Latvian WtE nest webcamera: Juras-erglis 2015

[ame]

White-tailed sea eagles in Latvia: Juras-Erglis 2015

Camera links:

JWplayer: http://pontu.eenet.ee/player/juras-erglis.html

VLC player: rtsp://193.40.133.138/live/juras-erglis

Ipad and Iphones: http://193.40.133.138/live/juras-erglis/playlist.m3u8

The camera may be working also in the dark time of the night. Please check the local time (EET) to see if it is night in Latvia when you try to open the camera: the camera may be switched of during the night in order to save power. In the link below I have described a way to check if the camera is currently on or not:
http://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/view ... 69#p378869

So far the information that we have about this WTE-camera in Latvia is limited, but more information will be added here as we learn more the nest and its inhabitants. In the following Jānis Ķuze gives an introduction to the nest camera.

On Feb 11th Jānis Ķuze wrote:

Webcam at the nest of White tailed eagle in Latvia in 2015

The nest of White tailed eagle that is equipped with webcam system is located in W part of Latvia in Durbe County. It is a new breeding territory, known only since summer 2014 when first nest of this pair was found. It was built in the retention tree – pine tree that was left in the clear felled area. Pair bred successfully that year – it was one of the four known nests in Latvia in 2014 with three youngsters.

This year eagles started to build a new nest in the nearby spruce tree on the wind broken top. Several of the top-most branches are growing upwards now, thus providing a support for the eagles nest. Camera was installed at one of those branches at the early stage of nest building process, giving us a rare opportunity to watch the process of building of new nest (so far the webcams were placed mostly at White-tailed eagle nests with previous breeding history). Soon we discovered that the female is ringed, on left leg it has a ring with code K404 and colour combination “blue over red”. On right leg it has a ring with colour combination “blue over white” that points to the Estonian origin. Colleagues from there informed us that this bird was ringed as a nestling in the nest in southern part of Saaremaa Island in June 1999. Origin of the male is unknown as this bird is not ringed.

This nest is interesting with its location in the spruce tree. It is only fourth historically known nest in Latvia that is built in spruce (roughly half of all nests are built in pine trees, one third – in aspen trees, one tenth – in birch trees; more seldom spruce, oak and black alder is chosen). “Spruce nests” are usually built on such broken tops and are located high above the ground (in this case roughly 25 meters) – the highest nest of White tailed eagle in Latvia is located 31,5 meters above the ground and is built in spruce as well.

In the first half of February we can see the intensive nest building process where both of the birds are involved. If breeding will be started, eggs (1-3) could be laid in the end of February or in the first weeks of March (in rare cases it happens as late as in early April). Incubation usually lasts for 38 days; the young birds are going in their first flight in the age of 2 and a half months.

Project is implemented by the Latvian Fund for Nature. This year the transmission is possible thanks to the LMT (data transmission to the server), Mikrotik (4G routers), EENET (server), Janis Rudzitis and SIA “Rewind” (system configuration) and LatRosTrans (financial support).

Later further information was received from from Janis Kuze. He wrote about K404:

... the bird is ringed on 18.06.1999 in Southern part of Saaremaa, ringer Veljo Volke.

Saaremaa is the big island on Estonia's West coast, the same where the seal island is situated.
Thank you, Jānis Ķuze!

The location of the nest is in Durbe County near the city Liepāja in Western Latvia, shown in the maps below. The maps were provided by Jānis Ķuze. There is one big lake, Durbes ezers, with a nature reserve area. There are also other water areas in the county.





The introduction to this nest camera by Jānis Ķuze can be found also here:
http://dabasdati.lv/en/kameras2015
Thank you for the link, tringa!

Forum in Latvian language: http://dabasdati.lv/forums/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=1645

On 14 Feb 2015, 10:42 Janis Kuze wrote:

this nest is located not far away from several farmsteads, that is the reason why dogs can be heard, some of the chainsaws are coming from there as well. Site is not officially protected, yet. We are communicating with our State Forest Service about designation of so called microreserve, but that will take some time. Couple of cutting permits are issued there and the closest of patches is felled down, probably some timber that should be taken out is still there. How far I know, it is agreed now with other forest owners that they will not start new cutting activities until the autumn or the time when protection will be officially in force. On Monday I will update the situation.

On March 7th: Information about donating money for the benefit of the nest camera

... We are a few from Sweden who would like to donate some money to your project Durbe and Robert.
Is it possible and where can we get the information?

Hello Eaglelady and others!
Yes, you can support this project - more info can be found here:
http://dabasdati.lv/en/kameras2015
http://dabasdati.lv/en/cat/465

[ame]

Pontu camera

As in earlier years in connection with the live camera there is also a camera which takes still pictures of the nest once every minute for the archives. This camera is called Pontu camera. A similar camera is operational at each EENET- bird's nest camera.

The still pictures can be found in addresses which are of the following general form:
*ttp://193.40.124.24/2015-juras-erglis/2015-mm-dd/juras-erglis-2015-mm-dd-hh-minmin.JPG
where
mm = month
dd = day
hh = hour
minmin = minute.
All these are given with two digits. Note that the date appears in the address twice.
In the above the first letter h in the beginning of the address has been replaced with a * so that the address can be copied from here.
For example the Pontu picture at 15:36 on Feb 2nd:
*ttp://193.40.124.24/2015-juras-erglis/2015-02-11/juras-erglis-2015-02-11-15-36.JPG
In the above example 2015-02-11 means February 11th 2015 and the time -15-36 means 36 minutes past 15-hours (that is 3 pm).
http://193.40.124.24/2015-juras-erglis/ ... -15-36.JPG

Editing the date and time correctly will open the desired Pontu picture. If the picture is not found even for a seemingly valid address the time may be too early or too late: pictures are taken and stored only in the light time of the day. The Pontu camera switches off in darkness in order to save energy. - It is also possible that due to technical difficulties some pictures are simply missing.

If someone wishes to download the Pontu pictures in large quantities to one's own computer and needs help in doing that in a practical way one may ask for help from ame (or Felis Silvestris).

In the address above 'juras-erglis' refers to the Latvian WTE nest. For other nests this part should be changed to for example with 'kure' for the black storks Tiina and Tiit's nest camera, or 'tooni' for the other black stork's nest which has in recent years been inhabited by lesser spotted eagles Tuuli and Remo. The exact addresses will be given in the beginning of each nest topic.

The live camera works 24 hours a day so audio observations are possible in the dark time. The live camera is also being recorded continuously and these video recordings are being saved in the Pontu archive (with few exceptions due to technical malfunctions). Therefore video material is available from the dark time of the day also afterwards. These recordings are normally 4 hours long and therefore very large files (typically from 2 GB to even nearly 4 GB), so they need a lot of disk space. Downloading of such files also takes a fairly long time (depending naturally on the data transmission rate). One should note that the last video file in the list is still being recorded and thus without an end-marker. Downloading such a file gives an incomplete and possibly unmanageable file. Refreshing the Pontu archive bookmark will show if the recording has stopped: the size of the file will not increase any more.

The Pontu videos are being saved in mkv-format (the so-called matroska-format) which can be played ('read') with for example VLC-player. One can also take snapshots of these files with the VLC, but one cannot make recordings of mkv-files with the VLC (VLC cannot 'write' this format). If someone has difficulties in handling these files ask ame or aita for assistance, or see the Technical help-topic:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=718
If someone knows other practical ways of handling these mkv-files please write a description of your procedure there!

Pontu archive link: http://193.40.124.24/2015-juras-erglis/
LK-member Debianuser has developed a tool for viewing Pontu pictures. The tool can be found here:
http://pontu.bl.ee/
Thank you Debianuser!

Tringa gave us photographs of the nest tree. Thank you Tringa!

[ame]

The nest is being built by a WTE couple where the other spouse, the female wears Estonian rings: on the right ankle a blue-over-white ring.


The ring on the left ankle has colours blue-over-red which mean year 1999. The letter on the ring thus should be K which can also be seen in this picture.


The code has numbers 04. One number was completely unknown in the beginning. On 1999 rings the code was written on both colour rings around the ring, not in two rows above each other as in later rings. Therefore the missing number x is either right after the letter K (Kx04) or the code is K04x.


In this picture the numbers 04 can be clearly seen. It also seems that the K possibly follows 4, so the first number is still missing. The code would then be Kx04.


A picture taken by airras on Feb 7th (posted on 07 Feb 2015, 10:57, viewtopic.php?p=359335#p359335) shows the missing number of the ring: the letter K is followed by the number 4. So the whole code of the female is K404.


The other eagle, the male has no rings and therefore it is impossible to know anything of his origins. The nest seems to be situated in a spruce with a lot of cones.


For refreshing the memory the ring colourcodings can be found here:
viewtopic.php?p=192939#p192939

Latvian forum members named the eagles on Feb 13th.
The female will be called Durbe and the male Robert.
viewtopic.php?p=360277#p360277

lianaliesma made a picture showing the tailmarks of both parents. thank you, lianaliesma!


Here is another picture showing both tails. Male is on the left and female on the right.

[ame]

Major events at the nest
searchword searchnestsummary

6.2. Broadcast from the nest begins in the morning. Some video recordings are being saved. The nest web camera is published in the evening. http://www.looduskalender.ee/node/22383
11.2. Pontu pictures are being saved from this date at 11:29 onwards.
9.3. The first egg was laid at 16:42 local time. The due date is expected after 38 days of incubation on April 15th.
12.3. The second egg was laid at 18:19 local time. The due date is expected after 38 days of incubation on April 18th.
18.3. A hooded crow pecked and ate one of the eggs in the morning while a parent was absent. The crows had apparently been monitoring the eagles' nest as two crows arrived at the nest less than a minute after the parent had left. The crow gave other egg some blows, too.
21.3. The remaining egg was left exposed to hard wind and zero temperature for almost exactly an hour in the late afternoon. The condition of the egg after this is very doubtful: it is likely that no chick will hatch. We are waiting and hoping...
14.4. In the morning a young eagle disturbed the family's peace. While the female Durbe called at the intruder the viewers could see that in the egg there was a clear pip hole. The hatching had started earlier than expected. The hole in the egg grew larger very slowly and still in the evening it hadn't come very wide.
15.4. In the early morning the eggshell had still not opened. During the first feeding at 8:44 the chick seemed to be free of the shell, but still about two hours later the chick's backside seemed to be stuck to the shell. In this case the hatching was a very long process, lasting well longer than 24 hours. The hatching date may be written as April 15th. It can also be concluded that the first-laid egg was the one which survived the crow's attack on March 18th. The long hatching maybe be due to the same reason as the survival: thick eggshell.
26.5. The eaglet was ringed in the morning and received a black-over-blue ring in its right leg with the code H390. The discussion of the ringing begins here:
http://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/view ... 78#p391778
The video of the ringing you will find here:
http://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/view ... 29#p391829
14.6. The first wing exercise air-borne:
http://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/view ... 53#p399653
23.6. The first branching:
http://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/view ... 17#p402817
4.7. Durberts took off for the first flight at 9:04 at the age of 81 days:
http://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/view ... 76#p406276
8.8. The camera stopped working at 9:41. There had been some breaks in the stream also earlier in the season, lasting for shorter or longer times, but the system had recovered from these breaks thanks to the efforts of the technical team. This time there appeared to be more difficult technical problems and on 13.8. it was announced that the camera will remain closed.
16.8. The technical team visited the nest site and found that the camera and the router of the transmission system had been broken by a lightning which had struck the big oak next to the nest tree, the so-called 'parents' tree' where the parent eagles liked to perch. The oak had literally exploded in the lightning strike and only a few meters high broken stump was left. Pictures of the nest site taken by Jānis Ķuze can be found here: http://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/view ... 89#p416489.
18.8. The technical team installed a new camera and router at the nest and the transmission was resumed at 21:00. At 21:16 three big birds were seen flying over the forest. These were perhaps the eagle family. Later in the evening the eaglet was heard calling in the forest.
19.8. The female brought a fish to the nest at 16:35 and ate it.
20.8. All family members were heard calling in the forest at 5:44. The female brought a fish to the eaglet at the nest at 11:17.
21.8. The male brought a fish to eaglet at the nest at 9:34. Thus all the members of the eagle family had been seen on the camera after the thunder storm.
27.8. at 20:41 the male brings a fish to the nest but the fish unfortunately slips through the claws of both the male and the eaglet and drops down and is lost. The male leaves at 20:42. This is the last time the male was seen visiting the nest.
1.9. At 15:14 the female brings a fish to the nest and leaves at once before the eaglet arrives at the nest. The eaglet eats the fish and leaves at 15:27. This is the last time both the female and the eaglet were seen on the nest.
7.9. The parents called near the nest at 20:25. This is the last observation of the parents.
8.9. The eaglet's voice was heard near the nest at 10:52 and a large bird was seen circling above the meadow and then flying away. This is the last observation of the eaglet.
http://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/view ... 50#p420150
At 12:26 a strange young ringed eagle explored the nest. The colours blue over black (with code H362) on the ring of the right leg showed that it was a Latvian bird. It was possible to read the codes on its rings: K096 on the left black ring. The code revealed that this eagle was the smallest of our eagle couples last year's three-eaglet clutch. These eaglets were raised in the previous nest on this territory, not the one which we have been observing. The previous nest was destroyed in last winter and the parents built a new nest.


5.10.2015 The result of the specially ordered DNA test showed that the eaglet is female.
Therefore the Latvian Dabasdati-forum people will call her from now on either Durberta or Berta for short.

The whole history of WtE-videos/articles from Looduskalender main page can be found from these links:
- in Estonian language:
http://www.looduskalender.ee/node/24547
- in English language:
http://www.looduskalender.ee/en/node/2906
- in German language:
http://www.looduskalender.ee/de/node/22391
- in Russian language:
http://www.looduskalender.ee/ru/taxonomy/term/27

[ame]

Feb 6th
picture album: http://s561.photobucket.com/user/anmael ... 2015-02-06
playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL ... bR3s9tJFMR

[Hellem]

A new WTE camera in Latvia The female bird has rings and is ringed in Estonia.
From LK main page (in Estonian):
http://www.looduskalender.ee/node/22383
http://www.looduskalender.ee/node/22384

[Fleur]

already a nice hole in there

[Fleur]

8:14
Raven are awake, Eagle call in the distance

[ame]

Venegor posted this beautiful picture in a wrong place. i copied it here because her it belongs.
thank you Venegor!

hello new camera!

[ame]

a new topic for this nest is coming right soon!

edit: here we go. thank you Bea!

[Fleur]

good morning

8:01
Female arrived


8:09
Male with nest material


it seems Male has no rings

[Fleur]

9:19
beautiful copple

[airras]

good morning

[Fleur]

9:47
Male take off




little impression from this morning

[airras]

has returned 9:49

[ame]

they are so cute! love birds!


for a short while i thought they were about to mate and i turned the volume down.
but no, not now. they are looking around the forest now.

[Fleur]

yes...thank you Ame for open this topic

..and of course ...Looduskalender, Urmas and all others.

[Fleur]

...but...I think the pictures are to big

[Fleur]

9:57
Female to the edge


Male too
sitting both near the nest


edit: I think they use a branche there to take off

[airras]

have flown first female and the male after
9:57