Latvian WtE nest webcamera Juras-erglis Durbe 2023

White-tailed eagles in Latvia

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Latvian WtE nest webcamera Juras-erglis Durbe 2023

Post by ame »

White-tailed sea eagles in Latvia: Juras-Erglis 2023

A new topic for the new year! Image :laugh:
Image

The beginning season is direct continuation to the previous season as the camera has been working with a few breaks. You may catch up where we came from here:
viewtopic.php?p=884766#p884766

Camera links

The video transmission from the nest is streaming in Youtube, presently (since Jan 26 2023) at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbDIHVsyC7s

If the address should change for some reason, I'll keep the old addresses here in case someone would need then later.
Jan 1 - 20 2023:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIVheXIP_t4
Jan 21:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hwzczqJ3zQ
Jan 22:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjQ1gN9rfmI
Jan 23:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YelWlwaFZE
Jan 24 (or 25?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCLtiMnPuc0
)


The address of the Youtube may sometimes change. If this should happen the new address can be found by making a search 'juras erglis webcamera' in the Youtube. The link to the WTE camera, as well as the other the live cameras of Latvia's Nature Fund LDF (Latvijas dabas fonds), can also be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIcQwg ... hMBclDJENw
The WTE camera is not on the top of the list so you need to scroll down a little. In Latvian it is called "LDF Jūras ērglis tiešraide".
We'll try to remember to update the address here if it changes. (Remind us if we don't!)
If you have trouble finding the camera please let us know (write to ame or Liz01) and we'll try to help.

The Youtube stream can be scrolled back in time 12 hours from present. This way it is possible to see what happened at the nest during the previous 12 hours. This makes it also possible to record the delayed stream with some screen recording program. From the Settings-button in the lower right corner one can adjust the resolution of the picture. For recordings it's best to use as high resolution as possible.

The stream can also be viewed (for example) on Potplayer or with VLC player by opening the same address as for YouTube. Both Potplayer and VLC can be used for recording the Youtube stream and for taking snapshots from the stream either live or from recorded video. Potplayer can also be used to record delayed stream from screen.
The overall use of Potplayer is discussed here:
viewtopic.php?p=499450#p499450
The use of VLC player is discussed here:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=739

There are also several other screen recording programs which can be used for recording the stream. The use of some of them are also discussed in the Questions and help-topic:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=770


Working hours of the camera

Normally during the season this camera is operating 24/7, thanks to the installation of a methanol fuel cell power system in Autumn 2017. The fuel cell provides power to the camera system when the solar cells will not get enough sunlight to feed the batteries.
In wintertime the stream is switched off for the night time in order to save energy. This winter the stream is switched off 2 hours after sunset and switched back on 2 hours prior to sunrise. In the darkest time of the winter these times have been at about 6 pm and 7 am.

The camera time is the local, Eastern European Time EET which is 2 hours ahead of GMT (or Greenwich/London time), and one hour ahead of the Central European Time CET. In summertime the daylight saving time adds one more hour difference compared to GMT.
Overseas viewers please note: if you see a black screen check if you can see the time stamp in the lower left corner with the clock running. It may be night time in Latvia and then the camera shows darkness. :sleep:

The camera clock normally runs somewhat delayed compared to the 'real' time (your computer time). This delay is quite normal and may vary from time to time from a few seconds to even some minutes. The delay is due to the data transmission chain and its efficiency, and it mainly depends on the speed of each viewer's own internet connection. Therefore it is important that the camera time is given when events at the nest are reported, because the camera time is 'the real time' for the nest which is the same for all of us. It's also strongly recommended that the camera's date&time stamp is not removed from any pictures that are posted. Without the time stamp the picture will only have an artistic value (which is naturally not overlooked! but it will not be useful for ornithologists).

Sometimes there may be a malfunction in the streaming system. If refreshing of the Youtube-window or reopening/restarting of Potplayer (or restarting your pc or router in extreme cases) will not help, please report either ame or Liz01 and we'll try to look for help.

I have noticed that Potplayer version 210729(1.7.21526) can record Youtube stream for as long as there is space on the hard disk (a later version could record only 6 hours; disable updates!) If you are recording continuously it's wise to split files at certain intervals. This version can also survive shorter breaks in the stream and even wait and try restarting during the night pause of the stream and start recording as soon as the camera wakes up in the morning. Convenient! (Sometimes there is, however, some malfunction and restart fails, but this happens very seldom.)
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Post by ame »

Important events at the nest
searchword searchnestsummary

Events will be added to this list as times goes on and interesting and important events take place.
  • Jan 3 the eagles visited the nest for the first time this year,(nd the first time since Dec 3 2022 when Voldis made his last previous visit. Milda made her last previous visit on Nov 5, but Voldis visited a few times between these two dates. Voldis also tried to mate with Milda on this visit, but Milda didn't like the idea.
    viewtopic.php?p=884901#p884901
  • Jan 20 Jānis Ķuze with his coworkers made a maintenance trip to the nest and changed the old camera optics to a new with bright view and much more linear picture than the old camera had.
    viewtopic.php?p=885815#p885815
  • April 13 at about 18:10 the first chick hatched.The eggshell had cracked in two pieces. This was almost exactly 36 days after the laying, two days earlier than expected.
    viewtopic.php?p=894753#p894753
  • May 4 at 15:01:53 the older chick shot poop on the camera lens and we lost the view. The 'visual' season was over and from this moment we could only listen and try to figure out what was going on at the nest. By this time the sibling rivalry had become strong with the older chick beating and biting the younger both during and outside of feeding times. The younger was often not fed while the older was well-fed. By chance the younger was seen to be fed just minutes before the fatal poopshot.
    - The third egg never hatched. It was still whole on the nest at the time of the fatal poopshot.
    viewtopic.php?p=898798#p898798

    Later Latvijas Dabas Fonds and Jānis Ķuze decided to keep the stream on and not to climb to the nest for to ring the eaglets and clean the lens. The eaglets were too small for ringing yet, and it was feared that the parents might find the suddenly reappearing camera as frightening and would not return to the nest. It was also anticipated that the camera would very probably be soiled again so the cleaning would give only temporary help. Later it turned out that this was exactly so: on May 16th at 17:29 the camera was shot again, and later on May 28 at 8:16 another shot hit the lens.

    The older chick was heard spanking the younger every now and then. This remained as the only way to know that both chick were still alive. The latest time that these spanking sounds were heard was on May 28 at 20:22. (edited on May 30)
  • July 14 at 14:53 Jānis climbed up to the nest and cleaned the camera.
    viewtopic.php?p=906929#p906929
    Later on that same day one of the eaglets returned for feeding and soon also the other. It was possible to see that one of the eaglets was a male and the other was a female. It was, however, impossible to know who was the older and who the younger. They had changed so much during the blackout.
  • July 25 the eaglets were named. The female eaglet was named Kate and the male eaglet Kursis.
  • August 21 Voldis was seen for the last time (and only very briefly) during an episode when Milda brought a fish to the nest and most probably an osprey followed her (and her fish) and landed on the spruce on the right side. Voldis flew to the top of the nest tree to see if Milda could cope with the unpleasant guest and then flew away.
    viewtopic.php?p=910279#p910279
  • Oct 4 at 14:27 a Latvian ringed male H492 flew to the nest. He had visited already a few times earlier in the autumn but this time Milda flew in after him. She didn't seem to like H492: she pecked him and complained vocally. Another male called a few times in the forest and both eagles on the nest listened.
    viewtopic.php?p=912087#p912087
    Playlist of videos on Oct 4:
    https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... AjleT8kC_B

    Later both a male's and a female's calls were heard from the forest every now and then and sometimes a male and a female were heard calling or even singing together. It is impossible to know for sure who the eagles were.
  • Oct 11 at 11:27 the nest slipped and dropped down.
    viewtopic.php?p=912437&sid=8fb998a0ed7b ... 9c#p912437
    After this the eagles (one or two but who?) visited the nest tree and a female and a male were heard calling nearby or far in the forest. Later in the autumn the calls became less frequent and the sightings even more rare.
search keyword: searchnestsummary
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Post by ame »

Introduction


Our female Milda has had two unlucky seasons in a row. In 2021 she lost her mate Raimis in the middle of the incubation period. After some turbulent turns of events she lost her clutch as well although two of her three eggs managed to hatch almost miraculously. She was left with a new partner and started the new season 2022 with him. However, this partner was replaced by a new male in the middle of the mating season. This male was given the name Voldis. It turned out that Voldis was probably too young and immature to take care of family duties: he wasn't patient enough to stay on the eggs for more than a few minutes, and he also didn't want to give food to Milda. Also bad luck interfered and their clutch was lost already in the beginning of incubation.

Hopefully Voldis has grown up during this past year and he will now know what to do as an eagle father. Let's hope that the coming season will be a 'normal and boring' one without exciting and surprising twists and turns. We wish good luck to the new couple and a successful season 2023! :2thumbsup:
Image

Below is the introduction for this nest camera, given Latvian Dabasdati YT channel a few years ago. The height of the nest is a little different in the introduction in Latvian version. There the height is 25 m.
The White-tailed Eagle's nest can be observed live since 2015 and is located in Kurzeme, at Durbe Municipality. This breeding area has been known since 2014. The nest is built on top of an old spruce tree, which was once broken by wind or snow. Several branches have grown around the fracture, forming a fork suitable for building a nest at a height of about 30 metres. The camera was installed on one of the top branches at the end of January 2015. The nest is interesting because it is built in a spruce – the white-tailed eagles rarely choose to nest in spruces –, at the time of its location, this was only the fourth known nest built in a spruce in Latvia. About a half of all white-tailed eagle nests are built in pines, a third in aspens and to a lesser extent in birches, black alders and oaks. In spruces, nests are usually built on such broken ends and are usually located high above the ground.
In 2015, the eagle couple Durbe and Roberts successfully raised one nestling – Durberts. In 2016 and 2017, the residents of the nest changed several times, and breeding was not started in either of the two years. In 2018, a couple of White-tailed Eagles, who resided here since March 2017 and were given the names Milda and Raimis, successfully bred in this nest. The breeding was successful also in 2019 and 2020.
https://forums.dabasdati.lv/viewtopic.p ... 93#p108693

For previous seasons please return to these pages:
2015 - 2017:
viewtopic.php?p=558920#p558920
2018 the important events:
viewtopic.php?p=558918#p558918
2019 the important events:
viewtopic.php?p=627157#p627157
2020 the important events:
viewtopic.php?p=704636#p704636
2021 the important events:
viewtopic.php?p=772788#p772788
2022 the important events:
viewtopic.php?p=836129#p836129
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Post by ame »

Identification of the eagles

The principal differences of females and males can be summarized as the following.
  • Females are generally bigger than males. There are, however, large variations in sizes within sexes themselves. A big male may be the same size as a small female. On the other hand, the female of a couple may be considerably bigger than her male partner. (Seeing a couple like this gives a flashback of Groucho Marx with Margaret Dumont in many Marx Brothers films. :mrgreen:
    http://www.classicmoviehub.com/blog/wp- ... /07/ds.jpg )

    If two eagles of very different sizes are seen at the same time then the bigger is almost certainly the female. - One must remember here, that the apparent size of an eagle on the nest depends very strongly on the distance from the camera.
  • Females have longer and straighter beaks than males. An eagle's beak is always big and hooked in the tip, and a male's beak is often curved all along its length. A female's beak is often straight for most of its length before it curves down and forms a hook. (Urmas Sellis once said "it goes on and on" and made a gesture which visualized Pinocchio's nose growing. :rolleyes: )
    This is again a general rule and there are large individual variations within and between sexes.
  • The ankles of females (the tarsus, plural tarsi) are thicker than the ankles of males. This is usually difficult to see without having both sexes in view at the same time. Even then it's not easy to see the difference. The apparent thickness also depends on the viewing angle: the diameter is larger when the foot is seen from the front/back compared to the lateral diameter (diameter seen from the side). (One can see a demonstration of this effect by looking at one's own wrist from different angles.)
    The difference of sexes is easier to see if the eagle wears a ring. Apparently eagle's rings are manufactured in one size only. This size gives a tight fit on a female's leg, but is usually rather loose on a male's ankle.
  • The voices of females and males are usually very different: females have lower-pitched voices than males. Females are 'mezzo sopranos' or even 'altos' while males are tenors. (Hearing this difference doesn't require much musicality in a human listener; I'm a good example of this. :whistling: )
The above general rules are helpful when both the female and the male are seen in front of the camera at the same time, because they are based on comparison between the sexes. The problem is much more difficult if we can see only one bird, unless she/he is ringed. Then we can compare the size of the ring with the size of the ankle. Perhaps surprisingly the voice is the easiest clue if the eagle calls. Then it is fairly simple to determine the sex. Mating situations are trivial of course: the Eagle Kamasutra knows only one position. :laugh:

In the introduction of the year 2020 topic you will find another thorough discussion of how to separate female and male eagles in general.
viewtopic.php?p=704639#p704639
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Post by ame »

Milda and Voldis: the tails

Knowing who is who on the nest is not a problem if at least one of the inhabitants wears rings. Unfortunately neither Milda nor Voldis have rings and therefore we have to look for details in their appearance or hear their voices.

The plumages of adult eagles don't change much in the yearly moult so the tail patterns remain almost unchanged from one year to the next. The WTE have black spots in their white tails which form individual patterns and allow identification of different eagles to certain degree.

albicilla found a very useful article which describes the development of the outer appearance, including plumage of WTEs with age:
http://www.nof.nu/rrk/Bestamningsartikl ... y0cSPSAG7E
The article is in Swedish (with a summary in the end in English) but there are a lot of pictures illustrating the changes.
albicilla's post:
viewtopic.php?p=770175#p770175

The tails of Milda and Voldis are fortunately very different. Milda has small more or less round spots in a roundish group or a horizontal row in her otherwise white tail. Sometimes the middle spot is hiding and only two spots can be seen. Sometimes her spots are overlap each other so that they form one larger spot. The borderline between her white tail and dark back is clear and smooth and regular. In the summer some spot may disappear altogether as the feathers which have these spots in their tips drop in the moult. For example last summer Milda's tail was almost spotless for a while. Later her spot pattern was a little messy when the new feathers were growing.
This is a new pictures of Milda's tail. One small dark feather is sticking out from the borderline on the right as a beauty spot. It is not usually there and will probably disappear again soon.
Image

Voldis has two larger fairly symmetrical crescent shaped spots with dark "rays" starting from the dark base of the tail from one side to the other. This pattern can fairly easily be separated from Milda's tail. - A while ago a dark feather from the under layer of his tail emerged to the top layer on the right. It will probably disappear when Voldis has time to reorganize his tail properly
Image
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Post by ame »

Milda and Voldis: the right profiles

Sometimes it's necessary to compare the profiles of the eagles in order to identify them. The tips of some feathers have light rims compared to others. They are older than the uniformly dark feathers. The feathers wear shorter and faint in sunlight as they get older. Not all feathers change every year, but some feathers drop from here and there and new fresh feathers replace them. The feathers with light tips and dark tips form individual patterns on the wings. These patterns change from one year to the next but during one season (except the change period, the moult) the patterns remain the same allowing identification.

The following pairs of similarly cropped pictures show the right and left profiles of the birds standing in about the same place (distance!) in the same lighting conditions.
Image

Image

Milda is more robust than Voldis although not much bigger. Voldis also has rather strong ankles for a male. In the above Milda's head is slightly tilted sideways, not quite at right angles with our line of sight. Therefore her beak looks perhaps a little shorter and more curved than it really is when seen directly from the side. Voldis has a rather feminine beak, it's strong, not petite at all. :laugh:
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Post by ame »

Milda and Voldis: the left profiles

These two pictures show the left profiles of the eagles. The plumage of Voldis is slightly greyer and lighter than Milda's.
Image

Image

Face profiles are also different. Milda's plumage is darker and more brown than that of Voldis. She also has dark shadows behind and under her eyes ("Anna Magnani's eyes"). Voldis is rather light grey.
Image
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Post by ame »

The location of the nest

The location of the nest is in Durbe County near the city Liepāja in Western Latvia, marked with blue line in the maps below. The maps were provided by Jānis Ķuze.
Image

There is one big lake, Durbes ezers, with a nature reserve area. There are also other water areas in the county, both natural and artificial. There is a fish farm in Skrunda (on the right side of the map) with large ponds which are drained for harvesting the fish in autumns. Plenty of fish remain in the ponds after they are drained and the ponds lure flocks of WTEs both young and adult to feed. The fish in shallow water are easy catch for the young eaglets who are learning to fish. Thus the fish ponds can be called their "school".
Image
On 14 Feb 2015, 10:42 Jānis Ķuze wrote:this nest is located not far away from several farmsteads, that is the reason why dogs can be heard, some of the chainsaws are coming from there as well. ...
Besides dogs we have heard voices of all kinds of farm animals to the nest over the years: cows, cocks, even turkeys.

The nest site was granted a micro reserve status in October 2015. Jānis Ķuze wrote about it in Dabasdati forum on Oct 12 2015:
http://dabasdati.lv/forums/viewtopic.php?p=53464#p53464
Translated with the help of Google translator:
"We just got a message from the State Forest Service - nest is officially established microreserve! It is surrounded by a wide buffer zone in which forestry activities are not allowed during the nesting season. Thus, from the forest to disturb the work, this place is now protected."

We may get some clues about the location of the nest from what we see and hear over the camera. Based on these clues it is possible to narrow down the location of the nest in more detail. We ask every one of you to keep all detailed information, even speculations about the location to yourselves. Please also do not share any further information about the location anywhere in the internet, not in this forum nor anywhere else. More detailed information of the location of the nest may encourage some people to go and seek the nest in nature. Nest tourism like this is the last thing that is needed here in the delicate breeding time. People near the nest may frighten parents away from the nest and leave eggs or chicks unprotected from weather and predators. Thus an intrusion may lead to destruction of the clutch.
Thank you for your co-operation.
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Post by ame »

The nest and its surroundings 1/4

The nest is built in the top of a spruce which has been broken possibly in a storm many years ago. After that several side branches have started to grow as replacement tops. The biggest branch on the right of the nest in these pictures has won the race of becoming the new top. This is also the trunk which we see in the left side of the camera view. The nest is about 25 m above the ground.

The nest is described in more detail here:
http://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/view ... 03#p433903
and here:
viewtopic.php?p=627169#p627169

Below is a picture made of Tringa's photograph where the branches which we can see in the camera are marked. The picture was taken from the direction to which our camera looks. Thus the branches which we see in the live camera on the left are on the right side of this picture. One special branch is also shown: the "poop branch". The name came naturally since Durberta painted this branch white by shooting poop on it very often. By the end of the season 2015 it was all white. The poop branch also frames the top of our camera view. An ellipse shows the place where the camera is most probably attached to.
Image

Below is a picture of the camera attached to the tree. It is camouflaged with plastic Christmas decoration twigs.
Image

In summers 2018 and 2019 the eaglets Robis and Vilnis (2018) and Rika and Miks (2019) drew out nest sticks one by one as part of their catching exercises. In both years the eaglets managed to tear apart their nests totally to the last stick. Thus we have been able to see what the foundation of the nest is. In this picture also the microphone can be seen (encircled with a yellow line) together with a visiting nutcracker (Nucifraga caryocatactes).
Image

Later in the autumns of both these years the parents Milda and Raimis have rebuilt the nest so that by the change of the year the nest was almost ready for breeding in each year. In 2020 the eaglets Malda and Reinis were more gentle with the nest than their older siblings and didn't tear it down. Milda and Raimis didn't need to begin rebuilding the nest in the autumn from "ground zero". In 2021 and 2022 Milda with her partners have brought more and more nest material but there have been no eaglets stomping the nest flat or tearing it down. Therefore the nest is now bigger and higher than ever before in the beginning of the season. As a side effect we have lost most of our view on the surrounding forest.
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Post by ame »

The nest and its surroundings 2/4

The closest trees are shown and named in the following for ease of referring to them. In the picture below are marked the trees behind the nest and the Observation Oak on the right. There were three big oaks together almost side by side. The leftmost of them (A) used to be a favourite tree of Durbe and Robert in the first season in 2015. Therefore it was called the Parent's Oak. In the summer 2015 a lightning bolt struck the Parents' Oak, cutting it in the middle and splitting the remaining trunk into two halves which are probably still standing but are now invisible behind the nest which is very high now. The Parents' Oak seemed to be at a larger distance than the other oaks and it still looked much bigger than the remaining two oaks in the middle so it was in reality much bigger than the remaining tree B and C, the Two Sisters*.
A = the remains of the Parents' Oak
B, C = the remaining oaks, the "Two Sisters". Behind the Sisters there are more oaks, the Cousins They are better visible when the trees have no leaves.
The branch of the nest tree which is hanging partly in front of the Sisters and the Observation Oak is called the Poop Branch since 2015 when Durbertina, the first eaglet on this nest, painted this branch white.
OO = the present Observation Oak
ame wrote: July 28th, 2019, 12:17 pm Image
On May 30 2021 the sunlight was rather favourable to see individual trees in the meadow. I made a new picture showing the big trees and their names. On the right the Observation Oak which has been a favourite place for the eagles. In the centre the Two Sisters (and their Cousins behind them; they can't be seen anymore since the Sisters are dressed now). On the left there are side by side two oaks which have not have had names so far. I suggest that they'd be called the Twins. On their right side, farther than them (or smaller) is the Observation Oak 2 (OO) which is closest to the swan pond.
Image

Beavers have been at work in the forest again. The meadow (the relatively flat open area in the background) was immersed in water years ago and a lot of trees died and fell there before the camera started in 2015, leaving dark root balls and dead tree stumps standing in the meadow. There was also a pond on the far left. During last season beavers had rebuilt a dam downstream and water rose on the meadow again: it became a lake with some open water which shone in the sunshine and in moonlight. In the winter the lake is frozen.

The fish-eye optics of the camera lens makes the images curved so that the centre of the picture is stretched and the horizon becomes curved. The picture below shows the landscape like it probably is in reality. The horizon is straight and the nest level is also more or less flat and horizontal.
This photo is made by Nordri with a program which straightens images of a fish-eye lens. The trees on the ground are, however, curved and don't stand vertically.
Image
* The names "Sisters" and "Cousins" originate from my association to Anton Chekhov's play "Three sisters". I imagined that these three oaks might originate from the same parent tree and thus they would be sisters. The neighbouring other oaks would not be as close relatives and thus they would be Cousins. Later we have seen, however, that the Sisters aren't like each other at all. The Left Sister keeps her leaves much longer in the autumn when the Right Sister is naked already. :laugh:
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Post by ame »

The nest and its surroundings 3/4


On Dec 10 2020 (11 days before the Winter Solstice) the Sun rose at about 9:17 almost in the centre of our camera view. The old camera was in use.
Image

In the picture below is a sky map which shows the sector of sky which we can see (the orange lines). It is a combination of information of three different maps. The basis of the map is the sky in the morning at sunrise on Dec 10 2020 at 9:17 local time (7:17 UTC).
viewtopic.php?p=771444#p771444
The left side of the view is slightly North of east (sunrise is on the left) and the right side is slightly west of south (the highest sun at noontime is on the right).
Image

The position of the Moon is added on Dec 8 at 0:23 local time when the Moon was near the top left corner of the camera view. In the picture below the Moon is on the left, a little north of east.
viewtopic.php?p=771267#p771267

The position of the Sun on Dec 7 at 13:11 local time (11:11 UTC) is added in the bottom of the picture. At this time the Sun was seen near the top right corner of our camera view.
viewtopic.php?p=771224#p771224

The sky map is made thinking that the viewer is lying on her/his back with the head to the north and legs to the south. Thus the west is on the right in the sky map and east is on the left. Straight lines from north to south and from east to west are drawn in the picture. These lines cross at the zenith which is the highest point in the sky above the camera. The outer edge of the map is the horizon. As one can see both the leftmost and rightmost points which are in the top corners of the camera view are very near the horizon. Due to the curvature of the horizon in the camera view the highest point which we can see in the camera is even closer to the horizon. This means that actually we can see only a very narrow strip of the sky in the camera view. The upper limit of our visual range is not marked in the picture.

In the table on the picture the azimuth angle in the rightmost column is a measure of the position of the Sun and the Moon on the map, a "compass reading". -99 degrees for the Moon tells that it was 9 degrees north of east (east is azimuth -90 degrees). The azimuth angle +10 degrees of the Sun on the right tells that the Sun was 10 degrees west of south (south is azimuth 0 degrees). The full viewing angle of the camera is thus about 110 degrees. The nominal viewing angle of the camera, given by the manufacturer in the specifications of the camera, is 107 degrees. The 110 degrees obtained above is well in agreement with the nominal value.

Here are two links to posts where one may see a comparison of the camera view with the sky map. (Sometimes Photobucket pictures are totally invisible. This is due to the "customer policy" of the Photobucket. )
http://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/view ... 36#p510236
http://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/view ... 02#p510702
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Post by ame »

The nest and its surroundings 4/4

The new camera was installed on Dec 12 2021. We don't know it's specifications, but they are probably more or less the same as the old camera's. The new camera looks slightly more to the east than the old one (the tele tower is now out of our sight).

The picture below shows the sunrise on the Winter Solstice morning on Dec 21 2021. On Winter Solstice the Sun rises closest to the south. In the Spring the Sun begins to rise well out of the left side of our view.
Image
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Post by ame »

Other information


Dabasdati forum

An introduction to the Latvian nest cameras is given here:
http://ldf.lv/lv/tiesraide (At the moment all the streams are not updated.)
and information in English:
https://ldf.lv/en/webcams (At the moment none of these is up to date.)
The live camera topics are under the title "Tiešsaistes kameras Latvijā Nature webcams in Latvia":
https://forums.dabasdati.lv/viewforum.php?f=18

The nest life on the various camera nests is followed in the Latvian Dabasdati forum (often DD forum or just DD or DDF for short like LK or LKF for Looduskalender forum):
https://forums.dabasdati.lv/viewforum.php?f=25

The WTE topics in DDF (Jūras ērglis) can be found here:
https://forums.dabasdati.lv/viewforum.php?f=27
The Durbe 2023 topic in DDF:
https://forums.dabasdati.lv/viewtopic.p ... 09#p300609

The language of the DD forum is Latvian. You can try your luck with some translator machine to communicate there. :laugh:
Most of the Latvian members understand English, too. Some of the DD members are members in LK, and vice versa.
Google Translator is not always reliable. It's sometimes badly corrupted for Latvian language (some comedians keep changing meanings of words). Therefore it is perhaps best to write your post in DDF in English adding the translation. Then the moderators can correct the translation if necessary.


Youtube chat

The events on the nest and around it in the forest are also commented in the chat on the Youtube page where the camera is streaming. The topics on the chat are less limited than in the DD forum or our LK forum. Often the comments may hover around quite other things than the nest events. :laugh:
The chat is multilingual. The chat is reset each time when you shut down your web connection or refresh the browser window. When reopening the comments from the last hour or two are shown. Older comments are not stored anywhere.


Weather in Durbe, Latvia

Some websites where one can see the weather forecast for Durbe county, Latvia.
https://www.yr.no/en/forecast/daily-tab ... urbe/Durbe

http://www.accuweather.com/en/lv/durbe/ ... ast/224453
https://www.meteoblue.com/en/weather/we ... via_460171
https://worldweather.wmo.int/en/city.html?cityId=174 (for Liepāja which is the closest city to Durbe)
Here's a nice site with animated wind vectors:
https://www.windy.com/56.590/21.370?56. ... ,m:ffuagKM

One can search for weather information for using Liepāja, too, since it is the closest larger city near Durbe, or use the geographical co-ordinates of Durbe which are 56.58 N, 21.37 E.


Sky in Durbe, Latvia

This is a nice site where you can create the sky map for any location on any time.
http://www.fourmilab.ch/yoursky/

Here the location is set to Durbe, Latvia. Just select the time which you want. Note, that the program uses the UTC time which is 2 hours less than local time in Latvia (in summertime the difference is 3 hours).
http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/Yourhor ... &elements=


Sunrise and sunset data for Durbe can be found here:
https://sunrise-sunset.org/search?locat ... 1#calendar



Hunting calendar in Latvia

Every now and then there is a question when hunting in Latvia is possible.
https://redirect.viglink.com/?format=go ... latvija%2F


Information about donating money for the benefit of the nest camera


The livestreams of Latvian Fund for Nature are supported by donations of viewers. Donate here: https://ldf.lv/en/support-lfn

General information

Not only about eagles but some of these links give information about birds' breeding in general.
viewtopic.php?p=685803#p685803
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Post by ame »

Frequently asked questions FAQ

There are some questions about eagles and their breeding which rise repeatedly over and again during nesting seasons. Answers to these questions are looked for and given during the season(s), but often they are difficult to find afterwards.

Therefore keywords for making searches for finding the answers are added in the posts containing answers. Below is a list of these keywords. This list will be supplemented as new keywords are found useful.
  • searcheggdevelopment for searching posts with answers concerning processes involving mating behaviour and development of eggs before and after egg-laying.
  • searchhatching for searching posts about when and how chicks hatch.
  • searchringing for searching information about ring-marking (or banding) of eaglets or other information about marking eaglets with rings or radio transmitters.
  • searchfledging for searching posts about how and when eaglets fledge.
  • searchnestsummary for searching for a short summary of the events during a nesting season.
    For the Latvian nest in Durbe the keyword is: searchnestsummaryDurbe
  • searchliterature for searching references (articles, books etc) about WTEs.
  • searchcameradelay for searching information on the delay of the camera time relative to 'real' time.
  • searchringedvisitors for searching ringed eagles or even other birds whose ring codes have been read at the nest.
Advice about how to make searches in the forum can be found in the Questions and help -topic here:
http://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/view ... ?f=3&t=595
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Post by ame »

Ringed eagle visitors at the nest 2023
searchword searchringedvisitors

The list will be updated here if and when some ringed eagles will be identified here.
(If i forget to do this in reasonable time please remind me!)
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Post by ame »

three, ... two, ... one! Happy New Year! Image
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Post by Liz01 »

January 1st

Good Morning :hi:

ame, thank you very much for the new thread :loveshower: Great work as always :2thumbsup: Happy New Year for you and everyone! I hope and wish for all peace and a prosperous 2023. Above all, a healthy return of our feathered friends.

Image

Image


7:08:44 the camera starts working
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Post by ame »

Image

good morning Liz and all! Happy New Year! :laugh:

i don't hear rain, only wind. the sky is slowly turning blue.
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Post by ame »

it is raining. :faint:
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Post by ame »

this weather has been incredible: rain, rain rain and fog. :slap:

18:03:03 the camera went to sleep.
no videos, no playlist.
:wave:
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