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Welcome to this new webcam on a Golden Eagle nest in Soomaa.
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lianaliesma wrote:
Could you please tell us from what place in the central part of Estonia comes the mother?
And - if those photos are from last year, does it mean that they have both brought up an eaglet last year, Estonian eagle-girl and Latvian eagle-boy? Does it fledge?
As Triin already answered - from webcam nest fledge last year one juvenile. Same was 2016 and 2015. This particular pair last years productivity was one of the main reasons to decide where to put GE webcam in Estonia. So lets hope that the adults will not decide to take a brake year what they definitely deserve! Through the last ten years we didn't confirmed in Estonia any cases where from one nest could fledge two youngs. In all those cases older chick killed younger one.
Female have born approximately 60 km far from webcam nest (Paide city surroundings bogs)
Cessie wrote:Gunnar, when should we expect to see nest activity and egg?
According the datas from the trailcam study I can say that in our latitude here in Estonia first egg laying date median is 21. of March (8. March-5.April). Nest activity (decorating) varies by pairs. Some pairs start to decorate their nests already January if laziests start to think about this last part of February. But roughly - most pair decorate their occpied nests mid February.
Gunnar and Triin - thanks for your first-hand infos, they are very appreciated
I wondered that both Golden Eagles showed no sign of suspicion about the camera equipment, but when there was already a trail cam in previous years then they are probably already used to the fact there is some kind of "box" not far from the nest.
As far as I interpret their behaviour they see and know that there is "something", but don´t behave disturbed ...
Bea wrote:
I wondered that both Golden Eagles showed no sign of suspicion about the camera equipment, but when there was already a trail cam in previous years then they are probably already used to the fact there is some kind of "box" not far from the nest.
As far as I interpret their behaviour they see and know that there is "something", but don´t behave disturbed ...
Yes Bea - this pair "public face" awareness was already important to us selecting the potential webcam nest. Anyway GE seems to be not so shy and tolerate any kind of strange things close to their nests more easily comparing for example WTS. I put trailcam from the edge of the GE nest max 1.5 m to secure conditions of reading the ringnumbers. So in reality such kind of equipment is really close to the nest.
Gunnar wrote:
As Triin already answered - from webcam nest fledge last year one juvenile. Same was 2016 and 2015. This particular pair last years productivity was one of the main reasons to decide where to put GE webcam in Estonia. So lets hope that the adults will not decide to take a brake year what they definitely deserve! Through the last ten years we didn't confirmed in Estonia any cases where from one nest could fledge two youngs. In all those cases older chick killed younger one.
Golden Eagles - Aquila chrysaetos
So we have one more from the Aquila-family .... and so it is the same like with Lesser spotted Eagles - Aquila pomarina and Greater spotted Eagles - Aquila clange .... we have to expect cainism/siblicide in case that two eggs are laid and two hatches will happen?
So we have one more from the Aquila-family .... and so it is the same like with Lesser spotted Eagles - Aquila pomarina and Greater spotted Eagles - Aquila clange .... we have to expect cainism/siblicide in case that two eggs are laid and two hatches will happen?
Yes, cainism is possible. Also golden eagles have a very intersting diet of birds and mammals including black grouse, capercaillie, common crane, rabbits, marten e.g.
Bea wrote:
This would have been my next question - what kind of prey can we expect to be brought to the nest .... I see they have quite a range of food.
Here are two links to blog posts (in Estonian) where you can see what can be found in GE nest after a successful season. These photos were taken in Soomaa in January 2017 and 2018 when we analysed golden eagles prey items.
Triin wrote:
Yes, cainism is possible. Also golden eagles have a very intersting diet of birds and mammals including black grouse, capercaillie, common crane, rabbits, marten e.g.
I would like to say even that if there will be two hatched egg - younger one will be probably killed. And talking this issue to the end, all the cases when killed chick remained into the nest (not dropped down over the edge), female feed this died juvenile to the alive one (once again according to the trailcam datas since 2011).
But the situation is not totally hopeless. We have had in Estonia also positive cases where both juveniles have fledged (period before year of 2010).
Body length ---> females 90 - 100 cm, males are about 10 % smaller than females
Wingspan ---> females 200 - 230 cm and males 190 - 210 cm
Weight ---> females 3,8 - 6,7 kg and males 2,8 - 4,6 kg
English wikipedia has some more details: The standard measurements of the species include a wing chord length of 52–72 cm (20–28 in), a tail length of 26.5–38 cm (10.4–15.0 in) and a tarsus length of 9.4–12.2 cm (3.7–4.8 in).[5] The culmen (upper ridge of beak) reportedly averages around 4.5 cm (1.8 in), with a range of 3.6 to 5 cm (1.4 to 2.0 in). The bill length from the gape measures around 6 cm (2.4 in).[12][13] The long, straight and powerful hallux-claw (hind claw) can range from 4.5 to 6.34 cm (1.77 to 2.50 in), about one centimetre longer than in a bald eagle and a little more than one centimetre less than a harpy eagle
Weight ---> females 4 – 6.9 kg (8.8 – 15.2 lb) and males 3.1 – 5.4 kg (6.8 – 11.9 lb)
And more details from English wikipedia Among standard measurements, the wing chord is 55.2–71.7 cm (21.7–28.2 in), the tail is 25–33 cm (9.8–13.0 in), the tarsus is 9.2–10.1 cm (3.6–4.0 in) and the exposed culmen is 6–6.5 cm (2.4–2.6 in)
Bea wrote:
I meant Golden Eagles are the biggest ones of all three Aquilas in Estonia ....
Golden Eagle is a lot bigger than other Aquilas in Estonia.
By the way I think the scientific genus was changed for Greater Spotted Eagle (Aquila Clanga --> Clanga Clanga) and Lesser Spotted Eagle (Aquila Pomarina --> Clanga Pomarina)
