Photos  Ahto Täpsi
English translation Liis

Estonian text posted 18.01.2019

The winter dens of our bears may look very different

Brown bear       Pruunkaru or  karu        Ursus arctos

In the Estonian forests brown bears started to give birth already before Christmas and it lasts until the end of the month. Of our bear population of nearly seven hundred individuals this year sixty bear mothers should give birth to cubs or have already done so.

Screencap from webcam IceAge, LK forum
English translation Liis

Estonian text posted 16.01.2019

Great tits, greenfinches, tree sparrows…

Those who feed birds know that the first arrivals are the great tits, already in the morning dusk – the winter bird webcam watchers notice it too.

The earliest is of course some older great tit that knows the neighbourhood thoroughly and has spent the night nearby. Together with the blue tits they cooperate peacefully and nicely in  order  – the older, larger birds are given priority. Marsh tits are the last arrivals among the tits. The first three-quarters of the hour belongs to the tits.

Screencap from webcam by  IceAge LK forum
English translation Liis

Estonian text posted 10.01.2019

On the female fish in the foreground we can see marks of the spawning, a furrow on the body above the anal fin

River trout; Brown trout  Jõeforell or hõrnas  Salmo trutta morpha fario

Text and illustrations  Tiit Hunt, www.rmk.ee
English translation Liis

                     
Estonian text posted 11.01.2019

Happy beaver year, nice nightjar year, a splendid shaggy ink cap year, a joyous Wulf’s peat moss year, colourful ghost orchid year and of course a spicy eutric histosol year and … Without coordination with any organisation I would like to add – a great catfish year to you all!

The animal of the year, as all the others crowned with the same title, will be in a constant year-long limelight of words and images and surely by this we will be much wiser already at Christmas in theriology, ornithology, mycology, botany, pedology-edaphology,  or even dendrology and other areas.