NEST OBSERVATIONS ESTLAT Osprey Nest 2~ Ilmar & Irma ~ 2013

[lianaliesma]

Hi,
Have any of parents visited the nest after ringing? With fish?

[Jürgen]

Under the nest.

Well, first off... this is actually going to be 4 posts (Reason being, I made way too many pictures and we are asked to post max 5 pictures per post )

Our day started at around 8 o’clock a few kilometers away from Ilmar’s nest. The „team“ consisted of 4 people: Urmas, Joosep, Ülo and myself, Jürgen.
Right from the beginning Urmas amazes me with his good mood. As usual he wanted to leave a few fish for the eaglets... but unfortunately he did not find any from Tartu as fast as he needed.
A little bit driving and then starts the march through the forest. Getting there wasn’t the hard part for our day...


From left to left: Joosep, Ülo and Urmas (unfortunately behind the leaves). I was the photographer for the day.



As you can already see form the previous picture, the terrain was relatively rough and there wasn’t much room to operate in. We arrived in the morning at around 9 o’clock (perhaps the forum has a better answer... none of us checked the clock at that time ) and we decided to start off with trying to capture Ilmar and Irma.
The reason behind capturing first and ringing later is that after the ringing, it might take long for the adults to come back and even if they come back fast, they will still be stressed from the human in the nest. We need the adult eagles to be „angry“ at the fake Eagle we put down to lure the adults to attack it. I’m sure there are other reasons behind it as well, but that is up to Urmas to say.
So we moved around 40 meters away from the nest and began setting up the net and the fake WTE.


Pondering on where and how to set up the net.


Decision made, now to quickly set it up!

[Jürgen]

Net is now set up... pretty hard to see it, even for an eagle.


The fake White Tailed Eagle used by the Eagle Club to lure adult birds to attack it.

So began the waiting game... Urmas and Joosep were sitting in a hide, close to the net (I believe) but me and Ülo had to find a concealed spot further away to observe from. From our hiding spot we saw one adult sitting in a treetop for about an hour and a half... just staring at the surroundings and occasionally at the fake eagle.


Through the leaves...

We were waiting until around 2:00 in the afternoon and unfortunately we did not manage to capture either of the adults. The best attempt made by one of them was to fly around 20 meters abowe the net and by the end, both of them were just sitting again. Most probably that is the reason why the adults did not want to feed the chicks that much, is because they were unsure about the fake eagle.
There was no risk for the eaglets though. The eaglets are well fed and at this stage would survive for a long time without food. Furthermore, Urmas would never let anything bad happen to the eaglets... he knows what he is doing


Collect the net and let’s go ring the eaglets.


Ülo climbing into the nest.

[Jürgen]

Ülo, you are disappearing from the view! Almost up there!


While Ülo was ringing, Urmas was taking pictures of the adult(s) flying around.

Urmas decided that it would be better to not use the usual Eagle Club equipment to climb up the tree in the future. It is always better to keep the tree as intact as possible! So, Ülo, bravely was the man up in the tree to install the guide rope for the next time. That is the reason, why you were hearing voices for a while even after the eaglets were ringed.
Ülo was also the brave man to check if it would work!






Pack the things and it is time to leave.

[Jürgen]

Thank you for waiting patiently!!

[Gavril]

Thank You, Jurgen! Terrific job and wonderful photos. Irma and Ilmar very smart and brave bird!

[Owlie]

Thank you Jürgen and other guys,
excellent pictures, nice to realize the surroundings of the nest. I wonder is "the dead tree" that we see in our view in the pictures or is it a dead tree number 2? I mean in your pictures it seems to be very close to the nest and in our view it looks more distant ...?

I suppose we will get the individual data - weights vv numbers and so on later...

[Gavril]

Hi,
Have any of parents visited the nest after ringing? With fish?

Unfortunately parents were. The expectation was delayed.. Chicks try to eat a fish's tail.

[Gavril]

Now clear the shadow to the left in the nest. This is exactly the branch of a pine. I was amazed by the height!

[Jürgen]

Thank you Jürgen and other guys,
excellent pictures, nice to realize the surroundings of the nest. I wonder is "the dead tree" in one of the pictures or is it a dead tree number 2?

I suppose we will get the individual data - weights vv numbers and so on later...

I am not sure about the dead tree . There were a lot of them around!

I do not have the data, so yes... I am assuming that Urmas will post it some day. The data needs to be written into the database(s) first.

[Gavril]

I hope Eaglets wait today fish from Ilmar. Good night!

[Britta]

@Jürgen: thank you very much for your report and the pics

[Starling]

Thanks Jürgen for the fantastic photos & telling about the events of today. Really nice to see the nest area and nest tree finally.
...And now we still need a bit more patience while we are waiting for the next fish delivery and Irma returning to feed the chicks. What a day.

[lianaliesma]

I am worrried about eaglets. Never thought that Irma could be away from the nest for so long. It has to be too much stress for the birds. Is it worth it, I do not know.

[Owlie]

So the "wise" adults were not cought, are you planning try to trap them another time?

It is admirable respect of the nature to think about the trees and surroundings of the nest to be saved as intact as possible

[Manu]

Jürgen: A huge thank you for the nice pictures and and interesting report about the surrounding things.

Ülo: You are very brave one .

[Jürgen]

I am worrried about eaglets. Never thought that Irma could be away from the nest for so long. It has to be too much stress for the birds. Is it worth it, I do not know.

It is a common thing for adult birds (for any species of raptors) to stay away from the nest for hours after the ringing. I believe that one year of the White Tailed Eagle nesting season, Linda and Sulev stayed away from the nest for hours (I might be wrong but around 6 hours? )

As long as there will be fish at least tomorrow, everything will be completely fine.

Quote Owlie

So the "wise" adults were not cought, are you planning try to trap them another time?

I'm afraid we would all need an answer from Urmas to that. I am guessing not anytime soon though... perhaps next year?

[Owlie]

19:50
Is it the chicks that are chirping so sweetly? Or is it Irma quite beside??? I think it is the chicks, it is several chirpers ...
Hopefully it means that they see a parent nearby ...

19:54
A bird flying around the dead tree ...

[sus]

Thanks to the 4 man crew! I tried to stay up and watch, but ofcourse it was night time here. BUT from your wonderful pictures and story i got to have a birdseye view

The little one were handled so gently and with so much care. Wonderful to see.

You all did a wonderful job.

[asteria]

Some osprey calls far away and the chicks are chirping.

Tiit and Tiina this year returned much faster after ringing, in half an hour and with eagles it is more difficult.