Latvian WTE nest webcamera: Juras-Erglis 2014

White-tailed eagles in Latvia

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Latvian WTE nest webcamera: Juras-Erglis 2014

Post by ame »

White-tailed sea eagles in Latvia: Juras-Erglis

So far only some things are known about this WTE-camera in Latvia, but more information will be added here as we learn more the nest and its inhabitants.

Camera links:

JWplayer: http://pontu.eenet.ee/player/juras-erglis1.html

VLC player: rtsp://193.40.133.138/live/juras-erglis1

Ipad and Iphones: http://193.40.133.138/live/juras-erglis1/playlist.m3u8

Pontu camera
As in earlier years with other nest cameras 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 form:
- before Apr 6th 14:55 (EET)
*ttp://pontu.eenet.ee/juras-erglis1/2014-04-06/2014-04-06-14-54.jpg
http://pontu.eenet.ee/juras-erglis1/201 ... -14-54.jpg
- after Apr 6th 14:55 (EET including this) are in new addresses:
*ttp://193.40.124.24/2014-juras-erglis-ftp/2014-04-06/2014-04-06-14-55.jpg
http://193.40.124.24/2014-juras-erglis- ... -14-55.jpg
In the above the h in the beginning of the address has been replaced with a * so that the address can be copied from here.
(Pontu picture address updated on Apr 11)

In the address above 'juras-erglis1' refers to the Latvian WTE nest. For other nests this part should be changed to for example with 'saunja' for the nest of WTES Linda ans Sulev, '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 date appears in the address twice (in the above example 2013-04-08 means April 8th 2013) and the time -08-36 means 36 minutes past 8 am. Editing the date and time will open the desired Pontu picture. Note that the date needs to be changed twice and there was number 1 after juras-erglis in the earlier address. 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.

One of the forum members, debianuser developped a tool to view pictures in a practical way. It was originally posted in the Osprey topic but the tool can be easily modified to view Pontu pictures from other cameras as well.
Here's a quote of debianuser's signature to give the link to this tool:
"Bird and other animals webcam snapshots and videos from pontu.eenet.ee with easy date selector to quickly switch between snapshots
http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3654 ... pontu.html "

Thank you debianuser!

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).

Both cameras, the live and the Pontu camera switch off in darkness in order to save energy. Both work, however, in very low light levels so in the last and first pictures of the day almost nothing can be seen.
Edit (in the end of season): To our delight and contrary to what was known in the beginning of the season the live camera worked also in the dark so audio observations were possible in the dark time, i.e. late in evenings and in early mornings. Video recordings were saved in the Pontu archive 24 hours a day (with few exceptions due to technical malfunctions) so video material was available from the dark time of the day also afterwards.
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Post by ame »

The nest is being built by a WTE couple where the male wears Lithuanian rings on his right ankle: the upper colour is blue on top of red stripe. The female has no rings.

Jānis Kuze (the coordinator of White-tailed eagle monitoring in Latvia and the supervisor of the ringing of this eagle species in Latvia) gave the following information about the nest and its inhabitants on April 18th.
(In the following the most important facts have been bolded.)
The nest of White-tailed eagles is located near Lake Lubāns (E part of Latvia), in breeding territory that is known since 2010. In the following two years this nest was not productive – in 2011 it was occupied but empty (most probably eggs were not laid), while in 2012 breeding was unsuccessful – in June remains of eggs were found in the nest bowl. In 2013 breeding was finally successful and two youngsters have left the nest. Later in the autumn birds began to prepare for the next breeding season – nest crown was supplied with branches and decorated with fresh conifer twigs.

During the coldest winter time adult eagles left their breeding area to look for food elsewhere - perhaps to areas where there was open water available with fish and waterfowl, or some place where they scavenged at some dead animal. This year at the nest for the first time they returned on 10th of February and at that time nest was already equipped with surveillance camera system. Soon we learned that the male is ringed - initial ring colour readings allowed to conclude that the bird is of Lithuanian origin and hatched in 2007, therefore, is a relatively young (sea eagles usually start to breed at the age of five years). On 3rd of March we managed to read the left leg ring number (V506) and thus found out that the eagle is ringed as a chick in the nest on 4th of June, 2007, in the north eastern part of Lithuania, in surroundings of Lake Sartai, about 120 kilometres from its current nesting site.

Female eagle is non-ringed, so the origin of this bird is not known to us. Both birds are well distinguishable not only by the rings (or lack of them), but also by the size - like with most other birds of prey, female is considerably larger than male. This difference is very obvious at times when both birds are next to each other.

In Latvia White-tailed eagles usually lay eggs in the first decade of March (there are 1-3 eggs in the clutch), so this pair can be regarded as a rather late breeder - the first of the two eggs was laid only on the 24th of March. The average hatching time for this species is 38 days, so we can expect that the first chick could hatch around the 1st May.

The users of Dabasdati.lv Forum named birds as Lubāna (female, as from the nearby lake) and Sartas (male, according to its Lithuanian origin and name of lake close to its hatching place).

The building of surveillance system was supported by the VAS LVRTC (JSC "Latvian State Radio and Television Centre ") and e – Paraksts (e-Signature), as well as "Apavi 40+" and guest house "Zvejnieki” in Īdeņa. Valuable assistance in building and maintenance of system was provided by Jānis Rudzītis, Jānis Kažotnieks and Elvijs Kantāns. System was partly built by the use of hardware that was obtained in frames of project “Eagles cross borders” (Estonian-Latvian cross border programme ESTLAT).
The quote is updated on Apr 18th.

Thank you Jānis for the information!

Below is a Google-based map of the Baltic countries, showing the locations of both the birthplace of the male (red balloon pointing at Lake Sartai in Lithuania) and the location of the nest at Lake Lubāns in Latvia (in red circle). In the lower right corner is the scale of the map.
Image

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

Major events at the nest
  • 17.2. Broadcast from the nest begins. Some video recordings are being saved.

    18.2. The first recorded sighting of the eagles at the nest: the female came to the nest at 17:12. She stayed on the left branch when the camera turns off at 17:18.

    19.2. Pontu pictures are being saved regularly.

    21.2. The first recorded nest building visit of both eagles at the nest: the male brought a stick at 13:51 and the female brought hay at 13:55. Both worked at the nest.

    24.2. The live camera was published.

    26.2. The first observed mating took place outside of the nest near camera at 17:45. All observed matings took place outside the nest in the near vicinity of it, most of them very late in the evenings. Only few matings were observed at other times of day.
    Pontu clip of the first mating: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCPbU-s ... GJ&index=2

    3.3. The camera was zoomed at the male's rings at 13:46 so that the numbers on the ring could be read: 506. The colour combination orange/blue means letter V, so the full code of the male's ring reads V506.

    18.3. At 18:00 a juvenile, probably 4th calendar-year eagle (born in 2011) visited the nest.
    viewtopic.php?p=302459#p302459

    22.3. The last certain mating voices at 6:00.
    Pontu clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szEoX-4 ... Mpryvv0Iiw

    24.3. The last possible mating voices at 6:09 rather far from the nest.
    Pontu clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHfid7d ... z&index=18

    24.3. The first egg was most probably laid at 14:10, but it wasn't seen properly before next morning due to thick layers of nest materials. viewtopic.php?p=303649#p303649

    25.3. The connection from the camera was lost at 7:48. The reason of the cut-off is unknown.

    5.4. The broadcast from the camera resumed at 3:46 and the first Pontu picture was recorded at 6:13. The reason of the reconnection is unknown.
    In Pontu video the female can be seen rolling two eggs for the first time at 6:54: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs-mpdi ... Q&index=13

    7.4. The members of the Latvian Dabasdati-forum agreed on the names for the eagles. The female will be called Lubana according to the name of the lake where the nest is situated, Lake Lubāns. The male was born near Lake Sartai in Lithuania so the male will be called Sartas.

    30.4. Eggtalk was heard for the first time at about 1 pm (13:00). viewtopic.php?p=316190#p316190
    Two eggs were still seen at 18:26. The first hatchling was seen for the first time at 19:37 for the next time.
    viewtopic.php?p=316256#p316256

    2.5. The second chick hatched between 7:20 - 14:50. The female was seen rolling an egg at 7:18, the male probably rolled an egg still at 9:39, at 11:40 the female picked up a piece of an eggshell, and at 14:51 two chicks were seen in the nest. viewtopic.php?p=316881#p316881
    At 14:09 a young 2nd calendar-year eagle visited the nest.
    viewtopic.php?p=316867#p316867

    11.5. Both chicks made their first wing exercise moves at 14:58 (the smaller chick) and at 14:59 (the bigger chick).
    viewtopic.php?p=348939#p348939

    13.5. Connection to the camera was lost at 7:07.

    7.6. The repair team went to the nest site and managed to locate the fault and restore the connection from the camera. The Pontu camera began recording still pictures again at 19:14. Eaglets were ringed prior to this. On June 8th the live stream was restored at 21:56.
    viewtopic.php?p=327231#p327231
    The eaglets got blue-over-black rings on their right legs with numbers Latvia Riga H376 and H377.
    viewtopic.php?p=327636#p327636
    [color=#FF8000]On 10 Jun 2014, 11:54[/color] lianaliesma wrote:We here in Dabasdati forum have asked schoolchildren to pick the names for little eaglets, and here they are:

    H376 the biggest eaglet, wind span 31 cm, this is Mākonis/ Cloud/.

    H377 the smallest eaglet, wind span 29 cm, is Puķīte/Floweret/.


    Image
    Photographs by Jānis Kuze, artwork lianaliesma.

    The name Mākonis is a male name and Puķīte is a female name, but probably the actual sexes of the eaglets are reverse: the bigger eaglet is likely to be a female and the smaller a male. Their size difference became more and more pronounced as they grew older. The bigger eaglet Mākonis is also probably the older of the two.

    As it became more and more obvious that the bigger eaglet had to be female her name was twisted into a female form Mākonite. In a the end of the season the smaller eaglet's name was also reshaped to a masculine form Puķītis by the members in the Looduskalender.
    Our apologies to the Latvian schoolchildren who chose the original names!
    In the following the names are updated accordingly.

    14.7. The older and bigger eaglet Mākonite jumped to a branch for the first time at 6:32 at the age of 75 days.
    viewtopic.php?p=334773#p334773

    21.7. The older and bigger eaglet Mākonite probably made her virgin flight in the morning at 8:39 at the age of 82 days.
    viewtopic.php?p=336256#p336256

    The first certain branching of the smaller eaglet Puķītis took place at 10:09: he flew across the nest to a branch at the age of 80 days.
    viewtopic.php?p=336265#p336265

    Videos of Mākonite's departure for probable first flight and Puķītis' first branching:
    viewtopic.php?p=336324#p336324
    Video of Mākonite's return from her first probable flight:
    viewtopic.php?p=336329#p336329

    22.7. The smaller eaglet Puķītis took off for his virgin flight on the next morning, July 22nd at 10:17 at the age of 81 days.
    Video of Puķītis' virgin flight:
    viewtopic.php?p=336498#p336498

    16.8. The first observed kill by an eaglet (disregarding fish) took place when Lubana brought a live seagull to the nest and Mākonite plucked and ate it.
    viewtopic.php?p=340722#p340722

    30.8. The connection to the camera was lost at 10:53, this time for good. The probable reason was aging of the battery.
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Post by ame »

the nest tree seems to be an aspen again so this camera is in some other place as the Juras-Erglis camera was in 2013. the tree there was a black alder.
here's a picture of the male on the nest this morning at 11:34.
Image

here he leaves the nest at 11:35.
Image

a video clip of this male eagle.
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Post by ame »

here's a crop&enlargement of the Pontu picture taken at 11:04. the colours could be white over black but i'm not sure. white over black would mean year 1998, the same as Linda's ring. clearer pictures are most welcome! :thumbs:
Image

at 11:43 the male brought a stick to the nest and showed first his left ankle.
Image

the Lithuanian ring colours blue over red can be fairly well seen on the right ankle of the eagle.
Image

here's the clip. the ring colour is easier to see in moving picture than on the still picture.
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Post by ame »

at 13:11 the male came to the nest again and brought a big stick.
Image

he struggled with the sticks for some time, looking for a good place for them.
Image

then he just stood there on the rim of the nest and watched out in the forest....
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Post by ame »

at 13:16 he left. not a clear view on the left ankle. the sunshine was too bright.
Image

Image



besides these visits at the nest i have heard eagle's calls from the forest a few times during the day.

today's playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL ... kXoyGJ0tb9
today's picture album as a slideshow: http://s561.photobucket.com/user/anmael ... 2014-02-24

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PLAYLISTS AND PICTURE ALBUMS OF EARLIER DAYS

Feb 17th
playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL ... nCe83qSPAp
picture album: no pictures

Feb 18th
playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL ... lI1ePLEpZE
picture album: http://s561.photobucket.com/user/anmael ... 2014-02-18

Feb 19th
playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL ... kLT0kz_daK
picture album: http://s561.photobucket.com/user/anmael ... 2014-02-19

Feb 20th
playlist: no videos
picture album: http://s561.photobucket.com/user/anmael ... 2014-02-20

Feb 21st
playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL ... PH08AWYA1E
picture album: http://s561.photobucket.com/user/anmael ... 2014-02-21

Feb 22nd
playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL ... UYa4wJSTiO
picture album: http://s561.photobucket.com/user/anmael ... 2014-02-22

Feb 23rd
playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL ... Zz61kESVkh
picture album: http://s561.photobucket.com/user/anmael ... 2014-02-23
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Post by Dima дима. »

Image
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Post by Fleur »

Great to see this :thumbs:
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Post by Manu »

Great to see the Latvian-WTE- Webcam is online again. And it's very nice to see the eagles are already busy.
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Post by Fleur »

February 25
good morning :hi:

7:04
Eagle call

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Post by Fleur »

:loveshower:

7:58
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Post by ame »

the camera does not open for me ... ? :puzzled:
ääärhh! :banghead: i forgot the number 1 in the end of the address. :blush:

the nest is empty at the moment.

Fleur, were you able to see the colours of the left ring?
i tried to take still pictures from your video but they are not clear enough. there's not enough resulution. i think that the left leg is well enough visible near the beginning of the video when the eagles are standing side by side on the left of the nest.

i think that the blue-over-red is rather clear on the right ankle (even if one would not know what colours there should ne) but the other ankle is not clear. it could be white over black. i think that there cannot be any bright colour like red or blue though.
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Post by Bea »

Cam is unstable :unsure: I cannot get a continuos stream, it is very shaky and choppy.
Nature does nothing in vain (Aristoteles)
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Post by ame »

yes it is. mine is jamming all the time and sometimes it cuts altogether. even Fleur's video was 'jumpy'.
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Post by Fleur »

ame wrote:the camera does not open for me ... ? :puzzled:
ääärhh! :banghead: i forgot the number 1 in the end of the address. :blush:

the nest is empty at the moment.

Fleur, were you able to see the colours of the left ring?
i tried to take still pictures from your video but they are not clear enough. there's not enough resulution. i think that the left leg is well enough visible near the beginning of the video when the eagles are standing side by side on the left of the nest.

i think that the blue-over-red is rather clear on the right ankle (even if one would not know what colours there should ne) but the other ankle is not clear. it could be white over black. i think that there cannot be any bright colour like red or blue though.
I have to look ame, I forgot it this morning :laugh:
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Post by Fleur »

* excerpt from the movie.
Difficult for me to say what color rings they have :whistling:

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Post by ame »

thank you Fleur! :thumbs:
i took a few still pictures from your video and made a gif of them. one shows rather well the size difference of the spouses: the female on the right is clearly bigger than the ringed male on the left. i think that there is also no doubt about the colours on the right-leg ring: it is blue-over-red, the Lithuanian colours. the right ring is still unclear. it could be white or metal over black until proven otherwise.
Image

i think some colours can, however, ruled out by these pictures. there can't be any red or blue i think. i think that green is out of the question, too, and maybe orange as well. the top colour is not any dark colour like black or blue... only blue-over-metal could be possible but that would be 2010 and i think that is too young. 2001 was white-over-orange and that might be possible. 1996 was orange-over-white. - but at the moment i would guess white-over-black (1998), like Linda's ring.
(but the bird himself looks younger than Linda maybe..? and so soed the female, too. :puzzled:
edit: my fingers seem to become more and more unorganized. i meant to write that "so does the female, too." i seem to be making more and more mistakes of this kind... :blush: )
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Post by lispet »

Thank you - the eParaksts logo is in much better position now! :2thumbsup: :D
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Post by lispet »

A short visit at 14:05

Image

Image

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