Latvian WtE nest webcamera Juras-erglis 2017

[ame]

White-tailed sea eagles in Latvia: Juras-Erglis 2017

A new topic for the new year!



The beginning season is direct continuation to the previous season as the camera has been working practically all Autumn. You may catch up where we came from here:
viewtopic.php?f=99&t=804&start=7700


Camera links:

The video transmission from the nest is streaming in Youtube, presently in this address
(starting from Oct 19)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu7bChYGfiA
Also starting from Oct 19 the camera will be closed for the nights. The operation time will be 6:00 - 20:00 (6 am - 8 pm) local time.

The Youtube stream can be scrolled back in time four hours from present. This way it is possible to see what happened at the nest a little earlier. This makes it also possible to record the stream with some screen recording program. From the Settings-button in the lower right corner one can change the resolution of the picture.

The link to the WTE camera, as well as the other the live cameras of Latvia's Nature Fund LDF (Latvijas dabas fonds), can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIcQwg ... hMBclDJENw
The WTE camera is not on the top of the list so you need to scroll down a little. In Latvian it is called "LDF Jūras ērglis tiešraide".
An introduction to the Latvian nest cameras is given here (in Latvian but you can try your luck with some translating machine like Google Translator):
http://ldf.lv/lv/tiesraide

The stream can also be viewed (for example) on Potplayer by opening the above URL address. The Potplayer can also be used for recording the stream and for taking snapshots from the stream. The VLC player which was widely used for viewing the Looduskalendar webcameras cannot do these tasks with the Youtube stream. The use of Potplayer is discussed here:
viewtopic.php?p=499450#p499450
There are also several screen recording programs which can be used for recording the stream. The use of some of them are also discussed in the Questions and help-topic:
viewtopic.php?p=376697#p376697

The working hours of the camera will be different in different times of the year depending on the lighting conditions. The camera system is powered by solar panels which feed a battery. In order to save energy in the battery the camera is turned off for the dark time. First in the winter when days are short the camera will be starting at 7:30 and it will stop at 17:30 local time (EET). Later in the spring and summer the camera may be working even in the dark time of the night. Then we can make audio observations even though we may not be able to see anything.

Please check the local time to see if it is night in Latvia when you try to open the camera and get no stream: the camera may be switched off during the night in order to save power. The Eastern European Time EET is 2 hours ahead of GMT (or Greenwich/London time); in summertime the daylight saving time adds one more hour to GMT.

Sometimes there may be a malfunction in the streaming system. In the link below you will find a way to check if the camera is currently streaming or not:
viewtopic.php?p=378869#p378869

[ame]

Picture and video archive

The Latvian Nature Fund (Latvijas dabas fonds, LDF) keeps a picture and video archive for the nest cameras which it is operating. The similar archive for Looduskalender cameras is called the Pontu archive but the Latvian archive has no special name. Both archives work with the same principle. The stream is recorded and the videos are saved in this archive. Also a high-resolution still picture is taken each minute and saved separately in video and photo directories.

The address of the Latvian archive for year 2016 is:
ftp://ftp.ldf.lv/kameras/2016/juras-erglis/
The videos and pictures of 2017 are being saved in the same archive at least presently. Scroll to the bottom of the list.

The high-resolution 1-minute pictures are named in the following form:
ftp://ftp.ldf.lv/kameras/year/juras-erglis/foto/year-mm-dd/juras-erglis-year-mm-dd-hh-minmin.jpg
The abbreviations have the following meanings:
year = year in format 2016, 2017, ...
mm = month
dd = day
hh = hour
minmin = minute.
All other values than the year are given with two digits. Note that the date appears in the address twice. Also note that the address is case sensitive: for example an address with 'Jpg' as format will not open a picture.

Editing the date and time correctly will open the desired archive 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. It is also possible that due to technical difficulties some pictures are simply missing.
An example:
ftp://ftp.ldf.lv/kameras/2016/juras-erg ... -09-50.jpg
or
*tp://ftp.ldf.lv/kameras/2016/juras-erglis/foto/2016-12-29/juras-erglis-2016-12-29-09-50.jpg
In the above the first letter f in the beginning of the address has been replaced with a * so that the address can be copied from here.

The video recordings of each day are saved in separate folders. At present videos of every other hour are being saved in the archive. The names of the daily video folders are named according to the date like in this example:
ftp://ftp.ldf.lv/kameras/2016/juras-erg ... 016-12-29/
*tp://ftp.ldf.lv/kameras/2016/juras-erglis/video/2016-12-29/
Clicking the name of any video in the folder will open the video either for playing (not recommended for these large files!) or downloading (this will take a long time, too). The videos are in mkv (or the so-called Matroska) format which the VLC player cannot re-record or even play properly. The Potplayer can handle videos in this format. The free version of Solveig AVI Trimmer cannot be used for trimming the archive's mkv-videos but it can handle the videos recorded with the Potplayer in mkv-format.

Before starting to download (save) the latest video from the archive one should check that it not being recorded still. If the video is still being recorded the file will be without an end-marker. Downloading such a file gives an incomplete and probably (partly) unmanageable file. Refreshing the archive bookmark after a minute or two later will show if the recording of the file has stopped: the "last modified" time of the file will not increase any more.

EDIT: NEW archive (Feb 4 2017 onward):
ftp://vilandes.ldf.lv/../JurasErglisDurbe/
The resolution of the videos is so good now that the high-resolution 1-min-pictures have become unnecessary. Only videos are saved.

If someone has difficulties in handling the archive files please see the Questions and help -topic:
http://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/view ... ?f=3&t=718
or ask ame or Liz01 for assistance.
If someone knows other practical ways of handling these mkv-files please write a description of your procedure there or in here:
http://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/view ... ?f=3&t=770

The archive was made non-public from 14.5.2017 onward. The data is being saved but there's no direct public access to it for now on.

[ame]

Important events at the nest

In the early season the nest was again, like in the previous year, visited by many strange eagles. Some of them only made brief visits, but some tried to settle to the territory. This led to several successive struggles and fights between eagles. Several dating pairs were formed and soon broken as results of these confrontations as new girlfriends and/or boyfriends replaced the previous ones.

These processes and events are described here:
http://www.kotkas.ee/seaeagle2017/files ... t%22%7D%5D
A video collection of some events can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... FhCd5qQ6qR

As a results of this pair-changing carousel a male called Raimis and a female who went unnamed for a long time remained in the territory and formed a dating young couple. Raimis came to the territory on 3.3.2017 and took charge. He had two girlfriends one after the other before a new strong female banished the last girlfriend on 7.4.2017 and stayed. Only in the Autumn the Dabasdati people were certain enough that she would stay and they gave her the name Milda.

Raimis tried hard to mate with Milda in the spring but no breeding resulted. However, the eagles settled on the territory and in October they began to rebuild the nest. They continued their work regularly till December but then they started to rest from the building for the darkest time of the year. Anyway they visited the nest almost on daily basis.

[ame]

Inhabitants

In the first camera season 2015 this nest was occupied by a eagle couple who built the nest starting from zero in that winter. This territory was found in 2014 and the same couple raised three eaglets in another nest which was destroyed later. The female had Estonian rings and the male was unringed. The DD forum members gave them names Durbe and Robert. The couple raised one eaglet who was given a male name Durberts. Later the DNA revealed that the eaglet was female so actually the name should be Durberta. The LK forum notes of the season 2015 can be found here:
viewtopic.php?f=99&t=738
Some more information about this eagle couple can be read here:
viewtopic.php?p=433898#p433898

The season 2016 started with misfortune: Durbe was never seen again after Dec 29 2015. Instead of her Robert got other company as a young strange female tried to make his acquaintance. Also other strange eagles began to visit the nest. Sometimes there were clashes among these eagles when more than one happened to come to the nest at the same time. Some clashes must have taken place outside the nest, too, since Robert injured his foot somewhere. It became apparent that something fatal had happened to Durbe. Robert didn't warm up to the advances of the new female and finally he had to leave. He hasn't been seen at the nest for certainty after the end of February.

During the spring more strange eagles visited the nest, among them a young female and a young male who started coming together. They seemed to settle at the nest so after a while they were given names Egle and Ansis by the DD members. However, they didn't quite seem to be mature enough to breed yet, although the male was very eager to try to mate with the female (but his technique was not adequate yet). After a month or two they stopped coming and were not seen at the nest after the end of April.

On April 17th a Latvian eagle with number 221 on its blue-over-black country ring on the right leg and individual code C602 on the blue-over-white left ring was identified on the nest. Probably the same bird was seen already on March 29th but then only the first two characters on the blue stripe of its individual ring, C6, were seen. C602 was ringed on 5.6.2010 in Kurzemē region (Kuldīgas side) in a nest with two eaglets. This eagle began to visit the nest on a more or less regular basis.

On July 29th a Lithuanian eagle with blue-over-red country ring on the right leg and individual code B556 on its black-over-blue left ring arrived together with the Latvian C602. B556 was ringed as a nestling on 30.5. 2009 in Šilute district, Lithuania by Deivis Dementavicius. The bird was earlier captured in a picture taken with an automatic camera on 30.9. 2011 at a nest in Kurzemē (Tērandes side), Latvia.

From the end of July the two eagles started to come to the nest together. Based on their voices it was concluded that C602 is a male and B556 is a female. They seemed to get along well from the very beginning: for example on one of their arrivals on that day they landed on the nest simultaneously "hand in hand". In the picture below the Lithuanian B556 is in the foreground and the Latvian C602 is in the back.

In the autumn they began to rebuild the nest. On Oct 16th the female was given the name Šilutė and the male was named Vents by the members of the Dabasdati forum. Šilutė is now 7 years old and Vents 6 years so it is probable that they will breed for their first time in this season.

During the summer and early autumn the friendship of these birds grew and the prospects of getting a fruitful season 2017 at this nest became brighter as the autumn grew darker. The eagles started to bring sticks and twigs to the nest. The female Šilutė has been the more hard-working partner in this respect. They also began to show each other expressions of tenderness in the eagle way, pulling each other's feathers and pecking each other's faces which in human eyes looks rather scary but must be the eagle equivalent for kissing. Vents has been the more active partner in this activity. He also often sings softly to his sweetheart. One or two attempts of mating have been observed during the autumn.
In the beginning of the year 2017 the construction of the nest is already very complete.

Complications arose as Šilutė was not seen anymore after Jan 27, when she left the nest together with Vents at 10:50. The next day both eagles were absent and on Jan 29 Vents returned alone and waited at the nest for a long time. A young Lithuanian female L076, possibly Šilutė's full sister was seen on the next two days together with Vents. On Feb 1 a youngish but mature-looking un-ringed female came to the nest together with Vents at 9:33. She seemed determined to take possession of both the nest and Vents, but so far (Feb 10) it is unknown what will happen.

Situation on 30.12.2017
The spring at the nest was very lively, like in the previous year. Raimis and Milda are now the owners of the territory and they have started to rebuild the nest for the coming season.

A more detailed account of the eagles at the nest in 2016 can be found here:
viewtopic.php?p=433901#p433901

An introduction for 2016 by Jānis Ķuze (in Latvian) here:
http://ldf.lv/lv/tiesraide
and this GoogleTranslated to English:
http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... Ftiesraide

[ame]

Identification of the eagles

Knowing who is who on the nest should not be a problem now that both of the inhabitants wear rings. The female Šilutė has the Lithuanian ring with blue stripe on the top a red stripe on her right leg and a year 2009 ring with black stripe on top of a blue stripe on her left leg. The male Vents has the Latvian blue-over-black ring on the right leg ant the blue-over-white ring of year 2010 on his left leg. Seeing at least one leg is therefore enough to know exactly who is who. This works in principle but in the poor light conditions of the darkest midwinter this has sometimes proven to be not so easy.

The voices of the two eagles are clearly different: Šilutė's voice has lower pitch than the voice of Vents, but it takes some practice before one learns to know the difference of their voices. (for myself it took several years. )

Their tail spots form different patterns but it cannot always be very clearly seen. Šilutė has two separate black spots and the left spot looks slightly bigger because it is formed of two feather tips. The spots in the tail of Vents are smaller and they form a horizontal line. One spot on the right side in the tail of Vents seems to be larger and be higher or lower than the others because it consists of two tips of feathers. He also has long black lines in the edges of the tail (like a 'mustache' or 'icicles'). The edges of Šilutė's tail are white. Otherwise the outer appearance of the eagles is very similar as they are almost equally old and equally big.

The female Šilutė on the left (at 9:54) and the male Vents on the right (at 10:46). On the whole Šilutė's tail pattern is clearer and more regular than the pattern on Vents' tail.
.

.

Here's a gif showing Šilutė getting up to the branch.


Here's a gif showing Vents getting up to the branch.


The identification of eagles has been discussed in more detail here:
viewtopic.php?p=433902#p433902

[ame]

The location of the nest

The location of the nest is in Durbe County near the city Liepāja in Western Latvia, marked with blue line 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.

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. ...

The nest site was granted a micro reserve status in October 2015. Jānis Ķuze wrote about it in Dabasdati forum on Oct 12 2015:
http://dabasdati.lv/forums/viewtopic.php?p=53464#p53464
Translated with the help of Google translator:
"We just got a message from the State Forest Service - nest is officially established microreserve! It is surrounded by a wide buffer zone in which forestry activities are not allowed during the nesting season. Thus, from the forest to disturb the work, this place is now protected."

We may get some clues about the location of the nest from what we see and hear over the camera. Based on these clues it is possible to narrow down the location of the nest in more detail. We ask every one of you to keep all detailed information about the location to yourselves. Please also do not share any further information about the location anywhere in the internet, not in this forum nor anywhere else. More detailed information of the location of the nest may encourage some people to go and seek the nest in nature. Nest tourism like this is the last thing that is needed here in the delicate breeding time. People near the nest may frighten parents away from the nest and leave eggs or chicks unprotected from weather and predators. Thus an intrusion may lead to destruction of the clutch.
Thank you for your co-operation.

[ame]

The nest

The nest is built in the top of a spruce which has been broken possibly in a storm many years ago. After that several side branches have started to grow as replacement tops. The biggest branch on the right of the nest in these pictures has won the race of becoming the new top.

A spruce as a nest tree is rare because normally the branches slant downward from the trunk. Branches like this do not form a stable basis for a nest which may eventually weigh tons. The top of this spruce forms a secure basis for the nest: the nest sits in the top like in a palm of a hand with fingers pointing up.

Tringa gave us photographs of the nest tree. Thank you Tringa!
Apparently the picture is taken from the direction to which the nest camera looks.


The nest is described in more detail here:
viewtopic.php?p=433903#p433903

[ame]

Other information


Dabasdati forum

The nest life of the eagles is also followed in the Latvian Dabasdati forum (often DD forum or just DD for short like LK for Looduskalender):
http://dabasdati.lv/forums/index.php?si ... 582c70da1b
The live camera topics are under the title "Tiešsaistes kameras Latvijā" and the WTE -topic is called "Jūras ērgļi Durbē 2017".
http://www.dabasdati.lv/forums/viewtopi ... =27&t=3686

The language of the DD forum is Latvian. You can try your luck with some translator machine to communicate there.
Most of the Latvian members understand English, too. Some of the DD members are members in LK, too.


Weather in Durbe, Latvia

Some websites where one can see the weather forecast for Durbe county, Latvia.
http://www.yr.no/place/Latvia/Other/Durbe/
http://www.accuweather.com/en/lv/durbe/ ... ast/224453
One can search for weather information for using Liepāja, too, since it is the closest larger city near Durbe.


Sky in Durbe, Latvia

This is a nice site where you can create the sky map for any location on any time.
http://www.fourmilab.ch/yoursky/
Here the co-ordinates of Durbe, Latvia are applied:
http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/Yourhor ... &elements=

Here the location is set to Durbe, Latvia. Just change the time. Note, that the program requires the UTC time which is 2 hours less than local time in Latvia (in summer time 3 hours).
http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/Yourhor ... &elements=

The camera is pointed to about East of South-East. Here are two links to posts where one can see a comparison of the camera view with the sky map:
http://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/view ... 36#p510236
http://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/view ... 02#p510702


Information about donating money for the benefit of the nest camera

... you can support this project - more info can be found here:
http://dabasdati.lv/en/kameras2015
http://dabasdati.lv/en/cat/465

Some information about the technique

GoogleTranslated from the DD forum:

Observation system at the nest place helped Janis Rudzītis (SIA "Rewind", system configuration) and Girts Strazdiņš, its maintenance have helped Maris and Leo Dabasdati.lv of the Forum, as well as van Drongelens Leks (Lex van Drongelen) and Jelle and Lips. Data transmission 4G network provides LMT.

(last paragraph in the Introduction:
http://dabasdati.lv/forums/viewtopic.ph ... 93#p108693 )

[ame]

Ringed eagle visitors at the nest 2017


28.1. Latvian K019 who has been ringed on 1.6.2012 in Kurzemē region (SW Latvia) by Jānis Ķuze. This bird was possibly seen the first time on this nest on 18.11.2015. (http://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/view ... 00#p429300 )
On that visit the ring reading remained, however, unclear.

http://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/view ... 25#p509025

29.1. Lithuanian L076 ringed by Deivis Dementavičius in Western Lithuania on 9.6. 2013 in the same breeding territory as the female of this territory Shilute who was ringed on 30.5. 2009. L076 may even be her full sister.

In the archive picture take at 14:48 the number 626 can be seen.

http://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/view ... 40#p509140

L076 visited the nest again on Jan 30 in the morning. In the archive picture taken at 8:21 the letter L and the middle number 7 under it can be clearly seen.


L076 visited the nest again on Jan 31. It showed apparent interest in the male Vents.

10.2. Lithuanian L084

L084's profile and rings in the archive picture taken at 8:18.

ftp://ftp.ldf.lv/../kameras/2016/juras- ... -08-18.jpg

24.3. Latvian K055 visited the nest for the 10th time. Its previous visits have been on 22.12. 2015, and in 2016 the days were 3.2., 13.2., 13.3., 15.3., 28.4., 16.8., 21.10., and 30.10.
viewtopic.php?p=517189#p517189

25.10. Latvian K055 visited the nest for the 11th time. On the country ring he has the code H321. (NOTE: the ring reading is a little unclear!)
viewtopic.php?p=553855#p553855

27.10. Latvian H485 visited the nest.

better visible?

In DDF:
https://forums.dabasdati.lv/viewtopic.p ... 47#p159847
EDIT: This eagle visited the nest again two years later, on Dec 29 2019. Then the ring colours were clearly blue and black, showing that it was of Latvian origin. Jānis Ķuze wrote about this bird:
» 29 Dec 2019 11:38
... tas ir Latvijas izcelsmes putns, H485, gredzenoju to kā mazuli ligzdā 24.05.2017. Engures ezera apkārtnē.»
GoogleTranslated: "... it is a bird of Latvian origin, H485, I ring it as a baby in a nest 24.05.2017. Near Lake Engure"
viewtopic.php?p=554008#p554008


8.12. Latvian K091. On the country ring she has the code H357. Jānis Ķuze ringed this bird on 28.05.2014 as an only chick in surroundings of Liepāja city, SW Latvia. Interestingly, it comes from the same nest as K019, seen here on 28.01.2017. This is the first control sighting of this bird.

[ame]

Frequently asked questions FAQ

There are some questions about eagles and their breeding which rise repeatedly over and again during nesting seasons. Answers to these questions are looked for and given given during the season(s), but often they are difficult to find afterwards.

Therefore keywords for making searches for finding the answers are added in the posts containing the answers. Below is a list of these keywords. This list will be supplemented as new keywords are found useful.

• searcheggdevelopment for searching posts with answers concerning processes involving mating behaviour and development of eggs before and after egg-laying.
  searchhatching for searching posts about when and how chicks hatch.
  searchringing for searching information about ring-marking (or banding) of eaglets or other information about marking eaglets with rings or radio transmitters.
  searchfledging for searching posts about how and when eaglets fledge.
  searchnestsummary for searching for a short summary of the events during a nesting season.
  searchliterature for searching references (articles, books etc) about WTEs.

Advice about how to make searches in the forum can be found in the Questions and help -topic here:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=595

[Liz01]

January 1st

Happy new year

Ame Thank you for the new topic
It will hopefully be a successful year for Shilute and Vents

[Abigyl]

Happy New Year !!

Ame, many thanks! Such a big work to update all the data on front pages

[laranjeiras]

Thanks ame for this new topic - all the info we need to get by

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE

[sova]

Happy New Year

[ame]

it's raining.
the scenery is sooo far from the picture which i put on the top.
ftp://ftp.ldf.lv/kameras/2016/juras-erg ... -12-35.jpg

the picture&video archives are still the same 2016-archives as they were.

[Kertugal]

Happy New Year to every one and i hope Ame, liz and all the members of Looduskalender

I hope you pursue the magnificent work of year 2016 and that eagles are so much going to give us of émossions but that we shall not live any more of disparation (I think of Durbe and Robert)

Every day I read you and look at your photos and at videos, a real happiness! Thank you all and all as well as teams of scientists who allow us to share the life of the eagles.

Kiss from France and love

I use Google's translator, sorry

[Liz01]

Hello Kertugal/ Sophie
Welcome back

[ame]

Vērotāja has also started a new topic in DD for this year. the introduction is in Latvian but GoogleTranslator (GT) makes rather good sense of the text (although camera is again sometimes translated as 'chamber' ).
the introduction is here:
http://dabasdati.lv/forums/viewtopic.ph ... 93#p108693

in the next post there are some great pictures of our young couple, including nice pictures of their rings:
http://dabasdati.lv/forums/viewtopic.ph ... 94#p108694

[ame]

i made a picture of Tringa's photograph taken of the nest tree where i marked the branches which we can see in the camera.

the photograph was taken before the camera was installed. the picture shows the tree from the direction where the nest camera is looking. therefore the branches which we see in the live camera on the left are on the right side of this picture.

one special branch is also shown: the "poop branch". the name came naturally since Durberta hit this branch very often with her poopshots. by the end of the season 2015 it was all white. it's a small surprise that the branch is still alive.

the poop branch also frames the top of our camera view. i have also drawn an ellipse on the place where i think the camera is most probably attached to.

[ame]

hansa wrote me a remark about the nest and asked me to post it here, not being sure if she/he can make the post her/himself:

The height of the nest has been considerably increased, thereby also the weight. The eagles are urgently advised to consult a structural analyst to check the safety of the tree top considering, snow.ice and wind loads
:-)

this is a quite valid remark: a pile of sticks this big also weighs a lot.
but this is a very new nest, it has been built only in two springs. it is known that some eagle's nests have been in use for decades. every spring new material is brought to the nest and it will grow bigger every year. finally the nest may become so heavy that the tree simply collapses under the weight. usually this happens in the winter when snow on the nest adds weight.

John Love writes about the nests (p. 52), that the average diameter is about 1.5 m. he quotes the research of Johann Willgohs in Norway. Willgohs found one nest which had been in use for 8 years. it was 2 m tall and another 30 cm of material was added in the 9th year, although the nest wasn't even in use later in that summer. by next season new material was added so it became 3 m tall. the estimated weight of such construction may be several tons. on page 53 in Love's book there a picture by Willgohs of this nest. (i can't find it anywhere for posting... it would probably be against copyright any way. )

the nest bowl is about 20 cm - 45 cm in diameter and about 10 cm deep (Willgohs 1961).

the first two books are here:
viewtopic.php?p=402920#p402920
Fischer's book:
viewtopic.php?p=443394#p443394

btw: i suppose that eagles "know" what they do in building their nests. unfortunately this does not always apply to humans. in Turku a new hospital is being built on top of a four-lane highway and two-lane railroad. soon after they had started to build the foundation pillars for the building it turned out that the concrete which they used was too soft and brittle.
now they have to tear everything down and start the building work all over again.

while i was writing it became dark at about 5 pm.