Mute swans in Jõgeva for one and a half month this winter
Text & photos: Vello Keppart
Translation: Liis from Forum
For the first time ever a pair of mute swans settled in the summer of 2008 on the Pedja River
Mute swan family on January 23rd 2009, below Jõgeva old bridge.
But around the new year a mute swan family with three juveniles (cygnets) appeared on Jõgeva River in Jõgeva village. The adult birds have rings from the Latvian ringing centre and they were ringed in Riga.
Swan with ring from the Latvian ringing centre; both birds were ringed as adults at the Juglas lake.
The female swan wears the ring Latvia Riga EE 338 and was ringed on April 11th 2005 by D. Boiko as an adult bird.
Male swan with cygnet on January 9th.
When the Pedja froze again in the beginning of January the birds flew to the ice-free rapids near the old bridge in Jõgeva town. There bird-friends started to feed the swans beside the about fifty mallards already present. But when swans are fed, they have no reason to move elsewhere, which means that they may get caught in an ecological trap. In settled areas there is also a tendency to overfeed birds. Swans feed from the bottom of waters, so rather shallow unfrozen waters where they can pick up pieces of aquatic plants from the bottom and the water edge are important. If a river is open in the winter, or only with ice at the banks, the swans should not run any risk of starving.
The male swan wears the ring Latvia Riga EE 776 and was ringed on April 7th 2007 as an adult by R. Matrozis.
About mid-February nearly a hundred mallards had collected near the old bridge. The mallards gradually became brash: food offered to the swans was grabbed. From February 17th the swan family has not been seen, the birds left Jõgeva, unknown to where. Something seems to have happened, because the mallards became quite shy, even of people feeding them.
On February 22nd there were about a hundred mallards at the feeding place.
Mute swans first began nesting in Estonia about a hundred years ago; regular nesting has taken place in sea-shore regions for about fifty years, and their area spreads towards north as well as inland (Rootsmäe, Lilleleht 1996; Luigujõe 2007). At the same time the whooper swan, characteristic of tundra areas, has widened its nesting territory towards south, and established a sparse population in the whole of Estonia during this century (see information in Eesti linnuatlas [Estonian Bird Atlas], species questionnaires „kühmnokk-luik“ / mute swan and „laululuik“ / whooper swan).
Sources
Eesti linnuatlas.[Estonian Bird Atlas] at http://www.eoy.ee/atlas/index.php
Luigujõe, L. Aasta lind on luik [Swan is Bird of the Year]. — Eesti Loodus, 2, 2007, lk 6-12. at http://www.eoy.ee/projektid/al2007/EL-2-luik.pdf
Rootsmäe Kühmnokk-luik levib sisemaale. [Mute swan spreads inland] — Eesti Loodus, 7, 1996, lk 226-227. at http://www.eoy.ee/varamu/linnulood/kyhmnokk.html, L., Lilleleht, V.
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