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White-tailed Eagle

The nest of White-tailed eagles is located near Lake Lubāns (E part of Latvia), in breeding territory that is known since 2010. In the following two years this nest was not productive – in 2011 it was occupied but empty (most probably eggs were not laid), while in 2012 breeding was unsuccessful – in June remains of eggs were found in the nest bowl. In 2013 breeding was finally successful and two youngsters have left the nest. Later in the autumn birds began to prepare for the next breeding season – nest crown was supplied with branches and decorated with fresh conifer twigs.

During the coldest winter time adult eagles left their breeding area to look for food elsewhere - perhaps to areas where there was open water available with fish and waterfowl, or some place where they scavenged at some dead animal. This year at the nest for the first time they returned on 10th of February and at that time nest was already equipped with surveillance camera system. Soon we learned that the male is ringed - initial ring colour readings allowed to conclude that the bird is of Lithuanian origin and hatched in 2007, therefore, is a relatively young (sea eagles usually start to breed at the age of five years). On 3rd of March we managed to read the left leg ring number (V506 ) and thus found out that the eagle is ringed as a chick in the nest on 4th of June, 2007, in the north eastern part of Lithuania, in surroundings of Lake Sartai, about 120 kilometres from its current nesting site.

Female eagle is non-ringed, so the origin of this bird is not known to us. Both birds are well distinguishable not only by the rings (or lack of them), but also by the size - like with most other birds of prey, female is considerably larger than male. This difference is very obvious at times when both birds are next to each other.

In Latvia White-tailed eagles usually lay eggs in the first decade of March (there are 1-3 eggs in the clutch), so this pair can be regarded as a rather late breeder - the first of the two eggs was laid only on the 24th of March. The average hatching time for this species is 38 days, so we can expect that the first chick could hatch around the 1st May.

The users of Dabasdati.lv Forum named birds as Lubāna (female, as from the nearby lake) and Sartas (male, according to its Lithuanian origin and name of lake close to its hatching place).

The building of surveillance system was supported by the VAS LVRTC (JSC "Latvian State Radio and Television Centre ") and e – Paraksts (e-Signature), as well as "Apavi 40+" and guest house "Zvejnieki” in Īdeņa. Valuable assistance in building and maintenance of system was provided by Jānis Rudzītis, Jānis Kažotnieks and Elvijs Kantāns. System was partly built by the use of hardware that was obtained in frames of project “Eagles cross borders” (Estonian-Latvian cross border programme ESTLAT).

Text by Jānis Ķuze

Osprey

Osprey nest that we can watch in our computer screens, is located in the southeastern part of Latvia in surroundings of town of Viesīte. It is known since 2008 but was built most probably already couple of years before that. Breeding success in this breeding territory has been quite good - only one year (in 2009) breeding was not successful, in other years at least one youngster has left the nest. In 2013 Ospreys in the nest raised three chicks, it should be noted that both of the adults were not ringed.

Webcam system at the nest was built in the 21st of March 2014, before the birds returned from their wintering areas. During the camera installation it was noticed that nest has partly collapsed during the winter, so it was decided to strengthen it with artificial support. The first Osprey (supposedly female) at the nest was observed on 3rd of April (this year it was the earliest known record of this species in Latvia), on coming week it was waiting for the arriving of its mate. While the real partner delayed, nest was visited by strangers, most probably the migrating birds - on 5th of April came color-ringed bird (on left leg red plastic ring with white numerals 083) – this eagle was ringed as a chick in the nest in year 2010, some  40 km SE from its recent observation place. On 7th of April another bird came, it has a metal ring on the left leg), while on 9th of April bird with a metal ring on right leg visited the nest. Later in the same day a non-ringed bird arrived (most probably the original partner) and both birds begun intensively to work on nest reconstruction.

The Forum users at looduskalender.ee have named the birds Lauma (female) and Pērkons (male).

The building of surveillance system was supported by the VAS LVRTC (JSC "Latvian State Radio and Television Centre ") and e – Paraksts (e-Signature), as well as "Apavi 40+" and guest house "Zvejnieki” in Īdeņa. Valuable assistance in building and maintenance of system was provided by Jānis Rudzītis, Aina Everte, Aldis Veinštoks, Jānis Paegļkalns and Vigonts Kuklis. System was partly built by the use of hardware that was obtained in frames of project “Eagles cross borders” (Estonian-Latvian cross border programme ESTLAT).

Text by Aigars Kalvāns and Jānis Ķuze

Black stork

This nest of Black stork is located in northern Kurzeme (NW part of Latvia). Nest is known since 2012, when it was productive (3 chicks left the nest) and the same results were recorded there one year later as well. This year (situation as on 17th of April) nest has been visited only by lonely adult male and it happened on 5th, 6th and 12th of April.

The building of surveillance system was supported by the VAS LVRTC (JSC "Latvian State Radio and Television Centre ") and e – Paraksts (e-Signature), as well as "Apavi 40+". Valuable assistance in building and maintenance of system was provided by Jānis Rudzītis and Helmuts Hofmanis.

Text by Jānis Ķuze

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