Golden Eagle Webcam Nest 2 2024

[Liz01]

11:32 loud shooting and explosions
She reacts. I looked the scene again. she doesn't seem afraid, more curious?


Slightly reaction by the female to heavy shelling

[Liz01]

11:33 still looking behind her
and back to normal

12:02 no further bangs and shoots it seems to be over?
12:24 military noises .. it sounds far enough

she constantly looks to the right. Maybe that's her mate? Hunting may not be possible today. It doesn't just affect the eagles. other wild animals affected too.

12:38 military noises.. still from far
It's difficult to assess the reaction from the eagles. I am not an eagle.

12:47 I will take a break

Kotkaklubi wrote:
​​We know where is nest, but training field is very large. We do not know, where within training field the action happens.

and about the sounds we hear:

Also, it depends on wind direction and speed, how much sound waves reach nest site. In silent days the noise seems to be stronger, but actually the same devices are used.

[Liz01]

12:56 she turns and is now faced to the right .
12:57 is working with the twigs in front of her

12:58 Explosions and gunfire can be heard. She is still busy with the twigs



13:39 she sees something..


15:12 egg rolling

[Liz01]

15:52 a change over.


Female flew away
his head under her tail

[Liz01]

16:25 Female is back


She is digging on the nest edge . Strange? I don't know




I didn't observe them closely enough to notice any changes in their behavior. I don't know if everything is normal for them. They behave differently than Helju and Kalju, but eagles are also individual. Like all other birds.

[Liz01]

16:43 she pays attention to a little bird
16:56 I haven't heard any military activity for a long time. It seems to be over

19:10 it's snowing

[Urmas]

Most of bigger noise comes from distance 4-6 km, there is a target area for artillery. Shooting places are far away (couple of tens kilometers or more). But everything (places and strength of explosions) depends on type of weapons and ammunition used for training. As well as weather conditions, especially wind speed and direction play a role. Nevertheless, I'm not a specialist in military, so maybe used wrong words...

[Liz01]

April 20

Urmas, thank you for the info.
The golden eagle's habitat is larger than 4 - 6 square kilometers. We'll see if they can hunt successfully during these exercises

5:49 Male comes home and takes over incubation




5:49:22 she is calling ... see you later

6:48/6:49 he is turning the eggs

[Liz01]

7:04 Female is back




he flew away


7:05:49 he is calling
7:06 he is calling for long! again and again.

[Liz01]

8:05 she is rolling the eggs and turns
9:48 again


10:20 cranes are singing loud
She stands up . she is in a hurry




Today I don't hear any military activity so far

[Liz01]

Arrival male


she took off


s do I.. a bike ride for 2 -3 hours

[Liz01]

11:09 she is back


11:10 he flew away

[Helari]

23.04.23
It snowed 10+cm overnight!
Multiple shooting exercises whole day today - 81/120 mm mortar shooting and explosions (yesterday too), also shooting from small arms.
10.10 - sees something flying around the nest, looks at it constantly. at 10.11 other bird flew in, think it was looking at him/her. Shift change. Shooting noises can be heard.
11.50 shift change. Louder bangs can be heard.
12.18 - looks constantly at something around the nest.
13.43 alot of shooting noises around that time. Sees bird flying around the nest, looks at it intensely.
15.30 lots of shooting noises.

There has been shooting noises all day. Birds doesnt seem to react to them at all. Only time i one of the birds maybe reacted to explosion noise is around 13.24:30 when it looked around after explosion for a few seconds but it might have been something moving around the nest - maybe snow falling from trees or something? The looking around wasnt "fast" or "intense" like when they see bird flying around. Bird doesnt change its position or anything, just looks around a little. At 13.26 more noise bu no reaction.

[Polly]

Many thanks @Helari!

10.10 - sees something flying around the nest, looks at it constantly. at 10.11 other bird flew in, think it was looking at him/her. Shift change. Shooting noises can be heard.

I think break for the female.











Both the male and the female weigh on the eggs for a long time until the perfect position appears to have been found.
It caught my eye. Compared to the Goshawk I observe.

[Helari]

24.04
Shooting excercises today too, less intensive than yesterday.
12.28 - shift change
13.29 - looks something around the nest intensely
15.03 sees something on the right side, looks at it intensely for almost 20 minutes. at 15.25 looks still at the right side, calls for mate and flies away, other bird comes on the nest few seconds later and starts incubating. There was no shooting noise until 15.25 so it wasnt from the noise. Maybe snow falling or bird? Bird that came onto the nest doesnt seem to be annoyed. Other bird can be heard calling nearby.
15.41 - bird flies over the nest, incubating bird looks up intensely.
15.45 - theres something at the left that bird keeps looking at. after that shooting can be heard but no reaction from the bird.
After 15.00 shooting noise can be heard from time to time but birds doesnt seem to be care about that, theyre more annoyed by something moving around the nest i think.

[Ravens]

2024-04-24

08:38:48 - Female is on the nest. She begins calling off and on. Eventually common cranes (Grus grus) can be heard doing so as well.
08:42:50 - The male joins in.



08:43:43 - She leaves.
08:44:32 - The pair's intertwined vocalizations become particularly excited at this point. It sounds very similar to a recording I made at another eyrie (Bucovina) when Lucina began tracking Caliman and an unknown bird above. Caliman alighted at the nest and they both continued skawking at this perceived intruder. I will say that distinguishing this call and its level of excitement from that of some females simply claiming prey, is difficult. My confidence is shot, in fact. However, the male joining in just as excitedly, leads me to suspect that the first scenario is at play. Unless this male is more vocal in general, compared to the other eyries I'm familiar with?
08:45-12:29 - The male incubates for 3 hours, 44 minutes! A record by a single minute. This lengthy bout of an incubation session last occurred on a day of heavy military shelling. 29 March. While 2 hour sessions have been normal for this pair, anything at 3 hours or more stands out. Having said that, a heavy military training exercise does not occur between these two time stamps. When it does later in the day, including with an incubation shift change, the female does not stay away long. Maybe all the other excitement had something to do with the length of her time away for this morning. The only other thing of note is a difference in the weather with the sound of precipitation actively falling.



Skipping ahead.

14:09:11, 14:09:35 - First observed sound of explosions at this half of the day.
15:17:43 - A heavy continuous shelling commences on the heels of plenty of jet engine noise. The female begins snaking her neck more, rather than just glancing about. It seems that she is very alert to the motions of other birds. Are these other birds stirred to flight by all the military activity? No way of knowing.
15:18:27 - A black woodpecker (Dryocopus martius) gives a flight call.



15:19:51 - The female tracks something's flight overhead.
15:20:45 - The firing pauses, and she continues snaking her neck.
15:20:45 - The voices of common cranes (Grus grus) ring out. She seems to dart her gaze upwards at that moment, snaking, tracking.
15:21:59 - The military shelling resumes.
15:24:48 - She vocalizes, still tracking movements. Must have spied her mate.
15:25:24 - She stops incubating and leaves.
15:26:04 - The male arrives.
15:26:14 - Unknown birds call, and the female does too. Barking and skawking. As the male incubates, he is not nearly as honed into movement. He is much calmer. The military exercise has not ceased.
15:27:27 - Common wood-pigeon (Columba palumbus) cooing.
15:27:32 - The female flies by behind the eyrie, right to left.
15:27:40 - She skawks, then barks excitedly.
15:27:53 - The pigeon stops cooing when the sounds of pecking take over. Woodpecker? The military has yet to stop.
15:29:32 - Female barking excitedly again.
15:30:35 - More barks. Skawk-wawk-wawk-wawk-wawk-wawk.
15:31 - Finally the military training calms. There are now periods of silence in between bursts.
15:37:02 - Unknown bird calls. Movement really captures the male's eye this time. He stretches his neck up.
15:37:13 - The female calls twice. It sounds like she is perched nearby.
15:41:04 - The male tracks a flier overhead. We can hear powerful wing beats. Could be his mate.
15:46:59 - Loud vegetation snapping. The male notices. Small head turns.
15:47:05 - Female (?) flies by behind eyrie, right to left.
15:47:11 - Louder snaps and crunching.
15:48:16 - More vegetation snapping.
15:48:17 - Female (?) flies by behind the eyrie in the opposite direction, left to right.
17:13:11 - When she finally returns to the nest, she does so quietly. She has been away 1 hour, 48 minutes. Par for the course.

[Ravens]

Upon reading some published papers, I came across thoughts and conjecture on the length of male incubation and brooding behavior, and why it may differ at some eyries. The quote provided below comes from a study that took place in Stelvio National Park (Alps, Italy).

"In Golden Eagle pairs breeding in the SNP, the males spent more time in incubation and nestling brooding than reported in the few available studies from other countries
[e.g. Idaho, USA (Collopy 1984); Japan (Aoyama et al. 1988); UK (Everett 1981; Jenny 1992)]. These latter studies reported an average male investment corresponding to 6-18.4% of male presence during the incubation period. ... On the contrary, Gordon (1955), who observed one pair over eight breeding seasons, reported that the incubation duties were equally shared by both adults. Watson (2010) considered Gordon’s (1955) findings exceptional and the behaviour described by Collopy (1984) was thought to be typical to the species across most of its range. In territories where carrion is scarce and prey must be actively hunted, either the male must bring food to the eyrie or the female must spend longer away from the nest, with a corresponding increase in the incubation duties of the male (Watson 2010). In our study area, the male’s contribution to incubation was also notably higher than in the Swiss Alps, where Jenny (1992) recorded a male investment of 18.4% ± 15.5. A higher male contribution could be potentially related to several factors such as age, individual ability and experience, territory size and female behaviour, as the latter sometimes do not allow the male to access the nest, or by male reluctance to incubate eggs (Ricau et al. 2009). The higher investment shown by male Eagles in our study area may be due to the high availability of both live prey and ungulate carrion in late winter up to May. This could induce males to spend less time in hunting and foraging, resulting in more time spent at the nest. ...

It is therefore possible that such favourable trophic conditions (coupled with a possible slight specialization on the very abundant Marmot) enhance the hunting efficacy of Golden Eagles, reducing the time needed to collect food, and thus favouring male investment in nest activities. Notably, the incubation period coincides with the peak in carrion availability, during March–May, and this period is also the one in which the time invested by the male in parental care (38.1%) is highest. The lack of difference between the sexes in food provision may also be linked to the high availability of prey, which allows females to collect food despite their higher investment in nest activities." - Parental investment in two large raptors breeding in a high prey density area; Bassi, E., Trotti, P., Brambilla, M. et al

Is Watson correct? In territories with a scarce supply of carrion, males spend more time incubating if they are not able to deliver enough prey, and the females must then hunt more as a result.

Or, are the authors of the above study correct? In territories with an ample supply of carrion and primary prey, males spend more time incubating, investing more energy into nest activities because they needn't spend energy elsewhere. Carrion and marmots are abundant in this region, thus Watson's idea could not explain this, but might there be contexts where he is correct?

And what of this eyrie in the Central Training Field? The male spends more time incubating then at any other eyrie I've yet witnessed. What are the conditions influencing this? Curious minds would like to know.

[Ravens]

2024-04-25

07:59:33 - The male delivers prey. The only hope of identification is in the tail.



08:00:13 - The female flies away with it to eat elsewhere. I think it was a European pine marten (Martes martes), rather than a young red fox (Vulpes vulpes), but I could be wrong.

It matches well with a pine marten that was brought to Zenit way back when. The tail is best displayed in the following frame. In other frames we could count the five toe pads of a mustelid, and the buff colored bib was also present.



15:35:42, 15:37:21 - Amidst military training with continuous fire, we hear the soft footfalls of a creature below the eyrie. The female snakes her neck about to track it.

19:19 - A good example of military training with continuous fire, and the opposite of vigilance. Here, she just wants to sleep, and tucks her head into her scapulars. While she is awakened every once in a while, she is content enough to seek sleep.

[Ravens]

2024-04-26

18:01:39 - The male delivers waterfowl of orange scale.



18:02:39 - The female, who was hovering over the prey in the screen shot above, flies off with it.

[Urmas]

1 May
12:42 Rare military explosions have been, but more outstanding the noise of passing by all-terrain vehicles. That seems to be closer as military activity.
12:53 parent shift