At the end of 2015 the latest birds with satellite transmitters – Common Cranes with code names „Ahja 4” and „Savimäe” – arrived at their wintering locations.
Ahja 4 was caught in 2013 in South Estonia near Ahja village. It’s left leg was equipped with a new up-to-date 22 g satellite transmitter GPS/Argos MTI, working on solar energy. In the very first autumn it made the grade taking two months to travel 5,800 km and reach its chosen wintering place near Addis Abebe, Ethiopia. Cranes usually winter in southern Europe or north Africa, only one small group from Eastern Finland is wintering in Ethiopia, making their migration 6500 km long. This winter Ahja 4 reached its traditional „winter cottage“ on 28 December, sound and safe.
Savimäe was caught and tagged with a similar transmitter in the same year (2013) and in the same region, but near Savimäe village.
This winter Savimäe joined the flock that stayed in Hungary. After some time, when the weather suddenly turned cold, it continued its journey and reached its usual place in Algeria by 31 December – exactly the same time as in the previous year.
It's not just pure scientific curiosity, that has driven Estonian ornithologists to equip some large bird species with transmitters to follow their migration. Knowing their life and travels the whole year round, we can make much better decisions about their conservation needs. This work has been done in Estonia since 2005.
Transmitters are attached to different eagle species and some other raptors, cranes and storks. There have been short-wave radiotransmitters, satellite transmitters and GPS-based ones. Weight, power supply and signal strength have been constant problems that needed to be improved.
These days it is possible to watch the route of migrating birds in acceptable detail. See the migration map..
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