18 Dec Rarity for the ornithologists. White tailed eagles came back to Nida
They are one of the biggest ravenous birds from the accipitridae family living in Poland. In the nineteenth century they got almost completely destroyed. Nowadays they are under protection and their population is constantly rising. Including the ones in Świętokrzyskie voivodeship. And even though they avoid people and live a quiet way of life, the Świętokrzyskie and Nida Landscape Parks Group employees looked out for them.
In the recent days ornithologists made a mind-blowing discovery on the backwaters near Umanowice. Through the eye of the telescope ornithologists spotted two sea eagles sitting on the dried boughs. – These mature birds, most likely a couple, are about 5 years old– says Marcin Słoma, ornithologist from Świętokrzyskie and Nida Landscape Parks Group.
Most likely the birds chose this place for their brood that they’ll start in February. We’re not sure if the babies will stay in that place. But the fact that the sea eagles actually showed up on the Nida … may only indicate one thing. – Many different species of birds that are the component part of nutrition for the ravenous white tailed eagles came back to this territory. Thanks to them they can feed mature eagles and their babies –Marcin Słoma explains.
To the joy of the ornithologists from the Świętokrzyskie and Nida Landscape Parks Group a large group of ducks and waders species also showed up there. The finalized reclamation works had a big influence on extending the population of the aquatic birds. They were possible thanks to the “Life4delta” program, whose goal was to save the unique nature in that area. – This terrain has drained over the years and as a result it was stalked by gigantic fires every year. As a result a part of the nutrition the sea eagles feed on was just burnt – Andrzej Łukasik from ŚANLPG reports.
Naturalists recreated the oxbow lakes with a length of around 20 kilometers. Thanks to that the huge amount of water flooded the meadows that turned into the swamp area and the life started to come back to these areas.
– We’re dealing with three kinds of retention: trough, areal and territorial. In total it gives one million square meters of water on that area. If we would compare it to the construction of the classical retention containers it’s much more expensive – Andrzej Łukasik lists.
The first white tailed eagles in Świętokrzyskie voivodeship were observed in the west part of the voivodeship in the neck of the woods of Ruda Maleniecka a few years ago. It is estimated that around 20 pairs of these birds live in that region. There are 2 thousand pairs in the whole Poland. Poland is the third country in Europe in terms of the number of white tailed eagles.