Greater Spotted Eagle

Yet another dry year on Biebrza. Katastrophy for the nature. Paradise for those who dug all the ditches - finally the marshes can be accessed by tractors dropping tons of fertilizers. The fertilizing producers are content as well. So who actually cares about the nature? Nobody. Nature itself has to adapt. Get used to tractors, fertilizers, corns. Which does not mean the naature has the right to eat corn. Oh no! For eating corn within the Park the death sentence is the reward - so the shooting of the Wild Boars continues. This is the sad reality within the Biebrza Valley.

It is summer. And sun, sun and sun on Biebrza. Although the air is still chilly and the temperature at night falls to 6 degrees. Dream weather for raptor watchers - ideally clear sky, the wind, upstreams, visibility and warmth that allows even females leave their growing offsprings on the nest and stretch the wings. In some places it is hard to follow the individuals crossing the sky. And one more thing - haymaking has begun. And on top of it all - numerous last year' juvenile birds decided to visit Biebrza.

This year's breeding season for Greater Spotted Eagles started despite of the second in succession draught on Biebrza. Spring floods are rare, causing an unusual situation where during the migration peak even the famous Ruffs were hard to find, when normally thousands of them can be observed anywhere, including the sky over the Grzedy forest lodge.

Spring has come. Time to start yet another breeding season. Judging from the beautiful sunny weather in March one could expect an early arrival of Greater Spotted Eagles to Biebrza. This however was not the case. By te looks of things the birds have their own criteria and decided not to take the risk, as at this time of the year sudden changes of weather is quite predictible. The data from the loggers seem to support this theory as all last year' juvenile birds still enjoy the time in their winter quarters in Greece and Africa. But time goes by and the adults have not got the comfort of such freedom, so with the beginning of April first birds arrived. At the moment these are mainly females which, still free from their nest duties, can be observed in several places on Biebrza. Bigger than the males they make up a wonderfull element of the Biebrza skies.

Unfortunatelly like the previous, this year also looks like a very dry one. The winter was again snowless, the spring without rain, limiting the flooded areas this spring to the extreme. At the same time the melioration is doing fine and extends, so the unstoppable marshes' drainage continues.

Let us keep the fingers crossed for the GSEs!

This year's autumn migration has begun. As in recent years also this year we will try to present the jpurney of the eagles fitted with our dataloggers. This year we have: last year's juvenile hybrid which spent the season in Romania,21-year-old GSE female which logger records data for the second year in succession and juvenile female hybrid from Kampinos - Bogusia.

Feel free to track their migration in the Greater Spotted Eagle - Migration - 2014 Migration Map menu.