General Interest

[macdoum]

Here is a nice video of the nesting of an American Red Robin :
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id= ... llscreen=1

Uuggh, watch out for creepy-crawlies. !

[Kitty KCMO]

That was a good movie, Macdoum! It was funny how it ended, with the parent seeming to be so surprised that the chicks fledged.

[macdoum]

We have just seen a European Sparrowhawk flying through our garden ;
http://www.google.fr/search?q=accipiter ... 24&bih=621

[alice44]

We have just seen a European Sparrowhawk flying through our garden ;
http://www.google.fr/search?q=accipiter ... 24&bih=621

Is this a rare sighting? I suppose for the sake of your little birds one hopes it is a rare visitor.

[macdoum]

I don't quite know where to post this news
The american Bald eagle nest in Norfolk Virginia has suffered a terrible loss.
The mother eagle was killed by a plane early today..
Three chicks remain on the nest ;
http://www.wvec.com/my-city/norfolk/US-120702329.html

[Kitty KCMO]

I don't quite know where to post this news
The american Bald eagle nest in Norfolk Virginia has suffered a terrible loss.
The mother eagle was killed by a plane early today..
Three chicks remain on the nest ;
http://www.wvec.com/my-city/norfolk/US-120702329.html

Oh no! I hope there will be a rescue operation to bring the eaglets into care if the father will not be able to Or will be unwilling to care for them alone.

[macdoum]

Latest news;Dad has brought a fish and fed most of the eaglets.
So far,so good.
Nest cam here;
http://www.wvec.com/marketplace/microsi ... e-cam.html

[macdoum]

THe D.G.I.F has decided to remove the eaglets from the nest;

http://www.wvec.com/video/featured-vide ... 02329.html

[Kitty KCMO]

Thank you for the links, Macdoum. It is a sad story, but surely it will be best for the eaglets to be raised at the recovery center so they will have the greatest chance of survival to fledging & placement in the wild. And the father eagle will be freed up to begin the process of finding a replacement mate for next year.

[macdoum]

Here is a video of The Norfolk Eaglets arriving at their new nest.!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGj9_CFdLXM


They look calm and very well.

[alice44]

It makes me so sad. There were tears on my cheek for Sammy to lick off.

[macdoum]

There is a camera with Giant Pandas online from China;

http://www.kepu.cn/gb/practicecenter/20 ... index.html

From what I have heard the pandas to be seen there online are : Su Lin and Zhen Zhen and formely of San Diego Zoo Fu Long born in Tiergarten Zoo Vienna .
I can tell you only that Fu Long has a white 'sock'..
Of course the time difference is important.

P.S. Zhen Zhen was the panda who delighted cam watchers and zoo visitors with her wild and funny antics,before she left for China. ( in 2010)

[macdoum]

The earliest Osprey chick to hatch in U.K. history yesterday 10th May

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-13355592

[oliv]

I don´t know where I can ask aboute a thing... Is it anyone who know how it ended with the blue stork we saw last year?

[macdoum]

I don´t know where I can ask aboute a thing... Is it anyone who know how it ended with the blue stork we saw last year?

OLIV.. no further news.

[macdoum]

A penguin has lost his way... and turned up in new Zealand.

Read all about it.;
http://news.aol.co.uk/world-news/story/ ... h/1858843/

[macdoum]

Some furore on the Osprey nest yesterday.
See for yourself..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiFHz8Qz ... dded#at=38
His name is Odin..the papa bird.

[macdoum]

Here is a video of The Norfolk Eaglets arriving at their new nest.!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGj9_CFdLXM
They look calm and very well.

D.G.I.F released those three eaglets today,though one was 'tired' and taken back for a bit more re-hab.
The story is here with a video of part of the release.
http://www.wvec.com/my-city/norfolk/Big--126197853.html

[Liis]

Now that the black storks are leaving their nest, here is a look-back to earlier days. Our favourite reporter Ulvar Käärt's account of the ringing of the storklets, from Eesti Päevaleht, July 8,
http://www.epl.ee/artikkel/600455
It is a longish story, don't want to clutter up the ongoing black stork discussion with it.

Visiting Tiina and Tiit or Ringing the endangered black storks
Black storks are symbols of Estonia’s ancient untouched nature. Most of us have never seen them. Eesti Päevaleht introduces you to these magnificent birds.

Ulvar Käärt, reporter; 08. July 2011 06:00
http://www.epl.ee/artikkel/600455
Photo - in the original article - Arno Mikkor

We go along with Eagle Club members Urmas Sellis and Renno Nellis to check a black stork nest; our aim is the home of black stork pair Tiina and Tiit, in Läänemaa near Palivere.

Besides ringing the storklets the focus of the web camera that overlooks the nest and sends images into Internet needs sharpening, the batteries must be changed and the solar panels that charge the batteries must be lifted to a better position.

Reaching the outskirts of Tiina and Tiit’s home forest, Urmas and Renno notice at once a stork flying across the distant fields towards the nest. From that they deduce that there will be some three hours for the planned work: at these intervals the adults usually come to bring food for the young.

Tiina and Tiit’s home is in a broadleaf forest, in its way reminding of a tropical jungle, with ancient stubby oaks striving upwards. Under them grow hazelnut shrubs that keep the ground in shadow. Under this canopy of leaves that offers shelter from stork eyes the batteries that are necessary for keeping the web camera going can be safely exchanged.

The voluminous nest heap, painted white with excrements from the black storks, is enthroned in the crown of a large oak with forking wide-spread branches. Urmas cautions us – if one of the adults should show up, we must stand still in place, as un-noticeable and motionless as possible.

Multi-child family
Otherwise the disturbed stork may keep away from the nest for some time and the young, in a period of rapid growth, may suffer hunger.
Studying them through binoculars four quite stork-like but still white and downy-feathered storks-to-be look down; they are a little more than a month old. Generally there are two-three chicks in black stork nests, four offspring is a respectable achievement. And seeing that the black storks each year only have young in six-seven nests in all Estonia, Tiit and Tiina have done very well indeed.

To start with the birds are quiet, and, frozen into immobility standing up on two legs, study the creatures that have come along on the ground to the nest . This is after all their first encounter with humans. But as Urmas scrabbles up the oak with special irons fastened to his feet and lifts his head above the rim of the nest the storks-to-be instinctively let loose a loud-voiced threatening grouching, a bizarre mix of bass-voiced quaking, grunts, beak clatter, tweeting and cheeping.
Although storklets may hit a nest invader on the head and face with their small but sharp beaks, these birds luckily don’t get that idea.

To start with Urmas trims the web camera view, that has gone misty, to sharper. In this he is aided by EENet’s data network expert Urmas Lett somewhere in the office. Urmas Lett instructs by phone where to and how much the focus should be adjusted.

After this Urmas spreads his jacket on the storklets to keep them calm and takes them one by one for treatment: ringing, weighing, measuring wing and beak length, finally taking a feather from each bird for determining the sex and for genetic research. None of the storklets oppose him.
On the left leg Tiina and Tiit’s offspring get white plastic rings with the numbers 711C, 711J, 711F and 711T and on the right leg – as all birds ringed in Estonia – an aluminium ring with „Estonia Matsalu” and a unique code printed on it.

Beak at head
It turns out that the differences in development of the first and last storklet – hatched at intervals of up to three days - are considerable: with the weight of the oldest bird already over two kilos the youngest weighs only half as much.

When the rings are on the legs and Urmas again puts his jacket – that was spread over the storklets – on himself, the birds remain unmoving and with eyes open, lying side by side. This is a protective reflex – an enemy might leave „lifeless“ bodies alone there.
But before Urmas gets to climb down the nerves of the most enterprising storklet give up. The tough little bird rises and tries to hit Urmas on the head with its beak.
Some people might ask if there is any point in disturbing the storklets now with ringing. There is. It is even necessary because precisely from the rings it is possible to recognize them later and at the same time know where these birds, of an extinction-threatened species, move and which areas are vitally important for them.

When the solar panels had been moved to a sunnier spot, the run-down old batteries, weighing 36 kilos each, set on backs and all are ready to go, the first adult returns, bringing along a fish. It didn’t seem to take any notice of the rings that had meanwhile appeared on the feet of the young. Information about this came from the stork camera fans – the storkaholics – who keep an eye on the nest, day and night.

Anyone is welcome to follow the development of Tiina and Tiit’s young on Internet at http://www.looduskalender.ee until the first week of August. At that time they should be big enough to begin to prepare for the first great test in their lives – flying to Africa or the Near East.

Constantly declining numbers
Black storks (Ciconia nigra) resemble the white storks that are quite numerous in Estonia but are somewhat smaller, with a black neck and underside of wings.
The adults are white from the lower part of the breast to the undertail coverts.
All other parts of the plumage are black (with a strong purple-green metal sheen), the beak and legs red.
People of old believed that the shy and seldom seen forest dweller foretold death.
The basic food of black storks is fish and amphibians that they catch in small forest rivers and ditches. They are less frequently seen feeding at lakes and fish ponds or shallow sea water and flooded meadows.
Studies in recent years have shown that the male birds may fly up to 40 kilometres to good foraging areas. Nest sites are in larger forests far from human settlements.
Black storks are migratory birds. The males may arrive in Estonia in the beginning of April, already before all ice and snow has melted.
After arrival the male birds at once start to set the nest in order, to win the approval of the soon to arrive females.
All male storks do not find a mate in Estonia that is on the northern limit of the distribution area of black storks.
In the beginning of the 1980ies the number of black storks was estimated at 250 pairs. At present it is believed that there are only up to 80* pairs.

* i think Urmas once commented that the decline might be less steep: earlier numbers might have been overestimated - storks weren't believed to go quite as far away for foraging as they now are known to do, present numbers somewhat underestimated (unknown nests have turned up of late)

[Liis]

About Tiina & Tiit's nest area - as before, don't want to clutter up current nest cam discussion with longish post.
Ulvar Käärt told a little about the nest surroundings in his article about the stork ringing - previous post here.

The black stork nest is somewhere roughly around Palivere in Läänemaa, western Estonia (very much ”roughly”; giving precise nest locations is not allowed by law for protected bird species) . There are not all that many photos on the net from the area. One tourist sight is Palivere manor (see links below), now school and hostel.
To the east of Palivere village is the Marimetsa nature reserve area, about 5000 ha, with two quite different nature types: the Marimetsa Mire with bog pools ("a large paludified sandy basin" ) and the Kullamaa Liivamäed (sand and gravel ridges with heathland). Higher "peninsulas“ at the verge of the bog have rich oak-grove and fen floras. Golden eagles have nested in the area.
Two protected trees on the Tallinn-Haapsalu road near Palivere: a large Swedish whitebeam (Sorbus intermedia), and a white elm (Ulmus laevis), 5,45 m circumference at breast height (has been 6,7 m), earlier known as the Palivere holy grove lime and thought to be the oldest white elm in Estonia, more than 400 years old.
Palivere http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palivere not much info, just sets the area on map, check link in article on Taebla parish too.
Some pictures & text about nature in the area (Taebla): http://www.taebla.ee/loodus.html; text in Estonian – you might try Google translate, not too bad, or at least not worse than usual … At a white stork nest near the Tallinn-Haapsalu road grooms used to tie a ”marriage band” on the nest post for luck with children; the tougher groom, the higher up …
About Palivere manor http://www.mois.ee/english/laane/palivere.shtml in that fantastic site about ALL manors – ruins and restorations - in Estonia. See also location of Palivere on manors map http://www.mois.ee/english/parish/lnigula.shtml
http://www.visitestonia.com/en/palivere-manor Some more photos of the manor & info about hostel and surroundings (see links at bottom of page)