PISMENNYI K. 2016 ‹ (January 29, 2017) ‹ Photo-galleries ‹ HoverOverUs • Short-toed-Eagle

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PISMENNYI K. 2016. Northern Ukraine

03.04 K11 : this male Short-toed Eagle is roosting at a distance of 250 meters from the future nesting tree; the rather long distance indicates that a nesting tree has not yet been chosen

03.04 K11 : he spends his time by usual way, looking around and putting his feathers in order; the photographer standing 90 meters from him doesn't disturb him at all

03.04 K11 : just various poses; the perching pine is situated at the border of an old overgrown felled area at the breeding site of the pair

03.04 L11 : the female Short-toed Eagle, K11's permanent mate, has broken off a branch of a dead pine at opposite site of the felled area, much closer to their previous years' nesting trees

03.04 L11 : she has taken wings and is circling over the breeding site

03.04 L11 : her long unhurried flight seems to be attracting the male's attention to indicate her choice of a nesting tree

03.04 L11 : now she is hovering on the other side from the photographer

03.04 L11 & K11 : both partners are adult Short-toed Eagle with permanent individual plumages and the typical colouration of a female and a male, respectively; there are almost no signs of the moulting at the time

03.04 L11 : hovering above the breeding site and looking around; their choice of that place for breeding again is evident

03.04 K11 & L11 : both the mates in flight; spring thermals are slightly distorting pictures taken from a distance

03.04 K11 : his silhouette in flight and his colouration are recognizable for regular observer; the left P7 has been not fully grown, this individual feature visible from a great distance will remain until the next moulting

03.04 K11 : the male has brought a small lizard to the breeding site; both the P7 are not enough long and have a brownish shade; this tells that growth of the feathers stopped many months ago, yet in the previous season

03.04 K11 : every time coming with prey at the beginning of the breeding season, he takes special display postures

09.04, 09.05 B11 : this Short-toed Eagle male visited his breeding site in the Mizhrichynskyi Park several times within those days; each time his crop was significantly bulging because of swallowed prey

17.04 A13 : the female flies above her breeding site, taking display postures and performing elements of typical Short-toed Eagle festoon sky-dance

17.04 A16 : his new mate which has appeared this year; he has brought a Grass Snake to her

17.04 A16 : his pronounced non-uniform coloration indicates his relatively young age

24.04 L11 : the female over her breeding site in the evening light; evident signs of the brood patch are seen on her belly

24.04 K11 : a silhouette of the male on a bright background of the slightly cloudy sky; his shortish 7th primaries are seen well; the intensive moulting has not yet begun

24.04 K11 : he is scratching himself in flight

24.04 K11 : the male has the brood patch as well

15.05 K11 : roosting late afternoon 60 meters from the nesting tree on the top of one of dead pines, not numerous this year after the recent sanitary felling

15.05 K11 : after several hours of the bad weather the sun came out; the male seems to be going to stay on the perch for the night

22.05 A16 : some the biggest wing feathers of this Short-toed Eagle male have fallen off; he has the brood-patch signs too; recently swallowed prey has made his crop bulging

12.06 G11 & B16 : this dark unicoloured Short-toed Eagle male is easily identifiable from a distance thanks to his the characteristic body shape; he is flying away from the new nesting tree, presumably, chosen by the pair yet 2 years ago; another male is his neighbour photographed at the common hunting area, the Zdvyzh River floodplain, first this year

28.06 L11 : the sun is shining through heavy contour of the Short-toed Eagle female; judging by her continuous flying above the breeding site and away, the pair has already lost the clutch or the chick early

03.07 L11 & C16 : her flights have attracted attention of an immature Short-toed Eagle; it looks like 2nd cy male; the female doesn't demonstrate any aggression towards this intruder, however, seldom vocalizes

03.07 L11 & C16 : the evident difference in the colouration of the head between the adult female and this eagle in the intermediate plumage

03.07 L11 : gliding over crowns of trees at the breeding site in the evening light

10.07 A11 : even in bad light conditions very characteristic contours, the shape of the breast and the extremely dark-spotted and barred body of this Short-toed Eagle female are well seen

10.07 B11 & D16 : her permanent mate has a habit to fluff up his feathers while threatening an intruder, like this time; the G11 male was observed behaving the same way, however, K11 has never done this; hence, this might be an example of individual behaviour

10.07 B11 : wings, too narrow in the base, make his silhouette in flight special

10.07 B11 : the male has brought a snake and is long hovering over the site being disturbed by the intruder; finally, he gave prey to the chick after banishing the intruder away, supported by his arrived menacing partner A11

10.07 B11 : his colouration is quite pale, that makes him look like a younger bird from below; nevertheless, the upper part is unicoloured enough for an adult Short-toed Eagle, and the colouration has not changed in the last 10 years

16.07 A15 & N11 : two permanent partners on a nest occupied in 2010, 11, 13 and this year; despite similar colouration the birds are easily distinguished by their faces, as well as by shapes of their bodies in flight

16.07 N11 : the female is leaving the nest after delivering prey

16.07 N11 : she prefers to stay at the nest about midday; after noticing the photographer’s presence not far, she has not flown off and has even dozed off for a time

16.07 A15 : the male with the brought snake; the main hunting area for the pair is the Seim River floodplain; the breeding site is located in the close vicinity of it

16.07 E16 : the offspring of N11 and A15 is already fairly feathered at the time

16.07 E16 : the eaglet is active and able to stand up for itself; a Black Stork flying not far from the nest provoked the eaglet’s loud threatening shouts

16.07 E16 : physical exercises and looking around are the main doings of the chick

16.07 E16 : even these relatively short growing feathers are already very agile, easily changing the appearance of the eaglet

16.07 E16 : the neck is fairly long and flexible; it will allow the bird to accurately spot prey while hovering at a great height

16.07 E16 : the chick is watching the parent slowly flying above the forest and going to hunt

16.07 E16 : attentively looking around to spot a danger on time

16.07 E16 : postures of a real eagle

31.07 A11 : the female is circling low at the breeding site just after giving a snake to her chick; one of her individual features is her face with rather close-set eyes

31.07 F16 : the offspring of A11 and B11 is looking out the nest situated rather low, just 14 meters above the ground; the pair has built 2 similarly situated nests this year at a distance of about 200 m from each other

31.07 A11 : the female Short-toed Eagle is hovering with prey over the breeding site before gliding down to the nest

31.07 A11 : she is gliding down at first actually to a high pine near the nesting tree, using the pine as a perch to carefully look around

06.08 E16 : after 20 days, the juvenile of N11 and A15 has wings almost ready to fly and it is actively exercising them

06.08 E16 : sometimes it looks like a parrot...

06.08 E16 : ...sometimes like an adult eagle

06.08 E16 : in general, the appearance of the juvenile Short-toed Eagles has changed very much in 3 weeks

06.08 E16 : any movement in the sky attracts the juvenile's attention; its fluff is everywhere at the time

06.08 E16 : the colouration is contrasty against the background of the blue sky, however, it is really disguising among branches of Scots pines (Pinus sylvestris), that is important for the juvenile Short-toed Eagle right after leaving the nest

06.08 E16 : the midday summer heat makes the eaglet open its beak with a purpose of the better temperature regulation; photographing of this nest is possible from a place on the ground hidden by dense undergrowth

06.08 E16 : this is one of rare cases when, thanks to the dense vegetation around, the photographer can stay at a distance of 50 meters from the nesting tree without disturbing the birds; the light has moved by noon, the morning light conditions are the best there

27.08 G16 : this adult female Short-toed Eagle has appeared at a breeding site of A11 and B11 and taken typical threatening postures showing a kind of aggression to their offspring F16; the owners are hunting far away and have not intervened

27.08 F16 : the juvenile flies well; it has unusually pale colouration, with the pale throat and few marks on the under part of wings and body; the shortish left P7 is its additional individual feature until the next moulting

27.08 F16 & G16 : flying together with the intruded female; she looks significantly bigger, that noticeably differs her from the juvenile's mother, the territory owner A11

27.08 G16 : despite the similar colouration, this female has the more bulky body than A11, also, apparently larger sizes, and exhibits totally different moulting of wings

27.08 B11 : the male has brought a snake and is slowly flying over the breeding site in search of the juvenile, which has flown away somewhere in the afternoon

04.09 B11 : the same male is swooping down on prey near the Desna River; he is fully ready to grip a snake

04.09 B11 : it was a Grass Snake; circling over the river, the male Short-toed Eagle took the snake in the claws, then in the beak and repeat; finally, he disappeared with the half swallowed snake in the direction of the breeding site, where the juvenile was still waiting for food

04.09 A11 : his mate, after watching his successful hunt from a distance, immediately has moved to the same area near the river and has continued hunting there; among other features, she has a specific body type, drop-shaped, Peregrine-like

04.09 A11 : in these light conditions she looks brown; typically for this period, both the partners actively fly and hunt over their foraging areas continuing to feed the juvenile and preparing for the journey to Africa; the seasonal moulting is already near completion

10.09 E16 : the very well flying juvenile Short-toed Eagle manoeuvres in the air avoiding attacks of the Raven; this is a part of juveniles’ continuous training to survive independently; it looks like the young eagle deliberately provokes Ravens and Common Buzzards to chase

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