A WEEK IN THE WOODS: Spring by long strides

Submitted by Looduskalender EN on Sun, 22.04.2018 - 13:35
ilves

​​​​​Snow is gone and tracing of tracks finished this time. How then to monitor and report the doings of lynxes? The animal of the year however decided to present us with the best possible portrait of itself for the start of this period. The trail camera that was set at the tracks of the four bears turned out to have hit the path of the lynx too. The forest cats rove around in rather the same paths and we hope to meet them again on this forest road.  

Estonian text posted by the Animal of the Year Team 17.04.2018
Translation Liis

 

ilves
This beautiful creature seems to be rather slim. Why immediately check the slenderness? If this is a female then the heat period  was in February-March, the gestation lasts two months and quite soon the offspring is born. Generally two or three young,  more seldom four up to five. By now a  specimen carrying young ones should have more rounded sides. 

 

ilves
The black tail tip of the lynx. In the rear view is useful to compare the width of the body with the width of the paws. Wearing such large soft slippers you can move quite silently in the underwood. 

 

kits
No wonder that the lynx passes through here. From the camera  image captures there seem to be enough prey animals. The roe deer must be on the alert. 

 

tuvid
The stock dove pair and a male blackbird in his best years. The beak turns deep yellow like this with years, the beaks of younger blackbirds are paler. The lynx will hardly get hold of the doves very often unless it comes across them in the grass at a field verge. During the hunting time at night the birds slumber in some high spruce branches. The blackbird however is a nuisance. Many of the stealthy advances of the lynx are thwarted by it when the sneaking creature is loudly revealed by the  blackbird acting as a sharp-eyed lookout
 

 

rebane
The fur of the fox seems still to be fluffy as in winter. But it probably itches too already. In the forest a great shedding of fur goes on. Just in time for when the birds arriving from the migration look for nest lining. 

 

mäger
The badger too is treading the same path. The nearest badger castle is about one kilometre away. In warm nights the forest debris is already quite audible. All kinds of edible matter moves around and the earthworms rustle at dry leaves.

 

kährikud
And of course raccoon dogs, Father in front, Mother behind. The rear animal is very broad and sturdy. After the winter it cannot be fat. The heat period and gestation of raccoon dogs coincide quite exactly with those of lynxes. Likewise they carry their young  for two months. In such a rounded tummy there may well be some ten offspring already quite ready to come. 

 

Ilves
Four days have passed and the lynx is in camera view again. It might be a mistake but it seems like another individual, slightly less tall than the previous one. 

 

A roe buck with a somewhat curious antler. At the right-hand base a small point is visible. Precisely what it is like can  soon be seen  more clearly. Quite soon the antlers will be rubbed bare. The buck’s winter fur on the neck is already patchy and it will not be long before some reddish will show.

At the end of the video hares are mating.  

 

jänesed
The long-ears have their regular matings. The festive mood makes them so daring that the approaching person only got a short glance, they retreated a couple of meters and went on with their business. The male snatched at the sprouting grass and the female saw to her looks. They did not flee. Just lazily slipped away in between the willows.  Thinking of the lynx and precisely of the female at the end of her pregnancy period such indifferent long-ears may be a little easier mouthful to catch without running off one’s legs. In nature everything is considered and in its place  

 

laulurästas
The great thrush spring goes on. The songthrush in the photo is singing. For the singing he often chooses the tip of a high spruce, as here. In addition to the local thrushes that are starting their nesting the forests also reverberate from large migrant flocks. Particularly fieldfares move in flocks. 

 

metsvint
The couple of days last week with some twenty degrees in daytime and warm nights set the spring going fast. If usually there is about a week from the arrival of male chaffinches to the females then there was no long interval in our forest this time.In the photo a female chaffinch  

 

Sildid
Ilves

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