Heron camera

Introduction Renno Nellis
Transmission provided by Televõrk and EEnet
English translation Liis

Estonian text posted 10.04.2019

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The heron camera starts its third season. We will see the activities in Estonia’s largest heron colony in LääneCounty where last season nearly 490 pairs of grey herons and 250 pairs of great egrets were nesting. At the start in the 1990’ies only grey herons were nesting in the colony where the great egrets moved in only in 2015.

The number of great egrets here has increased by each year, reaching 250 pairs in 2018. A large increase came with the moving in of the birds that had nested in the reed fields of the Silma Nature Reserve area; read about this in more detail in the EOÜ information periodical Tiirutaja (page 19, PDF - in Estonian).

In the camera’s field of view there are however mostly grey heron nests, further away a few great heron nests are visible. The grey herons already have eggs in their nests, the great herons begin the egg-laying in April-May. The grey heron chicks will start hatching in the turn of April and May.

The colony is monitored by a moveable and zoomable camera in the top of the tallest tree showing several tens of nests. The camera is run by voluntary camera operator Mutikluti.

Implementers: