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The northern part of Chernihiv Region, so-called the Chernihiv Polissya /map/, is one of the best regions of Ukraine for Short-toed Eagles’ habitation. These lands, rich in Grass Snakes, Vipers, other reptiles and also in old pine forests, provide the eagles with good conditions for foraging and nesting. An expert in Ukrainian birds of prey, Sergey Domashevsky, during the expedition in 2009 has recorded several probable territorial pairs of the eagles there. Some of them were observed between the Sozh, the Dnieper rivers and Zamglay Bog /map/.

This year a local birdwatcher, Artem Skeeter, has found Short-toed Eagles’ nest at a place where he saw them during a few years before. Artem has discovered the nest just after finding of one old tail feather under a perch at the breeding site. He has managed to take a video of feeding the juvenile eagle by its father on a pine within the site. Also photos of the birds have been taken there in 2011-2012 and this year by Artem and by Andrew Simon, Viktor Moroz and me. This year’s juvenile could already fly on August 9. The date is the earliest known in Northern Ukraine for the last 10 years. On September 9 another juvenile Short-toed Eagle, judging by all, an offspring of the neighbour pair, was observed in the hovering flight over typical hunting grounds far from forests, that is unusually early for this region too.

This is just a small photo gallery of ringing Short-toed Eagle chicks in the Zemplén Mountains /map/. The juveniles were ringed by István Béres; the climber and the photographer was József Serfőző.

Gábor Papp reports that 4 eaglets were colour-ringed there this year and also ringing of 2 more was orginized by Zoltán Turny (MME/Birdlife) in Transdanubia /map/ and was done by rangers of Danube-Ipoly National Park at the following sites:
› Vértes – by Antal Klébert and István Staudinger; this is the 2^nd year that the pair use this nest on an oak;
› the Budai Hills – by Bíró Sándor and Zoltán Turny; this is the 4^th year in a row of breeding in this nest on a pine.

A website of the Ukrainian Birds of Prey Research Centre (Український центр досліджень хижих птахів) exists since 2008. Posts dedicated to Short-toed Eagle have also been published on it. They contain texts, tables and photos. The main of them are represented below:

• К. Письменный, 2014 – Спостереження за змієїдами біля їхніх гніздових ділянок [Observations of Short-toed Eagles at their breeding sites] (Uk).

• К. Письменный, 2013 – Некоторые результаты десятилетнего мониторинга змееяда на севере Украины [Some results of ten years monitoring of Short-toed Eagle in the North of Ukraine] (Ru) {related post}.

• С. Прокопенко, М. Бескаравайный, 2013 – Встречи змееядов в Крыму зимой 2013 года [Records of Short-toed Eagles in Crimea in winter 2013] (Ru) {related post}.

• К. Письменный, 2010 – Спутниковое слежение за миграциями змееяда [Satellite tracking of the Short-toed Eagle migration] (Ru)(En).

• С. Домашевский, М. Дравецки, М. Легоцки, М. Олекшак, 2010 – Результаты украинско-словацкой экспедиции на севере Украины [Results of Ukrainian-Slovac expedition to the north of Ukraine] (Ru)(En) {related post}.

• К. Письменный, С. Домашевский, Р. Ватрасевич, 2010 – Практика установки защиты от куниц на гнездовых деревьях хищных птиц [The practice of installing protection against martens for nesting trees of birds of prey] (Ru)(En).

• 2011 – Создание онлайн-определителя возраста и пола змееяда [Creation of online handbook for aging and sexing of Short-toed Eagle] (Ru) {related post}.

• 2010 – Опыт спасения гнезда змееяда [The experience of saving Short-toed Eagle’s nest] (Ru).

Rough translations from the original languages are available on the UBPRC website; please, use the special button in the top menu.

Information about certain species of Indian birds of prey is rare on the web. Short-toed Eagle is not an exception. The following websites a little open a window to the world of Indian snake eagles.

This collection of photos was already mentioned on our site. During the last 7 years a huge amount of magnificent pictures taken by Indian nature photographers has been added to the galleries. They show Short-toed Eagles in the local natural environment.

The second site, India Biodiversity Portal, is an interactive online database of observations for Indian birds and animals, and generally a repository of information on India’s biodiversity. Normal for such portals maps with points of occurrences and observations, as well as photos and videos are available there. This video deserves special attention: two Short-toed Eagles found themselves on the ground when, all appearances, they were fighting. The scene was captured near the Pocharam Wildlife Sanctuary /map/.

For the first time tracked 2^nd CY Short-toed Eagle has returned to Europe from Africa. This is Egidio which was fitted with a satellite transmitter in Regional Park Gallipoli Cognato /map/ in 2013. European observers have a good chance to see the bird in the nature. As Ugo Mellone said, it would be great to observe the behaviour of this young Short-toed Eagle in the field and his interactions with breeding pairs.

Thanks to Ugo for kindly informing us!

This photo has been taken by Corrado De Francesco in south-eastern Piedmont /map/ on April 12^th. The author observed three ST Eagles and one of them had something reminding a transmitter or other similar equipment on its back. If anybody knows what it could really be or who could be the owner of the device, please, inform us:
comment this post or email to info@short-toed-eagle.net.

We would like to bring to your attention the 5^th gallery of photos taken by Bernard Joubert at a nest of Short-toed Eagle in Haute-Loire /map/. Although the pair has eventually occupied another (last year’s) nest for the breeding, Bernard’s camera has captured scenes of the early nesting behaviour of the birds. Thanks to the researcher, we have a possibility to see unique moments of this eagles’ life once again.

One more season of Short-toed Eagles’ stay in Europe has begun recently. Observers watched the first scenes of their breeding activity. Please enjoy some pictures and photos:

Breeding and survey season 2014 started with a rainy day in Maremma, Central Italy /map/. In spite of the bad weather, the pair was doing its job and this is my 38^th year with the Short-toed Eagles.

Francesco Petretti (www.francescopetretti.it)

At the first blush the pictures by Francesco are simple and rough, but they are accurate and for an experienced observer all the depicted scenes are easy to imagine in reality.

Bernard Joubert observed the same Short-toed Eagles at their old nest in Haute-Loire /map/ since March 10^th. The pair occupied the nest also in 2009 and 2012 years. A special hide allows getting unique knowledge of the behaviour of the eagles and taking magnificent photos. According to a recent message from Bernard, the female has finally chosen another nest – one that was occupied in 2013.

My observations at breeding sites of ST Eagles in Kiev Region /map/ began on April 5^th. Like in Haute-Loire the same old pair at first seems to be going to occupy the same nest, for 4^th year in a row. Now we have to wait and see what will happen next.