Hungary and Austria on the other hand have a common colour code. The country codes are on the left side of the above picture.

The colours on the ring on the left tarsus give the year of ringing, which is most often the year of birth of the bird. This practise was started in 1976.

An individual code is also marked on the left ring starting from 1991: on the top stripe a combination of a capital letter and a number, and on the lower a two-number code. The year codes are on the right side of the above picture.

The letter in the individual code is the same for all ringed birds in one year till 2011. The oldest eagle observed here last season was Y445 who was ringed in 2005 in Estonia. The second oldest was Z848 from Finnish Lapland, ringed in 2006. Letter V stands for year 2007. For 2008 the letter is A, for year 2009 the letter is B, for year 2010 the letter is C, for year 2011 the letter is D.

Starting from year 2012 the colour coding has altered. All the year rings on the left ankle are black and the letter shows the region of birth according to the picture below (by Bubo). After the letter there is a number and below these two other numbers which together form the individual code for each bird. The colours on the ring on the right tarsus also show the origin of the bird as before.


Below is an example of an eagle which wears a white-over-red ring on the right tarsus: it was ringed in South-West Finland. On the left tarsus there's ring with black upper part and blue lower part: it was ringed in 2009. The individual code on the left ankle is the eagle's "name", B279 which allows authorized reseachers identify its home nest and other information on the eagle.


Observations will occasionally (and hopefully) be commented by our eagle experts Urmas Sellis and Renno Nellis. Also other interesting observations of other animals, birds as well as mammals will be reviewed here on daily basis.

Summary of WTEs observed on the feeding ground in the season 2011-2012. IV

From the report Webcam at eagles winter feeder 2011/2012. RESULTS
Ordered by Estonian Ornithological Society
ESTLAT Eagles Cross borders project
Läänemaa 2012
by Renno Nellis.
The whole report is accessible on the webpages of the Estonian Ornithological Society through this link:
http://www.eoy.ee/sites/default/files/p ... report.pdf .

The number of observed eagles and the number of ringed individuals are shown on Fig 2. The number of all eagles was estimated according different ringed birds and different ages observed during a day. In days if there were more as 10 different birds, it was difficult to estimate the real number as several birds of the same age were presented. So the numbers are minimum. During two days also golden eagle visited the feeder. Additionally once goshawk was observed and at least three common buzzards in several days during the season.

2012 Dec 11

The winter season 2012-2013 begins: the camera was online for a while for testing. Fireblade had been keeping an eye on the link and had noticed that the transmission was on in the afternoon. He posted the first picture on the Seal camera forum while the feeding place forum was still locked.


A short test recording was also made. After some time the nõva-camera was disconnected again, after being on for at least about half an hour.


The Winter White-Tailed Eagle Camera News
can be found here: http://www.looduskalender.ee/en/taxonomy/term/34
Latest news is on the top of the list. There is also a link to all older news.

Dec 12

Estonian press noted the installation of the winter feeding camera (and the installation of the WTE nest camera at the new nest site; more of that later in the spring!).

For the whole text by Liis and her translation of the article in Eesti Päevaleht see link
viewtopic.php?p=188842#p188842

Liis commented Jo's message:

So this was an article by Ulvar Käärt with photographs by Ilmar Saabas, the same reporters as in the article in Päevaleht, but in the Delfi link given by Jo one can watch a video and in the bottom there is a large picture gallery of the camera installation trip to both the WTE nest and to Nõva forest, where the feeding place is situated.

In this picture reporter Ulmar Käärt is holding the special camera which is used at the feeding ground.

Foto: Ilmar Saabas

The link below opens a Delfi gallery photograph of Urmas Sellis from ESTLAT Eagles Project holding the camera. (The link also provides a direct link to the photo gallery, although nearly to the bottom of the gallery.)
http://www.delfi.ee/news/paevauudised/s ... t.delfi.ee

The camera set-up was described on Dec 30th in the Winter White-Tailed Eagle Camera News:
http://www.looduskalender.ee/en/node/15464

Dec 13 - Dec 29

A long wait followed...

... until finally!

Dec 30

The day begins on page 3 here: viewtopic.php?p=191830#p191830

But still:

More of the common buzzard (Buteo buteo) in Winter WTE Camera News:
http://www.looduskalender.ee/en/node/15543

Most birds were still waiting and looking around in the trees.

First WTE observed with rings on the feeding ground this season was B279 on black&blue ring on the left ankle. Black&blue mean that it was ringed in 2009 so it is a 4th winter eagle.

White over red on the country ring tell that this eagle was ringed in Finland SW Archipelago which may include wider coastal areas, too. (Details are kept unkonown for public.) From now on this code will be shortened as SW Fin.

Renno's comments on this bird:
A few days later Renno corrected the year of ringing. (viewtopic.php?p=124794#p124794)

B279 was a frequent visitor at the feeding ground last winter in the previous season. It was observed there altogether six times: on Jan 21 and 24, and Feb 17, 18, 19, and 20 in 2012.

Here's a map of Finland showing very roughly the areas to which the Finnish country rings refer to. Åland (red over black) is in blue ellipse and Quarken (all red) is in red ellipse. Finnish Lapland (white over black) is in green ellipse which is maybe too large or, on the other hand, the area maybe larger, somewhere above the black line. Finland SW Archipelago (white over red) may also include wider areas on the Southern and Western coasts. Finnish freshwater (red over white) means inland lakes but how far from coast the border lies is unknown. One more question mark is the bottom of the Gulf of Bothnia: does it belong to Quarken or Lapland. Geographically it belongs to neither, nor to any other of the five areas.

One more full profile picture of this eagle.

The other cheek.

This eagle was seen here at the feeding place last year on Jan 21 and 24 and in Feb 17, 18, 19, and 20.

The beak has still some dark colour and the tip of the tail is not white, so this is not quite adult yet. It wears 4th winter costume probably. The eyes seem to be very dark, but the lighting was so poor that it is difficult to see. The irises in the eyes may also be wide open because of the poor light level.
Later maybe the same bird in a tree.

1st winter young eagle.

11:16 A ringless adult (yellow beak) was standing further back in the snow.

(picture taken by ame)
This video by Homedi shows all the three eagles: first the young 1st winter eagle, then the 4th winter (?) and then the adult in the field.

This video shows the same three eagles again but later. The video was recorded by Fleur at 12:15 EET (which is camera time; Fleur's time is CET which is one hour late from EET. that's why the time stamp of the video is 11:14:57)