Fake nest?

July 22, 2015. Continued.

The nest with one chick and one parent with a ring/band was not the only puzzle to solve.

On the river bank some 200 m from the active nest we found a new nest being built on a horizontal tree. The nest was not complete and probably won't survive next spring's flood. Nevertheless the question remains, why has such nest been built?

What is the ring/band number? Help needed.

July 22, 2015. Continued.

The bird definitely has a ring/band, but our attempts to read the number failed. Our tripod-supported great and trustworthy Nikon 30x scope was not of a great use, and the ring/band was a bit dirty.

The bird with the ring most probably was the ringed/banded bird reported from the same area in 2014. But this time we were more prepared and snapped a huge number of pictures. I have uploaded some of them here and we would like to hear from the followers if there any chance to enhance the photos so we can read the numbers.  The bird clearly was teasing us by hanging the foot from the branch.

Kava river trip: Is there a chick?

July, 22, 2015

We have arrived at the rangers station located at the confluence of the Kava and Chelomdja rivers. The station has just recovered from the recent flood (http://stellerseaeagle.blogspot.ru/2015/06/meanwhile-irina-utekhina-reported.html). However it appears that the damages were minimal.

In the early morning we set out to the Kava River. Thanks to the June surveys by Irina, we knew about only one productive nest along the river. Upon arrival we found no visible presence of the chick, so we had to fly our quadrocopter. The flight was a bit tricky since the launchpad was located in a thick underbrush. Nevertheless the result was: yes there was a chick. Somewhat younger than we expected, but nevertheless we have a chick!.

But the great surprise was to find that one of the parents was a bird with our ring/band.

More to follow...

The survey begins

July 21, 2015.

Apologies to our readers. The Magadan region is off the internet limits per se, all communications are done via the satellite, 4G is almost non-existant, so our blog is lagging behind just a bit.

We set off from the town of Magadan on July, 21, and went up the Tauy river towards the Magadan State Nature Reserve.

Between the village of Talon and the ranger station there was only one active and productive Steller's Sea Eagle nest with one chick. We stopped by the nest for lunch.

Behind Irina Utekhina there is a nest with mother feeding a chick. We had lunch together...(at a safe distance).

Blakiston's Fish Owl in the Steller's Sea Eagle nest

The most remarkable finding by Irina Utekhina during her June whistle-stop tour along the flooded Chelomdja River was a successful breeding event of the Blakiston's Fish Owl (Bubo (Ketupa) blakistoni) in the nest of a Steller's Sea Eagle. The nest is a new nest in the territory  M18, found initially in 2014.

Nest with wing-tagged bird

While surveying the Chelomdja River, Irina Utekhina saw a bird incubating in a nest where we saw a wingtagged eagle in 2011 and 2012 (nest M40-96). The wingtagged eagle was not seen at a close distance.

Severe floods

Meanwhile Irina Utekhina reported a severe flood on the Kava-Chelomdja portion of the Reserve. More details to follow.