Latvian WtE nest webcamera Juras-erglis Durbe 2025

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White-tailed sea eagles in Latvia: Juras-Erglis 2025

A new topic for the new year!


The beginning season is direct continuation to the previous season as the camera has been working with only nighttime breaks. You may catch up where we came from here:
https://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/vie ... 70#p941370


Camera links

The video transmission from the nest is streaming in Youtube, presently (from March 2nd) at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wSd4iXrCw0
[old address:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrZe6jqTcmQ ]

The address of the Youtube may sometimes change. If this should happen the new address can be found by making a search 'juras erglis webcamera' in the Youtube. The link to the WTE camera, as well as the other the live cameras of Latvia's Nature Fund LDF (Latvijas dabas fonds), can also 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".
We'll try to remember to update the address here if it changes. (Remind us if we don't!)
If you have trouble finding the camera please let us know (write to ame or Liz01) and we'll try to help.

The Youtube stream can be scrolled back in time 12 hours from present. This way it is possible to see what happened at the nest during the previous 12 hours.

Working hours of the camera

Normally during the season this camera is operating 24/7, thanks to the installation of a methanol fuel cell power system in Autumn 2017. The fuel cell provides power to the camera system when the solar cells will not get enough sunlight to feed the batteries.
In wintertime the stream is switched off for the night time about 2 hours after sunset, and switched on 2 hours before sunrise. In the darkest time of the winter the camera working hours have been approximately 7 am - 6 pm.
Edit:
The camera was upgraded to type Axis F9111 last year.
Starting from the evening of March 9th when the first egg was laid the camera has been working continuously, but with reduced sensitivity in the dark time in order to same energy. The frame rate is ramped down gradually in the evening when darkness comes and in the morning at dawn it's increased back to normal 25 fps. In the night time the camera takes one picture per second and the exposure time is 1 second. When the image is still (nothing moves during this second) the picture will be clear. If something moves during the exposure time it will produce a blurred image. During moonlight we shall see more clearly than in cloudy nights.

The camera time is the local, Eastern European Time EET which is 2 hours ahead of GMT (or Greenwich/London time), and one hour ahead of the Central European Time CET. In summertime the daylight saving time adds one more hour to GMT.

Overseas viewers please note: if you see a black screen check if you can see the time stamp below on the bottom of the screen with the clock running. It may be night time in Latvia and then the camera shows darkness.

The camera clock normally runs somewhat delayed compared to the 'real' time (your computer time). This delay is quite normal and may vary from time to time from a few seconds to even some minutes. The delay is due to the data transmission chain and its efficiency, and it mainly depends on the speed of each viewer's own internet connection. Therefore it is important that the camera time is given when events at the nest are reported, because the camera time is 'the real time' for the nest and that time is the same for all of us. It's also strongly recommended that the camera's date&time stamp is not removed from any pictures that are posted. Without the time stamp the picture will only have an artistic value (which is naturally not overlooked! but it will not be useful for ornithologists).

Sometimes there may be a malfunction in the streaming system. If refreshing of the Youtube-window or reopening/restarting of Potplayer (or restarting your pc or router in extreme cases) will not help, please report either ame or Liz01 and we'll try to look for help.

Recording the stream

The possibility of rewinding the YT-stream makes it possible to record the delayed stream with some screen recording program. From the Settings-button in the lower right corner one can adjust the resolution of the picture. For recordings it's best to use as high resolution as possible.

The stream can also be viewed (for example) on Potplayer or with VLC player by opening the same address as for YouTube. These programs can also be used for recording the Youtube stream and for taking snapshots from the stream either live or from recorded video. Potplayer can also be used to record delayed stream from screen. Some Potplayer versions can record delayed stream directly (ask Liz). VLC can take screen snapshots and record the stream.

The Potplayer version 210729(1.7.21526) can record Youtube stream for as long as there is space on the hard disk (a later version could record only 6 hours; disable updates!) If you are recording continuously it's wise to split files at certain intervals. This version can also survive shorter breaks in the stream and even wait and try restarting during the night pause of the stream and start recording as soon as the camera wakes up in the morning. Convenient! (Sometimes there is, however, some malfunction and restart fails, but this happens very seldom.)

The overall use of Potplayer is discussed here:
https://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/vie ... 50#p499450
The use of VLC player is discussed here:
https://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/vie ... ?f=3&t=739

There are also several other 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:
https://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/vie ... ?f=3&t=770

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Important events at the nest 2025
search keyword: searchnestsummary

Events will be added to this list as times goes on and interesting and important events take place.

• Feb 2: First mating attempt at 15:54.
  viewtopic.php?p=945438#p945438

• Feb 6: First consummated mating at 16:34.
  viewtopic.php?p=942937#p942937

• March 9: Milda laid the first egg at 19:59. The expected date of hatching is April 16.
  viewtopic.php?p=946306#p946306

• March 13: Milda laid the second egg at 19:15. The expected date of hatching is April 20.
  viewtopic.php?p=946742#p946742

• April 15: A pip hole was visible on one of the eggs at dawn. The first chick hatched at 13:02.
  viewtopic.php?p=950925#p950925

• April 17: A pip hole was visible on the second egg in the evening.
  viewtopic.php?p=951448#p951448
  April 18: The second chick had hatched during the dark time. Both were visible and dry on the nest at the first change.
  viewtopic.php?p=951481#p951481

• May 9: Latvijas Dabas fonds​​ announced:
  "The names of the young eagles have been given - the oldest is LEO, the bigger and stronger, and the youngest - NEO, the younger. Both words can be used in either gender as needed."
  Thank you LDF!

• June 6: Neo shot at the camera and blinded us.
  posting.php?mode=edit&p=960770

• July 2: Leo made her maiden flight at 4:58.
  viewtopic.php?p=964722#p964722

• July 4: Neo made her maiden flight at 8:17.
  viewtopic.php?p=964916#p964916

• July 22: Jānis Ķuze visited the nest and cleaned the camera. He also took some pictures of the surroundings of the nest. Thank you Jānis!
  viewtopic.php?p=967621#p967621

The last visits of the eaglets took place in September. On Sep 12 we were able to identify Leo by her tail when he visited the nest in the morning (6:45 - 6:48). After that there were some visits of crying eaglets on the top and nearby the nest: Sep 15 at 12:06, Sep 16 at 6:43 - 6:52 a lot of calls nearby and on Sep 20 at 12:00 and Sep 21 at 6:57 some calls. After that no calls by our eaglets were observed. (It's assumed here that our eaglets call when they visit their home, but it is not certain at all that all calls were heard.)

Zorro made the first nest material deliveries on the following days. He brought hay at 19:08 on Sep 22 and a spruce twig in the next morning at 6:58. In the following days we heard adults calling many times in the forest (female and male) but no eaglet's calls. Thus this time of the autumnal equinox can be considered as the end of old old season and the beginning of the new one.
Later in the autumn the parents had many busy days bringing a lot of new material to the nest

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Introduction


Our female Milda has a new partner who is called Zorro.
Milda's previous mate Hugo disappeared during the incubation time last spring. After his disappearance a new male with a dark "mask" around the eyes appeared at the nest. After about a week also he disappeared and a new male Zorro arrived. He has now accompanied Milda since that and built the nest very diligently with Milda.
Let's wish the new couple a successful season 2025!

Below you can read the introduction for this nest camera, given Latvian Dabasdati YT channel (translated from Latvian to English; hopefully without mistakes).

The nest observed on the camera is located in Kurzeme, Durbe municipality. This nesting area has been known only since 2014, when the first nest of this pair was found, which was built in a pine tree left in a felling. In 2014, the eagle pair nested very successfully – it was one of four white-tailed eagle nests known this year in Latvia, in which three chicks were raised. In 2015, the eagles decided to move to a new nest and began building it at the top of an old spruce tree nearby, which had once been broken by wind or snow. Several branches have grown around the broken tree, forming a suitable niche for nest building at a height of approximately 25 meters. The camera was placed on one of the branches of the top at the end of January - at a time when nest building had just begun, thus providing a rare opportunity to observe the process of building a new nest - so far, cameras have been placed mainly near white-tailed eagle nests that have been inhabited for several years. The nest is interesting in that it was built in a spruce, because white-tailed eagles rarely choose spruce trees for nesting - this is only the fourth nest built in a spruce known to date in Latvia. Approximately half of all white-tailed eagle nests are built in pine trees, a third in aspens and, to a lesser extent, in birches, black alders and oaks. In spruces, nests are usually built directly on such broken tops and are usually located high above the ground. The highest known white-tailed eagle nest in Latvia is located in the territory of the Ķemeri National Park, 31.5 meters above the ground and is also built in a spruce.

The observation system at this nest was helped by Jānis Rudzītis (SIA „Rewind”, system configuration) and Ģirts Strazdiņš, and its maintenance was helped by Māris and Leo from the Dabasdati.lv forum, as well as Leks van Drongelen and Jelle Lips. Data transmission over the 4G network is provided by LMT.

For previous seasons please return to these pages with the summaries of the important events.
2015 - 2017:
viewtopic.php?p=558920#p558920
2018 the important events:
viewtopic.php?p=558918#p558918
2019 the important events:
viewtopic.php?p=627157#p627157
2020 the important events:
viewtopic.php?p=704636#p704636
2021 the important events:
viewtopic.php?p=772788#p772788
2022 the important events:
viewtopic.php?p=836129#p836129
2023 the important events:
viewtopic.php?p=884777#p884777
2024 the important events:
viewtopic.php?p=914689#p914689

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Identifying the eagles

Knowing who is who on the nest is not a problem if at least one of the inhabitants wears rings. Unfortunately neither Milda nor Zorro have rings and therefore we have to look for details in their appearance or hear their voices.

The plumage of young eagles is very dark and becomes gradually lighter as the eagle grows older. The full adult costume is reached by the age of 6 to 7 calendar years. Even after that the plumage may slowly develop to lighter. The maturing of the appearance of different individuals may happen in different pace. Also different parts of the body may fit different ages. For example the eyes of an eagle may look 'younger' than the beak or vice versa.

In Looduskalender News there is an article about how the plumage of WTEs develops with age.
https://www.looduskalender.ee/n/node/9116

albicilla found a very useful article which describes the development of the outer appearance, including plumage of WTEs with age:
http://www.nof.nu/rrk/Bestamningsartikl ... y0cSPSAG7E
The article is in Swedish (with a summary in the end in English) but there are a lot of pictures illustrating the changes.
albicilla's post:
viewtopic.php?p=770175#p770175

Not all feathers are changed every year, only part of them. New, fresh feathers are darker than older feathers. Thus light, darker and missing feathers form different patterns on different sides of one individual eagle and between different individuals.
The plumage of adult eagle gives an opportunity to identify the eagle, but not over lengthy periods of time. Also the black spots in their white tails form individual patterns and allow identification of different eagles.

The principal differences of females and males can be summarized as the following.

• Females are generally bigger than males. There are, however, large variations in sizes within sexes themselves. A big male may be the same size as a small female. On the other hand, the female of a couple may be considerably bigger than her male partner. (Seeing a couple like this gives a flashback of Groucho Marx with Margaret Dumont in many Marx Brothers films.
  http://www.classicmoviehub.com/blog/wp- ... /07/ds.jpg )
  If two eagles of very different sizes are seen at the same time then the bigger is almost certainly the female. - One must remember here, that the apparent size of an eagle on the nest depends very strongly on the distance from the camera.

• Females have longer and straighter beaks than males. An eagle's beak is always big and hooked in the tip, and a male's beak is often curved all along its length. A female's beak is often straight for most of its length before it curves down and forms a hook. (Urmas Sellis once said "it goes on and on" and made a gesture which visualized Pinocchio's nose growing. )
  This is again a general rule and there are large individual variations within and between sexes.

• The ankles of females (the tarsus, plural tarsi) are thicker than the ankles of males. This is usually difficult to see without having both sexes in view at the same time. Even then it's not easy to see the difference. The apparent thickness also depends on the viewing angle: the diameter is larger when the foot is seen from the front/back compared to the lateral diameter (diameter seen from the side). (One can see a demonstration of this effect by looking at one's own wrist from different angles.)
  The difference of sexes is easier to see if the eagle wears a ring. Apparently eagle's rings are manufactured in one size only. This size gives a tight fit on a female's leg, but is usually rather loose on a male's ankle.

• The voices of females and males are usually very different: females have lower-pitched voices than males. Females are 'mezzo sopranos' or even 'altos' while males are tenors.
  The sex of a single eagle is usually clearly discernible even without comparison of the voices.(Hearing this difference doesn't require much musicality in a human listener; I'm a good example of this. )

The above general rules are helpful when both the female and the male are seen in front of the camera at the same time, because they are based on comparison between the sexes. The problem is much more difficult if we can see only one bird, unless she/he is ringed. Then we can compare the size of the ring with the size of the ankle. Perhaps surprisingly the voice is the easiest clue if the eagle calls. Then it is fairly simple to determine the sex. Mating situations are trivial of course: the Eagle Kamasutra knows only one position.

In the introduction of the year 2020 topic you will find another thorough discussion of how to separate female and male eagles in general.
viewtopic.php?p=704639#p704639

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Milda and Zorro: the tails

The tail spot patterns of Milda and Zorro are somewhat different. Milda has two small, more or less round spots in her otherwise white tail. The borderline between her white tail and dark back is clear and smooth and regular with three big round-tipped dark feathers lying on the white tail.


Zorro has more spots which are also rather small but they are in an irregular row. The border between the white tail and dark back is somewhat irregular with dark "rays" starting from the dark base of the tail from one side to the other. This pattern can fairly easily be separated from Milda's tail.
Zorro's tail spot pattern has also been surprisingly variable from one day to the next. Sometimes there seem to be more spots on one or the other side of the centre line of the tail. This is possible because the tail feathers are sometimes unorganized.


In the summer some spots may disappear altogether as the feathers which have these spots in their tips drop in the moult.

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Milda and Zorro: the right profiles

The wing feathers form clearly different combinations on the right wings. Milda has a mixture of dark and light feathers on the out-most row but the out-most row on Zorro's wing consists of feathers of the same colour.


Also their cheeks are of different colour. Milda has dark 'shadows' behind her eyes. (I usually say that she has Anna Magnani's eyes, with heavy kohl eye-liner. ).
Zorro, on the other hand, has light eyebrows and light lines in the corners of his mouth/beak.

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Milda and Zorro: the left profiles

Milda has a mixture of dark and light feathers on her left wing, too.


The overall colour Zorro's plumage is lighter than Milda's.


The general lighting (sunshine or clouds or reddish light at dawn and dusk) affect the general tone of colour of the plumage. Light cloudy weather gives neutral illumination.

Size comparison is very difficult if the eagles are not standing exactly on the same spot of the nest and exactly at right angles with respect of the line of sight.

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Milda and Zorro: the faces

These triplets of pictures illuminate the importance of similar lighting if one would like to make colour comparisons between eagles. Milda's pictures were taken in relatively poor light after 9 am at Christmas time. In the right panel Zorro is with her and they look almost the same colour.


Zorro's portraits were taken at noontime in neutral but fairly good light. He looks much lighter than in the morning. In the centre panel his light eyebrows and the light corners of his mouth are well visible. Milda didn't give a similar pose for comparison this morning.

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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 map below. The map was provided by Jānis Ķuze.


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 have heard during this winter, however, some forest work being done in the area, but the works should be outside the micro reserve. The machines are so loud that they can be heard (and even seen) from large distances.

For more information about the nest location please see:
viewtopic.php?p=836134#p836134

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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 territory is known since 2014 when a nest was found in a pine tree nearby. In the autumn the pine broke and the eagle pair Durbe and Robert built a new nest on this spruce top in the winter 2015. The camera was installed at the nest and the lives of the eagles have been monitored and reported both in the Dabasdati Forum and In the Looduskalender Forum.

In the picture below (made of Tringa's photograph) the branches which we can see in the camera are marked. The picture was taken from the direction to which our camera looks. Thus 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 the first eaglet Durberta painted this branch white by shooting poop on it very often. By the end of the season 2015 it was all white. . An ellipse shows the place where the camera is most probably attached to.


During the years the inhabitants have changed, several eaglets have fledged and a few have also perished and also the nest has been destroyed and rebuilt several times. In the picture below we can see how the tree top looks like when all nest material has dropped away. The bright metal thing in the bottom right is the microphone.


For more information about the nest please see:
viewtopic.php?p=836135#p836135
and here:
viewtopic.php?p=627169#p627169

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The surroundings of the nest 1/3


The scenery in the background has changed during the 10 years which the camera has been working. Trees grow a lot in 10 years so we can see much less of the ground surface than we used to in the beginning. Many years ago before the camera started beavers had built a dam and flooded the relatively flat area which is in the background. Then the beaver dam was destroyed and the area dried and it became a meadow where different sedges and bushes grew. When the area was flooded a lot of trees had died and fell there. They left dark root balls and dead tree stumps standing in the meadow. They were visible in the first years. On the far left there was also a pond where swans swam in the springs. That area is still called the Swan Pond although we can't see it any more.

During the years of our observation the beavers have rebuilt their dam downstream and water has gradually risen back to the meadow: it has become again a Lake and its area has become larger and larger. In the summer the whole area looks green with no visible water, but in the autumn, winter and spring we can see some open water which reflects sunshine and in moonlight when the light comes from suitable directions. In the winter the lake is frozen.

The picture below shows the present landscape behind the nest. The orange arrow shows approximately the location of the Swan Pond (SP). It's now hidden behind the trees. It is probably also about the place where the brook to the beaver dam begins. Water flows to the rear left from there.

The light blue arrows show the directions to the so-called Fish Markets (FM 1 and 2). They are directions from where fish has often been brought. The record time from the nest to FM 1 and back to the nest with a fish was well under 5 min.
The tip of the FM 2-arrow also points at the big spruce on the right. Many birds, including the eagles often sit on the top of this spruce. Crows and raves like to observe the events at the nest from the top.


The other markers show the biggest trees in the background: Observation Oaks 1, 2 and 3, and two big oaks side by side behind the nest. The eagles sometimes sit in the Observation Oaks, hence their name. LS and RS are the so-called Sister Oaks. In 2015 there was a third oak on the left side of the Left Sister, but this original Parents' Oak where the parents sat was struck into sticks by a lightning and the original Middle Sister became the Left Sister. *

Behind and around the Sisters there are more oaks which are called Cousins. Nowadays all of them are mostly obscured by the poop branch which has grown longer and hangs lower than it used to. Observation Oak 2 is nowadays hidden behind the outer too branch on the right side of the SP-arrow.

All these oaks are probably in danger zone because of the beaver lake is becoming larger and the water level is rising. Observation Oak 3 is already suffocating under water. It lost its leaves in October when most of the other trees were still green. Jānis told us that it's standing in water and that beavers have also started to cut it. The other Observation Oaks are also standing so near the Lake that they may get the same destiny.

The light areas in the centre are places where light from the sky is reflected on water. The Lake stretches from the Swan Pond along the border of the forest in the rear to the right behind the top Of Observation Oak 1 and beyond it to the right at least somewhere between the text "FM 2" and the kingfisher-logo.

The fish-eye optics of the camera lens makes the images curved so that the centre of the picture is stretched and the horizon becomes curved. The picture below shows the landscape like it probably is in reality. The horizon is straight and the nest level is also more or less flat and horizontal.

This photo is made by Nordri with a program which straightens images of a fish-eye lens. The trees on the ground are, however, curved and don't stand vertically.


* The names "Sisters" and "Cousins" originate from my association to Anton Chekhov's play "Three sisters". I imagined that these three oaks might originate from the same parent tree and thus they would be sisters. The neighbouring other oaks would not be as close relatives and thus they would be Cousins. Later we have seen, however, that the Sisters aren't like each other at all. The Left Sister keeps her leaves much longer in the autumn when the Right Sister is naked already.

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The surroundings of the nest 2/3

On Dec 10 2020 (11 days before the Winter Solstice) the Sun rose at about 9:17 almost in the centre of our camera view. The camera has been changed after that but it is still looking in the same direction in sufficient accuracy.


In the picture below is a sky map which shows the sector of sky which we can see (from east to south and a little more). It is a combination of information of three different maps. The basis of the map is the sky in the morning at sunrise on Dec 10 2020 at 9:17 local time (7:17 UTC).
viewtopic.php?p=771444#p771444
The left side of the view is slightly north of east (sunrise is on the left) and the right side is slightly west of south (the highest sun at noontime is on the right).


The position of the Moon is added on Dec 8 at 0:23 local time when the Moon was near the top left corner of the camera view. In the picture below the Moon is on the left, a little north of east.
viewtopic.php?p=771267#p771267

The position of the Sun on Dec 7 at 13:11 local time (11:11 UTC) is added in the bottom of the picture. At this time the Sun was seen near the top right corner of our camera view.
viewtopic.php?p=771224#p771224

The sky map is made thinking that the viewer is lying on her/his back with the head to the north and legs to the south. Thus the west is on the right in the sky map and east is on the left. Straight lines from north to south and from east to west are drawn in the picture. These lines cross at the zenith which is the highest point in the sky above the camera. The outer edge of the map is the horizon. As one can see both the leftmost and rightmost points which are in the top corners of the camera view are very near the horizon. Due to the curvature of the horizon in the camera view the highest point which we can see in the camera is even closer to the horizon. This means that actually we can see only a very narrow strip of the sky in the camera view. The approximate upper limit of our visual range is marked in the picture with a pale yellow line.

In the table on the picture the azimuth angle in the rightmost column is a measure of the position of the Sun and the Moon on the map, a "compass reading". -99 degrees for the Moon tells that it was 9 degrees north of east (east is azimuth -90 degrees). The azimuth angle +10 degrees of the Sun on the right tells that the Sun was 10 degrees west of south (south is azimuth 0 degrees). The full viewing angle of the camera is thus about 110 degrees. The nominal viewing angle of the camera, given by the manufacturer in the specifications of the camera, is 107 degrees. The 110 degrees obtained above is well in agreement with the nominal value.

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Ringed visitors at the nest 2025
searchword searchringedvisitors

The list will be updated here if and when some ringed eagles will be identified here.
(If i forget to do this in reasonable time please remind me!)

• Jan 9 at 16:21 a local bird Riga Latvia 161 + orange/blue V467, ringed by Jānis Ķuze on 06.06.2007 in S. Kurzeme. There is one recovery so far – in 2010 bird was seen at feeder in Ķemeri National park. This is the oldest bird identified here.
  viewtopic.php?p=941836#p941836

• Jan 10 at 11:26 a Latvian H748, ringed by Jānis Ķuze on 26.05.2022 in S. Kurzeme, This is the first recovery.
  viewtopic.php?p=941857#p941857

• Jan 11 the Latvian H748 made two visits, first at 8:41 - 9:16, when the ring code was clearly visible. At 11:52 Zorro came home followed by a juvenile with a dark ring who chased Zorro away. The pattern of the left wing was similar to the pattern of H748 so it's fairly probable that it was the same eagle.
  viewtopic.php?p=941877#p941877

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Other information


Dabasdati forum

An introduction to the Latvian nest cameras is given here:
http://ldf.lv/lv/tiesraide (At the moment all the streams are not updated.)
and information in English:
https://ldf.lv/en/webcams (At the moment none of these is up to date.)
The live camera topics are under the title "Tiešsaistes kameras Latvijā Nature webcams in Latvia":
https://forums.dabasdati.lv/viewforum.php?f=18

The nest life on the various camera nests is followed in the Latvian Dabasdati forum (often DD forum or just DD or DDF for short like LK or LKF for Looduskalender forum):
https://forums.dabasdati.lv/viewforum.php?f=25

The WTE topics in DDF (Jūras ērglis) can be found here:
https://forums.dabasdati.lv/viewforum.php?f=27
The Durbe 2025 topic in DDF:
https://forums.dabasdati.lv/viewtopic.p ... 33#p413733

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, and vice versa.
Google Translator is not perfect. It sometimes gives strange or even false translations from and/or to Latvian language, especially when people write colloquial language or in a dialect. Therefore it is perhaps best to write your post in DDF in English adding the translation. Then the DDF-moderators can correct the translation if necessary.


Youtube chat

The events on the nest and around it in the forest are also commented in the chat on the Youtube page where the camera is streaming. The topics on the chat are less limited than in the DD forum or our LK forum. Often the comments may hover around quite other things than the nest events.
The chat is multilingual. The chat is reset each time when you shut down your web connection or refresh the browser window. When reopening the comments from the last hour or two are shown. Older comments are not stored anywhere. (except that I have copied and saved the almost all chat contents for a few years now.)


Weather in Durbe, Latvia

Some websites where one can see the weather forecast for Durbe county, Latvia.
https://www.yr.no/en/forecast/daily-tab ... urbe/Durbe

http://www.accuweather.com/en/lv/durbe/ ... ast/224453
https://www.meteoblue.com/en/weather/we ... via_460171
https://worldweather.wmo.int/en/city.html?cityId=174 (for Liepāja which is the closest city to Durbe)
Here's a nice site with animated wind vectors:
https://www.windy.com/56.590/21.370?56. ... ,m:ffuagKM

One can search for weather information for using Liepāja, too, since it is the closest larger city near Durbe, or use the geographical co-ordinates of Durbe which are 56.58 N, 21.37 E.


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 location is set to Durbe, Latvia. Just select the time which you want. Note, that the program uses the UTC time which is 2 hours less than local time in Latvia (in summertime the difference is 3 hours).
http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/Yourhor ... &elements=

Sunrise and sunset data for Durbe can be found here:
https://sunrise-sunset.org/search?locat ... 1#calendar


Hunting calendar in Latvia

Every now and then there is a question when hunting in Latvia is possible.
https://redirect.viglink.com/?format=go ... latvija%2F


Bird voices

Rather often we hear here bird's voices which we cannot recognize straight away. If one has a hunch of what bird might be in question, one can look for confirmation for this guess in xeno-canto.org. They have a wide collection of all kinds of birds' voices, even so many that it's sometimes hard to find your bird of interest in the haystack.
https://xeno-canto.org/species/Haliaeetus-albicilla

Another possibility is to use BirdNET Sound ID. This a bit tricky search engine for our use though. Namely it first asks if it may use the user's location. One can't answer 'yes' unless one is in Durbe or at least somewhere in West Kurzeme. I have tried to use this search engine a few times and i have received some were exotic answers, birds from South-East Asia or South America.
https://birdnet.cornell.edu/

We have here one mystery bird who has a funny call and who calls here rather often. We have called this bird the platypus. Almost every time hooded crows are preset so we have a strong suspicion that the platypus is a crow. So far we have not caught any of them in action.


Information about donating money for the benefit of the nest camera

The live streams of Latvian Fund for Nature are supported by donations of viewers. Donate here: https://ldf.lv/en/support-lfn


General information

Not only about eagles but some of these links give information about birds' breeding in general.
viewtopic.php?p=685803#p685803

[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 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 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.
  For the Latvian nest in Durbe the keyword is: searchnestsummaryDurbe

• searchliterature for searching references (articles, books etc) about WTEs.

• searchcameradelay for searching information on the delay of the camera time relative to 'real' time.

Advice about how to make searches in the forum can be found in the Questions and help -topic here:
http://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/view ... ?f=3&t=595

[ame]

reserved: one more fore the road.
now we wait for tomorrow and a New Year!

[Liz01]

January 1st.

Happy 2025 to everyone!

ame, your descriptions are incredible! Thank you
You are getting better every year. In other words, you can see that you are gaining knowledge and experience

​​7:16:08 the stream starts working
8:37 it almost looks like it's going to rain. and it is stormy

EDIT: Am I crazy? ame, I saw that you set the date and time of the stream start. Now it's gone? Coffee!! please!

OK ame, my job in the early morning after a horrible night. Luckily we have rain today and wind gusts of up to 90 km/h. So no firecrackers till now

[ame]

good morning Liz!
happy new year to everybody!

the weather is windy and the lens is wet again.

Liz, i am fast as lightning although i haven't had coffee either.
i thought it's your 'job' to start the new year's 1st day. i removed my post.

[ame]

13:01 a windscreen wiper!
the tip of a twig wiped the lens. horrible wind from an unusual direction.
the wind has also given us an opportunity to see the area of the Lake better when it has pushed the poop branch aside.


later more of the same sort.


and many times more. terrible wind!

[Liz01]

15:11 but the nest is built stable!