Estonian WTE Webcam 2014

[Riitta]

Good morning.

8:52 The wind has died down. It is a light morning.


8:58 The middle of the nest looks with a spot of white.


Jo UK, thanks for the interesting link:
http://www.windfinder.com/wind/windspeed.htm

[Mutikluti]

I don't know what happened but my VLC Player is working again!

[Riitta]

I don't know what happened but my VLC Player is working again!

Mutikluti,
that are the technical-wonders!

[Felis silvestris]

I don't know what happened but my VLC Player is working again!

Those are my magical paranormal IT-thoughts .... If I'm not there with you with the magic finger, I'm doing it on the mental level!

[GM74]

Hello!
Have been searching for info about the winter feeding ground.
Couldn't find info about if it starts again this year.
Does anybody know?

greetings

George

[Bea]

Hello George,

the sad news can be read here:

viewtopic.php?p=283930#p283930

[Jo UK]

Noisy, fierce gusts of wind.
Eagle wings know how to cope with it!

[Mutikluti]

I think I am so stupid that I do not understand whom or what is the law protecting? Eagles feeding helped young eagles, so they would not starve difficult time. And where else we can help them, if not there, where they congregate, maybe this area is under the protection because there are lot of WTE-s.There is little point for feeding them in there, where is not suitable to the environment and where eagles absent...Yes, there was a lot of ravens however, ravens and hawks share the same territory in the winter because they have the same diet. Raccoons and foxes were assigned to extinction ... all nude. I remember when the first few years was 5-6 foxes eating at the same time with eagles, now there were them two, and even they were sick. Wild pigs there were not ... they do not eat fish or meat... Please make it clear for me...am I stupid or what but I can not understand who were endangered if eagles were fed at Nõva. In spring, the eagles flew away, as did the ravens.
Laws should protect the young WTE-s under protection but in this case, we leave them to their fate ....how many of young eagles die from hunger this year ? ... No one knows.

[Hélène]

[PINKELUZA]

Good night, the nest!

[ame]

hello Mutikluti
i don't think that the young WTEs are in danger to starve even though winter feeding is ending. they will fly somewhere else, to the seaside and find food there. i have some numbers of WTEaglets in Finland which show this. these i found the webpages of the WTE Working group of WWF Finland:
http://wwf.fi/jarjesto/viestinta/uutise ... nna-1812.a

unfortunately they don't have that information in English but i'll try to interpret the main points:
year 2013 was the 40th anniversary of WTE protection work in Finland and a new record number of eaglets were ringed this year: 410 eaglets. 412 WTE territories were checked and breeding was successful at at least 256 nests. this is a huge success compared to the number eaglets born in the first year 1973: only 5 eaglets were born to the 35 nesting pairs in that year.

on this WWF-page in the upper table are listed different areas in Finland and the numbers of inhabited nests, successful breedings and in the column on the right is the number of eaglets born. in the lowest row there are the total numbers of all country.
in the lower table on the same page there are the numbers of ringed eaglets in each year in this millenium. one can see a rising trend there.

on another WWF Finland page there's also a graph showing this trend:
http://wwf.fi/maapallomme/uhanalaiset/k ... merikotka/
clicking this picture in the WWF page (scroll down a little to find it) you'll see the list of numbers of eaglets as a pdf-file.
i'll add this graph here, too:

(there is some discrepancy in these two tables in the numbers in the overlapping years 2000-2013. it's probably because others are preliminary and others confirmed final numbers. i have asked the former secretary of the WTE working group for corrected numbers but maybe he doesn't know....
i think i should ask the new secretary... )

the success in saving WTEs was due to banning environmental poisons and feeding eagles with clean poisonless food in the winters. in Finland the feeding was done in 1973 - 2000. in only few places there is still feeding, but mostly the Finnish WTEs manage without it.

the eaglets who were born in the early years of 2000 and onwards are already in breeding age. i think that the above graph (the ever-increasing number of eaglets) shows that they have been able to survive without winter feeding. so that is why i think that your worries about the young WTEs in unnecessary.

but i too, of course, would be so happy if we had the feeding camera again....

[Mutikluti]

Ame, thank you for answering!
In 1970-s were not eaglets because poison DDT did this work. Now is them more and more from year to year because DDT is losing it's power. Finland is big country, long shoreline and many lakes...this number of eaglets is not satisfactory.
I can not understand what was wrong for other birds after winter feeding WTE-s.... WTE-s and ravens flew away from this area if spring arrived. Raccoons and foxes were all sick! Them did not come more, they are much diminished.

[fireblade1]

I think I am with Mutikluti. I do not understand was happend with Nova. All birds, great tit to golden eagle, will also look for food there this winter.
So they have to eat more lead poisoned carcasses

[ame]

i'm not aware of how much lead ammunition is still used in hunting in Estonia so i don't know how bad the threat of lead poisoning by ammunition is to birds and other animals eating left-overs from hunting is... and i think that the increasing eaglet numbers in Finland are satisfactory taking into account the fact they started from practically zero just 40 years ago with such a bird species with such low reproduciton rate... even though Finland is large and has long coastlines all of that will be frozen and covered with ice for a few months almost every year so all eagles will have to migrate at least for a few months..

to me it was surprising to see how late birds were staying in the winter feeding ground last winter (that was when i was watching really carefully). i was expecting to see for example ravens to leave the feeding ground much earlier, but they stayed and stayed. books say that ravens start breeding (incubating their eggs) already in March if not earlier so i was especting that they would leave earlier than they did. i suppose the adults did leave and the 'teenagers' stayed.

i think that the sick raccoon dogs and foxes came to the feeding just because they were sick: the Nõva feeding place was a safe and secure place for them to find food. this summer i was so happy to see that in Alataguse bear feeding place there were practically no sick animals at all. Nõva was a rescue place for sick animals which would die soon anyway.

[Urmas]

The main issue with eagles feeding is that wild animals should not be dependent of human care. Means not to feed eagles many years in the same place. Eagles are not farming birds, they need to manage without of us, whatever conditions are in their environment. If we feed them continuously, they loose their natural habits and could easily fall out because of natural selection or become problematic for other wildlife.
Congregation of many eagles disturbs also local breeders, especially in near spring time. The ravens dis-balance the wild areas if numerous (most of those are non breeding individuals, not necessarily teenagers).
And finally the place stays quite bad smelling and dirty all over the summer after continuous winter feeding.
So temporary feeders are possible, but mainly then for ring readings or other research. WtE population does not need our care in that way nowadays, rather it is unfavorable in wide scale.
Fortunately only few eagles turned addicted to our feeder up to last year, so it was really last time to finish there. We all wish to watch the eagles through cam, read the rings, etc., nevertheless to care about the eagles means also to leave them as natural as possible.
Please remember our motto - be an observer, as much as possible without of intervention! About eagles feeder it works in wider scope.

[Jo UK]

Thank you, Urmas. That is very clear.
In fact, we can see how feeding of some birds has a very negative effect on their natural behaviour. For some years now, Estonians (and in other countries) have been asked NOT to feed the swans in winter. Doing so encourages them to stay in place instead of performing their natural migratory behaviour.
Is there, now, a generation of swans which have forgotten about migration? Are they now dependent upon humans for their food in winter.

So stopping the winter feeding at Nova, now, is well-timed. To continue feeding there would run the risk of those birds becoming dependent on food supplied by humans. It is the right action - but sad for us.

[Fleur]

I had written a story but not pressed send
In short, it is very unfortunate for us but I think it is the most natural and best solution

[Fleur]

Tuesday November 19
good morning
cam on around 7:58 still dark



Tuesday 19.11
Day
Moderate rain
+3..+7 °C
Cloudy with clear spells. Rain in many places. Southwest, south wind 5-12, on coast in gusts up to 15 m/s, in the evening wind is decreasing. Air temperature 3..7°C.
http://www.emhi.ee/index.php?ide=14

[IceAge]

So stopping the winter feeding at Nova, now, is well-timed. To continue feeding there would run the risk of those birds becoming dependent on food supplied by humans. It is the right action - but sad for us.

I think also. Too bad for us, but we must not interfere too much in the nature of us.

[laranjeiras]

Thank you everyone for that really interesting discussion It's good to know the eagles will take care of themselves and that numbers are rising/have risen in Finland over recent years. I think the WTEs went extinct here in UK (due to illegal killing) and have been reintroduced since the 1970s. The possibility of causing harm, even if through good intentions, is worth avoiding, I agree, and having a feeding ground perhaps is helpful once in while - so it's like a 'bonus' for the birds/animals rather than an ongoing provision. I enjoyed looking at the ground on the full moon nights - very atmospheric