looduskalender.ee

 

Est 037

 

The day at work yesterday started with an exciting find.  By way of Kotkaklubi (Eagle Club), Latvian eagle man Janis Kuze sent us information about a white-tailed eagle that had been captured on photos at an eagle feeding ground near Kolka. On its right leg was an Estonian blue-white national ring, ESTONIA MATSALU 037, and on the left leg a red-white year ring without numerical year code.

 

We had to do with a bird that was ringed as an eaglet by Einar Tammur on May 17th 1989 on the Sõrve peninsula. At the ringing centres the age of birds is counted in calendar years. In this case the white-tailed eagle is already in its 25th calendar year (1989 – 1st, 1990 – 2nd etc). According to Janis Kuze this is  the all-time oldest bird in Latvia with age verified by ringing. Until now the eagle had managed to keep away from ring readers, and no earlier report about it is known. Helmuts Hofmanis managed to get the first photos, on February 8th and 9th, but unfortunately the code was not readable. Firm proof came from a photo by Maris Maskalans made on February 13th.

Estonia joined the colour marking scheme of white-tailed eagles in 1984. In the 1980s white-tailed eagles were still rare as a breeding species in Estonia. In the same year of 1989, for instance only 6 white-tailed eagles were ringed in Estonia (ringer Einar Tammur) and the five remaining white-tailed eagles have not given any re-finds. For Estonia however this find is not an age record. Devoted bird enthusiasts will surely remember the white-tailed eagle ESTONIA MATSALU 016 that received its ring as an eaglet in 1985 in Tartumaa, in the Emajõe Suursoo area, and now is simply called ”Vanaeit” ("Granny"). She was last seen according to information at the ringing centre on March 14th, 2011, in Jõgevamaa, in the Härjanurme area. Thus her age at that moment was 27 calendar years.

In recent years our eagle men are ringing more than 50 white-tailed eagles every year. In addition to white-tailed eagles colour marking schemes are running for all our other regularly breeding eagle species. So it is worthwhile in addition to admiring the eagle itself, to check its feet carefully if opportunity and technical equipment is at hand. So we can supplement our knowledge about their movements and ages.

 

 

Eagle at feeding ground