Where are our birds now?

Text: Urmas Sellis
Image:  Ol' George
Translation: Liis form Forum
While the greater spotted eagles show no hurry to set off on their migration journey, ospreys and black storks have mostly all already left Estonia. The last of our black storks to turn southwards was Valdur  from Võrumaa (although true, he has spent the last one and a half month in the Aardla polders near Tartu instead).
Black stork Oss has already arrived, and from August 17 Raivo too is at the Israeli fish ponds. Quite likely Toomas will soon be there too (although he isn’t very wiling to show us his locations), and Valdur. Our friend and colleague Carsten Rohde from Germany will soon visit them in the Jordan valley; then we will perhaps have more precise information. The satellite coverage is weak in the Mediterranean area, and much information is lost.
Osprey Erika flew from south-eastern Estonia to the Nile delta near Cairo, in less than two weeks and was still there according to the latest data (although a holiday there might not precisely be an example of  healthy living …). Iti is still in her nesting area and busy with her offspring. Tõnn has moved some hundred kilometres southwards in Sweden, to an area rather empty of human activities at the Hörsåsen hills. We will see how long he stays there …

It is mostly forested land, with marshy areas and many lakes. Still, Tõnn is quite near Road  45, and the Inlandsbanan railway, going 1288 km through the north of Sweden, now mostly a tourist sightseeing line, passes some 15 kilometres westwards. Before 1645 the area, in the former Älvros parish, belonged to Norway; the border between the countries followed the parish border.

 
pildi koht
Colors in Hörsåsen that time
Complete tracks of every tagged bird are available at online migration map


 

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