Short-toed Eagle chick in Mizhrichynskyi Park
These photos of Short-toed Eagle chick (© Konstantin Pismennyi) were made on a territory of Mizhrichynskyi Regional Landscape Park /map/. The chick was 6-7 weeks old. The whole population of Short-toed Eagles is estimated now as about 10 territorial pairs.
You can read more about birds of prey of Mizhrichynskyi Park on a website of Ukrainian Birds of Prey Research Centre. The information is prepared by Sergey Domashevsky there.
Sad continuation of the story »
Categories: Mizhrichynskyi Park, Our galleries, PISMENNYI Konstantin.
SAD CONTINUATION OF THE STORY
When I visited this nesting site next time (on August 14th – about a month later) I found remains of the Short-toed Eagle chick under the nesting tree. As it can be seen in the photos the feathers sizes said the chick had been died right after my first visit or not more than a week later. Consultations with experts have made me sure the young Short-toed Eagle had been killed by some ground predator – marten – the most probable. The character of the feathers damages is the main evidence of the experts’ conclusion. It looked like the feathers had been gnawn off. At the 3d international conference «Birds of prey of Ukraine» in his report «BIRDS OF PREY AND TOLERANT ORNITHOLOGY» Prof. Vladimir Galushin said about martens: «it is usual when a marten follows a researcher to a nest not long after his climb up the nesting tree». Please read also the first item of the CONFERENCE RESOLUTION.
So it is sad but very probable my short visit to the nest with the aim to take some photos provoked the chick’s death by a predator that followed me. Notwithstanding the visit was made with all possible precautions.