looduskalender.ee

 

Linda and Sulev’s nest life proceeds at full speed. Before the storm the nest was  quite nicely in order, the nest bottom warmed up for egg-laying and even lining material brought in.  In these doings the male has been particularly noticeable.  But early this morning there was more than ten centimetres of storm-blown snow in the nest, and Sulev has melting work to do once more. But just try to melt snow in minus 7 degrees, when the wind chill factor makes life really frosty.

 

 

 

That the grey seal monitoring camera would wake up after such a storm nobody dared expect. The gusts of north-easterly wind reached up to 24 m/s at the time of the video recording – 9 o’clock in the morning – and there were 2 degrees of cold. The solar panels are looking southwards, this saved them from being buried in snow. Through the snow blown on to the lens movements could be sensed. It is an interesting period in the seal rookery at the moment; let us keep our fingers crossed that nature will allow us to watch. The sea is still free from ice at present, but all depends on the wind directions. On the northern shore the storm of this night has packed the Käsmu bay full of ridged ice:

http://www.looduskalender.ee/en/node/11478