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[maertha]

Czech Republic: The still mysterious death of eagle Viktor


Viktor was found dead in South Bohemia in October. According to the police, a necropsy performed on the country´s only transmitter fitted White-tailed eagle revealed there was no criminality involved with the death of the animal. Libor Šejna with the Makově Wildlife Center rescued and released the eagle at the beginning of this year. The web portal Jižní Čechy Teď reported Šejna said he had no possibility to verify the necropsy results - perhaps a heart attack caused the death of the raptor. He also pointed out that Viktor was young, well fed and in excellent physical condition.

• More about Viktor (pictures, video and tracking map): See doc. #18 viewtopic.php?f=46&t=728&start=20

[maertha]

How long do White-tailed Eagles live?

The oldest known ringed eagle in Schleswig Holstein (Germany) is 29 years old. According to a newspaper article, Rolf Zietz managed to take a picture of the bird recently. Report from the same region: „The maximum ages of breeding birds, all estimated on the basis of annual collections of individually identifiable moulted feathers, were 32 (2), 33 (2), 34 and 36 years.” (Struwe-Juhl, B. 2002). White-tailed Eagle longevity records from Finland, Norway and Estonia can be found here http://www.looduskalender.ee/en/node/9327

Update, March 2017: White-tailed Eagle "Kuba" died at 33. The bird lived in a flight pen in the city of Miedzyzdroje/ http://www.wolinpn.pl/index.php?page=45 Woliński National Park, Poland. 29 March 2017 http://radioszczecin.pl/1,351717,leciwy ... &si=1&sp=1
Update, May 2017: Britain´s oldest white-tailed sea eagles feared dead. “Lochan and Misty, who are both believed to be 37 years old, have not been seen since last summer.” 6 May 2017 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/olde ... -6mgm8fdtk


Mike Quinn [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

See also:

• The aging raptor http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2015 ... t=Abstract
• How Long Can Birds Live? https://web.stanford.edu/group/stanford ... _Long.html
• Bald Eagle 629-03142, age 38, was the oldest wild banded Bald Eagle on record in the United States. (Thanks for the link to b.h-p) http://www.audubon.org/news/an-elegy-am ... bald-eagle
• Longevity list http://www.euring.org/data-and-codes/longevity-list
• Database of Animal Ageing and Longevity (AnAge) http://genomics.senescence.info/species/
  “Featuring over 4,000 species, AnAge provides a compilation of data on ageing, longevity, and life history (...). AnAge was primarily developed for comparative biology studies (...), but can also be useful for ecological and conservation studies and as a reference for zoos and field biologists.”

[maertha]

Update on Caeltra and interesting observation: Post-Fledging movements of White-tailed Eagles in Ireland and Norway

“Most major movements of released WTSEs that we know of, especially the satellite tagged birds, and young Irish-bred eagles have been north rather than any other direction. This is also the case in Norway where the large number of satellite tagged young WTSEs show northward movements on dispersing from the nest area. Thus there appears to be a hard-wired genetic predisposition to disperse north of Irish birds, whether of Norwegian origin or parentage but Irish bred.” Source: Golden Eagle Trust at Facebook, 16 November 2015 https://www.facebook.com/Golden-Eagle-T ... 4/?fref=nf "In long-lived raptors with delayed maturity, the period between fledging and settlement on a breeding site may take several years and is poorly understood." (Source: Juvenile Dispersal of White-Tailed Eagles in Western Scotland, see below)


By Martin Fisch from Wiesbaden, (marfis75Io Zzz on flickr) Germany (navigation (cc))
[CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Learn more:

• Post-fledging movements and foraging habitats of immature White-tailed Sea Eagles in the Nemuro region, Hokkaido, Japan (Shiraki 2002). PDF available via Google
• Satellite and Ground Tracking of a young White-tailed Sea Eagle Haliaeetus albicilla in the Uckermark (Brandenburg, NE Germany): Reintegration in the brood, break-up of the family, dispersion and wintering http://www.researchgate.net/publication ... _wintering
• Juvenile Dispersal of White-Tailed Eagles in Western Scotland (2009). Abstract here http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.3356/JRR-08-54.1

[maertha]

Book Tip: Population Ecology of Raptors, Ian Newton

About the book:
“Dr Newton's book is concerned with all aspects of population regulation in diurnal birds of prey, their social behaviour, dispersion, numbers, movements, breeding and mortality. He has drawn on his own studies in Scotland and on material and investigations worldwide to produce an authoritative and stimulating synthesis of current thinking and research on the ecological problems of the Falconiformes. He also deals in detail with the effects of pesticides and other pollutants on these birds, and with their scientific management and conservation.” (Source: Bloomsbury Publishing 2010) Preview available via Google Books.

About the author: Biography & Publications
http://www.globalraptors.org/grin/Resea ... lresID=302

Finding books: Try out the Karlsruhe Virtual Catalog (KVK). The KVK is a meta search engine for the detection of more than 500 million books, magazines and other media in library and book trade catalogs worldwide. http://kvk.bibliothek.kit.edu/index.html?lang=en

[maertha]

New report on raptor persecution & poisoning in Northern Ireland published today

“In the five years from 2009 to 2013 there were 30 illegal poisoning or persecution incidents, affecting 33 protected raptors (birds of prey), confirmed in Northern Ireland according to a report published today by the Partnership for Action against Wildlife Crime Northern Ireland (PAWNI).

The most frequent casualty was the buzzard (19 birds) followed by the recently re-introduced red kite (7 birds) and then peregrine falcons (4 birds). Other raptor species that were recorded included a white-tailed eagle, a golden eagle, sparrowhawk and a merlin.”


Common buzzard, painting by Walter Heubach (1865–1923), public domain

• Also interesting: Article on buzzard mobbing behaviour (same website, below the information about the report)
• Bird of Prey Persecution and Poisoning Report Northern Ireland 2009 – 2013 http://www.nirsg.com/news/

[maertha]

Happy Lucy the Australopithecus afarensis day!

• Lucy’s Story https://iho.asu.edu/about/lucys-story
• Evolution in a nutshell by Jim Benton: http://jimbenton.tumblr.com/post/133859 ... lopithecus
• A big mystery: Why do we laugh? http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3077386/ns/te ... -we-laugh/

[maertha]

RSPB Birdcrime Report 2014 published today

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is the UK’s largest nature conservation charity.
PDF here https://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwo ... -blog.aspx

[maertha]

How do birds survive the winter?


Screenshot: maertha/LK winter feeding ground 2013

• Read more: (Greg Laden´s Blog/ScienceBlogs.com) http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2014/ ... ld-winter/

[maertha]

Australia: Winton Wetlands is calling for public support to help protect a pair of endangered white-bellied sea-eagles
Read more: http://www.mmg.com.au/local-news/benall ... s-1.103739


By Sarala Gamage (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

• Info: White-bellied sea-eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster) at ARKive http://www.arkive.org/white-bellied-sea ... ucogaster/

[maertha]

Germany: Rewards offered for information leading to arrest of criminals


A nest of the White-tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) in Cherkasy region, Ukraine. By Maxim Gavrilyuk
(Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

According to Northern German Broadcasting (NDR), an unknown person cut down illegally a large poplar tree that housed a pair of White-tailed Eagles. The area near Mildstedt is not easily accessible to the general public. A 3.500 Euro reward is being offered by the WWF and the municipality of Südermarsch for information leading to the charging of those responsible for destroying the nest.

[maertha]

The database project was launched five years ago. Since then it has grown quite a bit.


Eagle. By Anonymous, openclipart.com, public domain

• Background information on the Lesser Spotted Eagle and White-tailed Eagle databases by Jo UK: viewtopic.php?f=46&t=458

[maertha]

Ireland: Golden Eagle Trust update on the seven month old Caeltra

“Interesting that she has headed south in the opposite direction from Aoibheall, the 2014 Mountshannon chick, and the first of our birds to show such a southerly movement.” (One month ago the team reported: “Most major movements of released WTSEs that we know of, especially the satellite tagged birds, and young Irish-bred eagles have been north rather than any other direction. This is also the case in Norway where the large number of satellite tagged young WTSEs show northward movements on dispersing from the nest area.” See above, 16 November.)

15 December 2015. More information and map: Golden Eagle Trust/Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/Golden-Eagle-T ... 808950774/

[maertha]

RSPB Scotland launches 20 year report on illegal killing of birds of prey

“RSPB Scotland has published a detailed 20 year review of the illegal killing of birds of prey in Scotland, which confirms that 779 protected raptors were illegally killed between 1994 and 2014. In total, 468 birds of prey were poisoned, 173 were shot and 76 were caught in illegal traps. There were also seven attempted shootings. The figures include 104 red kites, 37 golden eagles, 30 hen harriers, 16 goshawks and 10 white-tailed eagles.”


Giovanni da Udine, 16th century, public domain

• The full report can be downloaded here: http://www.rspb.org.uk/news/411729-rspb ... ds-of-prey

[maertha]

Welcome to the club: Finland will install the country´s first White-tailed Eagle cam

http://yle.fi/uutiset/ensimmaisena_suom ... sa/8530737
Update, 28 January: Finland makes progress in White-tailed Eagle webcam project. http://yle.fi/uutiset/merikotkien_pesak ... un/8616061

[maertha]

Merry Christmas!


Upload: Angelo Kelly, September 2015
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen– the story behind the song https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Rest_ ... _Gentlemen




If you click at the Christmas tree you´ll find a sea eagle story – told by the Bardi people of Western Australia and provided by MESA, The Marine Education Society of Australasia.

[maertha]

Wind farms threaten breeding success of White-tailed Eagle, study shows


Public domain

• Read more at Nature World News: http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles ... -study.htm
• The study (Proximity to wind-power plants reduces the breeding success of the white-tailed eagle by F. Balotari-Chiebao, J.E. Brommer, T. Laaksonen and T. Niinimäki) is available here: https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/pr ... led-eagle/

[maertha]

Wishing you a peaceful and happy New Year!

The Cast (Mairi Campbell, David Francis) sing Auld Lang Syne at the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards.

Upload: Natalia Ondruskova, 2013

• The History and Words of Auld Lang Syne http://www.scotland.org/features/the-hi ... lang-syne/

[maertha]

Green New Year's Resolutions

• Birds. (RSPB) http://www.rspb.org.uk/makeahomeforwild ... pingbirds/
• Bees. "Even if you can’t keep bees yourself, you can still garden for them" (Organic Gardening) http://www.organicgardening.com/tags/ho ... and-nectar
• Flowers. If you can't have a garden in the backyard, you can still become a Guerilla Gardener (Guerilla Gardening) http://www.guerrillagardening.org/ggtips.html
• More Ecosystem Actions (2020Vision) http://www.2020v.org/pledge.asp

[Birdfriend]

Thank you, Maertha, for your interesting links!
I wish you a happy new year!

[Liz01]

maertha thank you for your great work

Happy New Year



pair of eagles on the Darß