Photo Arne Ader

Video Ahto Täpsi

Translation Liis

Foxes courting

Red fox; European fox   Punarebane or rebane        Vulpes vulpes

Since the end of last summer when the young foxes left the care of the adults they have lived solitarily. They have marked their territories that may be about ten square kilometres in size.

Text: newspaper Võrumaa Teataja

A rather rare incident when a bird flock gets involved in a car accident, newspaper Võrumaa Teataja writes: LINK

Comment: Arne Ader

Siskins are seed-eaters. Mostly they are busy in the crowns of trees but when the seeds drop they can also forage on the ground. Seeds that have been frozen into the snow from the road can sometimes be released all at once – when the cold decreases and the road thaws.

Similar behaviour can also be seen towards spring on the ice of lakes and rivers but there it is not dangerous for the siskins: LINK

Photo Simmo Kikkas
Translation Liis

Portrait of young world citizen on Friday

Grey seal; Gray seal     Hallhüljes        Halichoerus grypus

Thanks to Simmo who went by kayak to count the seal pups the web camera was also adjusted and other necessary jobs got done – it is more uncomfortable for white-tailed eagles to sit on the camera now!

The Baltic-facing side of Saaremaa is free of ice and the pupping of grey seals is in its early stage. Thirteen females have given birth, all young are alive and healthy.

Photos Arne Ader
Translation Liis

Bog edge with haircap moss

 

Common haircap moss; Golden maidenhair     Harilik karusammal or käolina      Polytrichum commune

Estonian moss friends chose a moss of the year for the first time; of seven candidates it turned out to be the common hair cap moss. Seven species in Estonia belong to the Polytrichacea family: the best known of them and most widely spread is the species that was chosen as the moss of the year.

Editor of science news from the Year of the Great Tit  Marko Mägi, marko.magi@ut.ee, bird ecology researcher at University of Tartu
Translation Liis

That tits are the most numerous of bird feeder visitors is also confirmed by the results of the Winter Garden Bird Watch. The tits bustle briskly at the bird feeders in early light, leaving only when dusk falls, and it is almost impossible to make sure who came, who left, to where and whether a bird actually returns to the same bird feeder.