Estonian WTE Webcam 2016

[varahoidja]

Awesome! They are so cute!!
Hopefully the third will follow. :)
Uku is really man of Anna's dreams -lots of food, nest material, etc.

[sejana]

The chick is hungry
Anna stands up


And now she has 2 cute chick

[Mutikluti]

11.20
Uku brought the next fish...Somebody followed him, both eagles did loud voice.

[Marfo]

off-topic continued...

Who can resist Salmon?

heheheee...
this is off-topic but i think i may tell a little story. in the old times on the coast of Northern Baltic sea, like in Oulu, salmon was such a common fish that servants had a clause in their contracts which said that there had to be some other food than salmon on at least once a week. the flavour of salmon is so strong that one gets fed up with it rather easily. it has happened to me for example. i used to live in Oulu for 14 years and ate too much salmon then. it was cheap and good. nowadays i eat salmon only rarely.

when I wrote the remark above I was thinking of writing the same story... only, I know it as a story about servants in Amsterdam...

[IceAge]

11:32

congratulation to the parents.

[Mutikluti]

11.30
Anna left...Uku stay alone at home with kids...

[Marfo]

i saw at one point yesterday afternoon that the light balance of the camera was tuned darker. i don't know why or by whom. - and i can't remember at what time it happened. it was in the afternoon.

Yes, I noticed it too. The water in the distance and the sky are now well exposed while the larger part of the picture is underexposed. That is not how it should be.
Maybe there is something wrong with the 'exposure meter' ?
Although now, at 11:54 it is not so bad. There is more contrast in the whole picture though.

[Trine]

Is there any chance that the second chick will survive?

Why wouldn´t he/she survive?
I may be wrong (not an expert!), but I think wte-s are a bit different from spotted eagles and owls, i.e the younger siblings have better chances to survive (if this was what you meant). Of course, hopefully there will be plenty of fish also in the future and the parents will make further improvements in feeding the chicks.

[spatz]

a factor is certainly the weather, much rain and cold or drought, is certainly not good. I hope that everything goes well

[Anne7]

This is an interesting question. I am not an expert at all. But I read somewhere that young WTE's are more tolerant to each other than other young eagles. If there is enough food and space for everyone. There was also mentioned that in 50% of the breedings only 1 young eagle survived. So, 2 survivors is not really exceptional. 3 would be more unlikely. (But obviously it's also important to consider that WTE have between 1 and 3 eggs.) Maybe there's someone on this blog that can give us more professional information?

[Owlie]

Is there any chance that the second chick will survive?

I think there is a good chance that all three chicks survive
Maybe it is more usual that eagles raise two chicks per season, but there are also eagles that raise three. In America (Decorah) there is a webcam of a Bald Eagle couple who raises three chicks almost every year (they laid three eggs this year, too, but the third didn't hatch)
And if you a afraid of cainism: it concerns only LSE, not WTE.

[Trine]

Chicks are asking for food and Uku is confused.

[Owlie]

Uku ate himself and even moved a fish nearer to the chicks but, no, he didn't manage to feed his offspring

[Sonelma]

Has Uku actually fed the chicks? Or has only Anna ?
Just a moment ago it seemed that Uku didn't quite know how it should be done.

[Mutikluti]

Has Uku actually fed the chicks? Or has only Anna ?
Just a moment ago it seemed that Uku didn't quite know how it should be done.

Yes, you are right, Uku wanted to feed chick ( now chicks ) but something confounded him and he finished his good
initiative.

[ame]

Is there any chance that the second chick will survive?

Why wouldn´t he/she survive?
I may be wrong (not an expert!), but I think wte-s are a bit different from spotted eagles and owls, i.e the younger siblings have better chances to survive (if this was what you meant). Of course, hopefully there will be plenty of fish also in the future and the parents will make further improvements in feeding the chicks.

Trine is right, debianuser, there's no real reason why all the chicks would not survive. WTEs are different from Aquila-eagles: with WTEs there is usually no fatal sibling rivalry. of course also these chicks will compete of food, sometimes in a way which may look bad, but it will be nothing compared with LSEs for example. with them the rule is that only one survives. the survivor is the oldest if it is healthy.

two years ago in the Latvian nest there were two chicks. the older was a female who seemed to beat and peck the younger (a male) at every feeding and sometimes also otherwise. nevertheless the male grew up healthy. it got fed after his sister was satisfied. - besides i found out later that the younger chick usually started the fights: he pecked his sister first. the sister pecked back many times and that we saw and thought that she was bad.
the parents will go on feeding the chicks as long as someone is asking for food. and there will be enough food for three plus Mummy. look at the amount of fish on the nest. most of it will rot.

three eaglets in a clutch is rarer than two simply because apparently most often the WTEs lay two eggs. also if three are laid and something happens to one then there will be two left. i have read that sometimes a four-egg clutch has been observed but that's very rare.

to me it has seemed that Anna is a bit jealous about feeding the chicks: she wants to do it and doesn't let Uku to take that job. on the other hand she goes out and then it's Uku's chance to learn. i believe he will learn it just the way Anna did. he just needs practice. in the other nests with old established parents the male has participated almost equally in the feeding and chick care. both Sulev and Robert were quite capable and willing to feed the chicks and they did it as skillfully as the females.

two years ago the parents were younger like here: the male wore rings and he was 7 years old then. his spouse was a really big girl compared to the male (who looked really small compared to her) and probably about the same age. she didn't let the male do much homework and i think that there was not much chance to argue with her... Sartas was the fisher of the family and Lubana took care of the nest.

[ame]

13:49 Anna came and stayed on the branch for a while. (i didn't capture her arrival but this is taken a few seconds after she came.)


then she jumped in. i'll simply have to squeeze one more picture here. it was such a lucky shot.


Anna then started eating. Uku got up flew out and let us see two dry chicks.


the younger can almost hold its head straight up. and the older shot a tiny poop over board! already now!


Anna is feeding the older but the younger is a bit disoriented although cheeps a lot.

[ame]

14:32 Anna got up to feed but my connection froze and i had to reboot.
both chicks are begging... there's a segment missing from the rightmost egg shell but that's perhaps the second egg and the third is in the middle.

[Owlie]

That PS was an achievement - usually a newly hatched cast some 10 cm

I was shopping a while - has the chick #2 got something to eat? S/he doesn't need to be hungry yet ... but looks perky like the sibling. Have #1 pecked at #2, I haven't seen?

[ame]

13:49 feeding begins.


the whole feeding in close-up. i don't think i saw any pecking.


14:36 the latter part of the feeding (which began 14:33).