Eagles watch…

In this weeks edition:

Watching eagles feed

Win 500 EUR worth of Wild Experiences from Soomaa.com

WILD FOCUS: Barn Swallow chosen as the bird of 2011

Watching eagles feed

The White Tailed Eagle Camera is one of five web-cams hosted by Looduskalender.ee. The lens of this camera was updated recently and the feeding site was brought closer to the camera to provide a great view of local eagle pairs when they feed on prepared carcasses. Wild Estonia Weekly tuned in recently to see one of the White Tailed Eagles fending off a young Golden Eagle who has also recently begun to visit the site

Other cameras hosted on the Looduskalender.ee website include two ‘Forest Cameras’ (wild boar feeding sites), a ‘Winter Bird Feeder Camera’ and their ‘Grey Seal Camera’ showing a rookery of the Grey Seal population on the small coastal island of Vilsandi.

Fifth Season Flood Competition: Predict the flood peak and win 500 EUR!

Soomaa.com, publishers of Wild Estonia Weekly, are offering a prize of 500 EUR worth of nature tour services for the person who best predicts both when and how high the autumn flood will be in Soomaa National Park this year. This annual flood of melted snow and ice is known as the ‘fifth season’ in Soomaa, a natural lowland area, famous for it’s virgin marshes, fens and bogs. People living in the area are well adapted to this annual event and for many generations special dugout canoes were the main means of transport during the flood. Visit our Facebook page or predict the flood peak here .

WILD FOCUS: Barn Swallow chosen as the bird of 2011

The Estonian Ornithological Society has chosen the Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) as its bird of 2011. The Barn Swallow is the national bird of Estonia and although it is common both in Europe and around the world, the population of Barn Swallows visiting Europe is declining. This is thought to be due to the changing nature of agriculture in Europe and environmental changes along its migration path and in its African wintering sites.

The preferred habitat of Barn Swallows is open country areas with a nearby supply of fresh water. Typically, this is farmland such as fields, pastures and meadows. The grazing of cattle in fields benefits the Barn Swallow as it creates a rich supply of flying insects, the main part its diet. Grazing of cattle in Europe is being replaced however by the intensive raising of grain-fed cattle in large barns. This directly reduces the amount of flying insects in open areas which negatively impacts upon the population of Barn Swallows. Old farm buildings are typical sites for nests, however, as rural areas are re-developed, suitable nest sites also become harder to find.

Barn Swallows from Europe typically spend their winters in South Africa. This however requires travelling across the vast Sahara desert and coping with the development of roosting sites in southern Africa. Barn Swallows became a focus of the preparations for the 2010 Football World Cup in South Africa. The large Mount Moreland reed bed near Durban is a night roosting site for around 3 million Barn Swallows. This represents around 8% of the European breeding population. This reed bed however is directly in the flight path of the new King Shaka International Airport in Durban which opened in early 2010. The airport developers and the South African Government thankfully recognised the importance of this roosting site and instead of clearing it to so as to prevent mass birdstrike damage to planes using the airport, it installed a special radar system to track large flocks of birds allowing aircraft controllers to divert or delay planes when necessary.

The Estonian Ornithological Society has chosen the Barn Swallow for 2011 in order to raise awareness about these issues. Over the year it plans to collect more detailed information about the state of populations in Estonia and will help the Estonian public to understand ways that it can support nesting Barn Swallows during their summer breeding period.