Image from webcam by  Shanta, LK forum

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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

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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

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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.