April 2017

Screencap from webcam Olga, LK forum
Translation Liis

Black stork   Must-toonekurg        Ciconia nigra 

Southern Estonia lives in a ”lark winter”; in the night a quite considerable snow layer fell.

Video recorded by Urmas Lett, www.eenet.ee

Translation Liis

Tawny owl      Kodukakk        Strix aluco

Half-day old owl chicks look and sound like this when the female flies out of the nest trunk. They were left on their own for some ten minutes in the early morning with  degrees of frost.

Screencap from webcam Maggy, LK forum

Video Urmas Lett, www.eenet.ee

Translation Liis

Three owl chicks and one egg

Screencaps by Maggy, LK forum

Translation Liis

Image from Tuesday morning at four o’clock, when Klaara went out for eight minutes to stretch her legs

Tawny owl           Kodukakk        Strix aluco

Introduction Tiit Hunt, www.rmk.ee
Transmission courtesy of Teetormaja and EENet
Translation Liis

Image from webcam Liz, LK forum

Video Urmas Lett, www.eenet.ee

Text Urmas Sellis

Translation Liis

In the early morning light we saw the first egg in the nest

Black stork        Must-toonekurg          Ciconia nigra     

Looking back a little in time: male Karl arrived at the nest on April 4. He was more or less ready with the renovation of the nest in the morning of April 4, when female Kati arrived.

Image from webcam by Maggy, LK forum

From the egg with ”holes”in it sounds could be heard late in the evening

Tawny owl     Kodukakk       Strix aluco

So owl mother Klaara laid her eggs in the nest trunk on March 15, 18, 21 and 24. This  is how larger birds particularly birds of prey do,  because the development of larger eggs is an energy-intense activity.

In the evenings Klaara has been actively ”clattering” the eggs around and socializing with them in a quiet voice (with male Klaus she communicates quite differently).

Text and photos Margus Ots
Translation Liis

Counting geese on the ground in fields is easier than counting flying birds – they will not at once disappear from your field of view. But at the same time the geese in a large flock on the ground may be behind each other and the birds farther away may stay unnoticed. Often the geese in a field seem like a narrow band but on seeing the flock from another side it turns out that the goose flock covers a much greater area than supposed, the flock is as long as it is broad and at least half the birds were not noticed at all.

Text: Urmas Sellis, Estonian Ornithological Society

Transmission courtesy of Kernel, Tele2 and EENet

Supported by KIK

Translation Liis

Photos and text Margus Ots
Translation Liis

From the wintering areas in western Europe the first flocks, mainly consisting of greater white-fronted geese and bean geese reached Estonia already in March. The geese, heading for their breeding areas in the tundras of Russia, stay in Estonia at most until the end of April-beginning of May; in mid-May they already leave for the breeding grounds. In the second half of May only a few left behind can be seen.

The geese stay in particularly great numbers around Tartu, where nearly 25 000 geese are spending the night at the Aardla lake. Of those more than 85% are greater white-fronted geese, the remainder mainly bean geese.