Images from webcam  IceAge and Shanta, LK forum

Great spotted woodpecker male

That smaller passerines like the grain balls viewers of the bird feeder camera have surely noticed, but bigger ones are also busy at them for getting food to store.

The male in the image tears up the net quite deliberately in order to get larger bites and avoid the boring pecking…

Photo Tiit Hunt

Viviparous eelpout

Viviparous eelpout or blenny   Emakala  or kiviluts       Zoarces viviparus

The little researched eelpout belongs to the Perciformes order and Zoarces family of fish and is the only viviparous fish species fish, that is, giving birth to live fry (larvae), in Estonian waters.

The birthing started already last in December but goes on also in February. How do things proceed?

Photo Tiit Hunt

Grayling

Grayling     Harjus or ärn      Thymallus thymallus

A protected fish species in Estonian rivers.  Catching is prohibited the year round

Grayling rearing experiments  started at the RMK Põlula Fish Rearing Centre in the spring of 2016.

Journal „Eesti Loodus“ informs

In the last issue of 2016  of Eesti Loodus we bring the question of Rail Baltic to our readers.

Geographer  Arvo Järvet reminds of the start of the Rail Baltic project and discusses whether the creation of a high-speed railway in Estonia really is still meaningful. Logistics entrepreneur  Karli Lambot refers to the concern that the proposed Rail Baltic will become a monument in Europe to a thoughtless and wasteful culture.

Read the articles on the web: LINK

On December 9, 2016 the web newspaper ”Avalik Eesti” – "Public Estonia" started its publication.

”Avalik Eesti” will publish articles on the development of issues in the Estonian public sphere.

In the first issue of the newsletter people write who published an open letter in the newspaper Postimees on September 30th in which they asked for an open debate in the Estonian community of the planned Rail Baltic.

The editorial of the first issue says:

We see that the  '101 letter' has achieved its objective: public interest and a desire to contribute in the deliberations has come to life, but as before there still is a lack of adequate information about the plans.