looduskalender.ee

So it is WTE Camera Forum and Buzzard Nest discussion?
Urmas (S.) tells us in today's front-page article - translation coming - that Renno found Linda and Sulev's new nest in mid-March. Hopefully he will tell us what happens there?
The ESTLAT project WTEs seem camera-shy both in Latvia and Estonia. The Estonian nest nicely proves one observation from Urmas' and Ülo Väli's lecture at Estonian Ornithological Society (webcams at raptors' nests): that many raptor nests seem to be in a game of "musical chairs". But others are used for decades by the same species and even birds.

I was just wondering if it was just that the WTEs aren't very faithful to their nests, because I know the common idea about Bald eagles is that they use the same nest for years and years and years -- explaining how they get so huge -- but perhaps it is just that over time we have noticed those nests that get used repeatedly.

It is super nice to hear that Linda and Sulev are busy with a nest in their forest -- hopefully, not too close to the buzzards.

It is the second case when a couple of birds changes the nest with webcam. The question is if it happens because they find out a webcam and don't like it or for some other reason.

i don't think that birds care much about the camera. i think that as long as the camera does not move or make any sounds it's pretty much the same as a mushroom or a polypore growing on the side of a treetrunk. - except for great tits it's a potential nest hole! i think that almost every camera has been an attraction to great tits at some stage...
once at the eagle winter feeding ground one eagle came to sit in a tree close to the camera and Mutikluti zoomed up to catch it in view. i was worried that the eagle might notice that the camera was moving inside the shield, but fortunately it didn't. but i'm sure that a moving camera couldn't be used as a nest camera...

WTEs are also faithful to their nests, but that is to several nests in turns. in Wilgoh's book there are photographs of Norvegian nests which are large and many-many meters tall so they have been used for decades. when one spouse has died the other has found a new one and has used the nest again, and so on... maybe nests have been empty a year or two at times and the pair is using another nest in the territory, but then they will be used again.

i think that the buzzards went for a break at 8.44. i didn't see them for a while and the i went for a break, too. now there are only birds singing and i think it's getting cloudy...

Linda did give some pokes at the cam area not long before they left -- as I recall.

Ame I suspect that you are right that they don't really care -- the banding would be more stressful, but maybe it contributes.

here are some videos i recorded earlier. at 8.15 one buzzard was sitting on the right outside the picture, but the shadow was moving there and it was talking... at 8.16 the other buzzard landed on the nest and began working with the big twig in ernest, trying to get it aside. the other jumped into the nest to give an hand...ehh: a beak. but then both gave up and got up on the backbranch and a little later one of them left. the remaining bird returned and tried again with the twig... the first returned and so on and on the work continued...

...

...

it sounds like today will be a mass-migration day for cranes! there's a huge group flying over and the calls seem (sound!) to go on forever...

i think Linda's climb along that branch on the left felt for us as if Linda had been poking the camera, but as i remember Urmas wrote then that actually the camera was quite far from her and the closeness was an effect caused by the zoom of the camera. this spring he wrote that he had only cleaned the lens and changed the zoom so that we see a wider angle than last year. then i realized that Linda ndeed hadn't been even halfway up that branch on the front-left. it just felt then like she had been climbing on my lap through the screen!

i think that now the flock of cranes have passed us. it took nearly 10 minutes. and still their voices can be heard in the horizon....

Also I remember being worried about a branch.


When I hear cranes here -- when I go to eastern Oregon for a birding vacation -- i hear one or two. A flock like that is too amazing.

10:51 and 10:52
Buzzard was on, worked on a twig for short and disappeared soon.

I just discovered a link to a new cam on the front of the estonian Looduskalender page..or??

- a WTE cam??

Hawks. Nest repair

Yes, it seems to be a WTE-cam in Latvia .... I´m waiting for the english or german translation

yes, Lussi, that's a WTE nest in Latvia in "Kolka poolsaar Talsi rajoonis". i guess poolsaar means peninsula and rajoon seems to mean district. -unfortunately the same thing happened there as here last spring: there were eagles building the nest (and it looks more finished & polished than L&S's nest last year!) butthey stopped coming.... Liis must be working with the translation.

the buzzards were here at 11.03 - 11.37, but this time they didn't work much. and i'm not sure whether both were here. they look too much alike.. this time one of them was mostly sitting on the backbranch and looking around.

... i wonder when we can expect eggs here...?

There were 26 000 cranes on April 3rd at Lake Hornborga in Sweden this year (record), and Cranes' Day yesterday.
However, there were just 3 500 cranes there then . 22 000 on April 10, 18 000 on April 11 - so some pretty large flocks must have been leaving in 3 days ...
Actually a reporter asked, very diffidently, if a couple of these magnificent birds might not just possibly be as much of an experience as tens of thousands ...?

PS. Translation of the WTE/buzzard camera setup and background up http://www.looduskalender.ee/en/node/12994

Yes, it´s a nest in Latvia, Lussi.

a little after 1 pm one crane was calling there loudly for about 10 minutes. i think it was left behind when the 10000 left earlier and nobody had told him/her where they went... it sounded so lonely and almost panicky...


Liis thank you for the translations!
-playlist of todays videos: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL51BC0E629066A23F

Thank you for your answers Bea, Ame and Maertha. The page is also translated into english now, thank you Liis.

14:20 - empty nest, the birds are singing beautifully.

Good evening!

16.24

Again they had a fight, I did not get it from the beginning, but one was hanging on