June 2016

Text Margus Ots, Great Tit Year coordinator
Image from webcam captured by Jo, LK forum
Translation Liis

Great tit         Rasvatihane       Parus major

In nestbox no 1 with a webcam the chicks left on Friday last week or 4 days ago (Estonian original published 07.06.2016). On checking the nestboxes today it turned out that the great tit was building a new nest and that there were already 2 eggs in it! So she laid the first egg already yesterday, only 3 days after the departure of the clutch.

Video recorded by Urmas Lett, www.eenet.ee
Translation Liis

In the morning the female arrives to entice the chicks out of the nest with food; the leaving is surveyed by the female’s observant eyes. The ”sleepier” chicks are made to take off  into flight from the nest trunk. Morning is a good time for leaving.

An attentive viewer will manage to distinguish the young birds from the adults, but the difference in size is small.

Video recorded by Liz, LK forum
Translation Liis

Great tit    Rasvatihane         Parus major

That the 9 chicks in the second nest trunk would leave by Monday morning was predictable. Interested viewers could see how it happened.

A great number of viewers have been interested in the doings of our everyday familiar birds. Hopefully the curiosity about the activities of the Bird of the Year was also satisfied on some counts.

Photos Arne Ader

Translation Liis

Crane nest with chick and egg

Crane    Sookurg        Grus grus

These graceful birds can be seen andheard already in March. In spring there is no mass migration through Estonia, so we have mostly to do with cranes nesting here. They may be up to 7 500 pairs.

Video recorded by  Aita, LK forum

Image from webcam captured by Lussi, LK forum

Translation Liis

Black stork    

Since Friday night there are only two chicks left in our black stork nest.

We ask parents please not to show the video below to children!

The smallest chick had grown about half less than its siblings – reasons for this may be many (impossible to decide only visually). Plausibly the adults felt that they would not succeed in raising the smallest chick to fledging. The water level in flowing waters is very low due to the drought, thus feeding resources are also clearly reduced. Why see this act as intentionally cruel – the mind of birds differs significantly from that of humans, instincts for preservation of the species and rationality have prevalence.

Photos from  Wikipedia

Translation Liis

Female butterfly

Large white; Cabbage white     Suur-kapsaliblikas        Pieris brassicae

The photos show the differences between the sexes  of the large white. The forewings of the female have two large black dots, the male lacks them.

The undersides of the wings are pale yellow, and the undersides of the forewings of both sexes have two black patches.  The wing span is 5-6 centimetres.

Text Margus Ots, Coordinator of the Year of Great Tits

Video recorded by Olle Koert, www.tt.ee

Translation Liis

Wryneckl / Photo: Uku Paal

Wryneck     Väänkael       Jynx torquilla

Image from webcam by  Shanta, LK forum

Translation Liis

Sadly we did not see how the great tit chicks left their nest on Friday morning since there was an interruption in transmission. From nest trunk 2 the chicks may be expected to leave on Saturday or Sunday.

Leaving the nest often takes place in early morning.

Photo  Arne Ader

Translation Liis

Greater celandine

We find the greater celandine in fresh and a little shadowy habitats, for instance at the base of old city walls, at churchyards, in shore areas or inland where it grows together with our native plants. The greater celandine has been cultivated for thousands of years already in all kinds of herb gardens but its original homeland may be the hills of Persia or western Himalaya.

In summer the plant, of the poppy or Papaveraceae family, may grow up to a metre high, decorated with siliqua-like seed capsules and yellow flowers with four petals. Herbivores avoid the poppy family plants since they excrete toxic alkaloids to fend them off.

Text Margus Ots, Coordinator of Great Tit Year

Translation Liis

The 18 days old great tit chicks are capable of flying and can leave the nest at any moment, Vana-Kuuste 02.06.2016 / Photo: Margus Ots

The chicks of great tits usually leave the nest when they are 18-20 days old. The chicks of the tits that begun their nesting first have already left the nests but the majority of the chicks will fledge during next week. In the great tit nests with cameras the nesting has developed as follows:

Great Tit Year science news edted by UT bird ecologist  Marko Mägi,marko.magi@ut.ee

Translation Liis

All chicks do not hatch at the same time and so there are chicks of different ages together in the nests. The so-called asynchronous hatching is the result of starting incubation immediately when an egg is laid.  While for instance the chicks of birds of prey hatch at intervals of a couple of days then the small passerines start their incubation when the clutch is complete and all chicks hatch as a rule within 24 hours. Still, considering the fast development of passerines, a hatching 24 hours later may influence the future significantly – the chicks hatched later are smaller and often they do mot succeed to grow into fledging age. The occurrence of asynchronous hatching among passerines poses the question why such a phenomenon occurs at all and are  there any benefits in it?

Jaani-Tooma boulder in Lahemaa. Photo: Riina Kotter

Lahemaa National Park celebrates its 45th year of activity on June 1st

Aarne Kaasik, long-time director of the Lahemaa National Park presented an invaluable gift to the celebrating park – a collection of nearly 20 000 slides together with material showing the history of the national park and nature conservation.

Text and photos  Aare Lindt, www.loodusmuuseum.ee

Translation Liis

Female small emperor

Small emperor   Kevadpaabusilm    Saturnia pavonia

The small emperor occurs in the whole of Estonia; occasionally they can be seen in bogs and marshes as well as at the outskirts of mixed forests. They fly from mid-May until mid-June.

The male and female small emperor have different colours..

Photo Arne Ader

Translation Liis

Broad-bordered bee hawkmoth

Broad-bordered bee hawkmoth   Kimalas-lottsuru   Hemaris fuciformis

We are used to notice the flight of the hawkmoths in the evening, and so it is with most of the hawkmoth species that can be seen in Estonia (there are 17 species here).

For a hawkmoth busy in daytime the broad-bordered bee haawkmoth is almost always a safe guess; at that time the other species are resting on tree trunks, little visible thanks to their good camouflage colouring.

Letter from  Raul  in Pärnu

Photo Arne Ader

Translation Liis

Fox family

The Vana-Pärnu shore meadow is kept open by grazing cattle. A number of different bird species live in the meadow, it seems that some of them also use the insects that circle around the cattle for food.