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The environmental expert of LVM, on 10 April, accidentally found an eagle-owl’s nest in the microreserve of western capercaillie in the region of Northern Kurzeme in Venta district. The western capercaillies and eagle-owls are getting along there. Ojārs Demiters, the environmental expert of LVM, says:

“This is the first time in my twenty years of work, when, by a complete accident, doing work that is not related with owls, I found eagle-owls in the forest, furthermore, I was lucky enough (also completely accidentally) that I found their nest! On the 10 April, I was surveying the microreserve of western capercaillie in the region of Northern Kurzeme in Venta district, when suddenly an eagle-owl male soar up from a spruce's branch. Approximately fifty metres from that place I found a western capercaillie male and two western capercaillie females. After ten minutes, about 250 m from where I encountered the eagle-owl male, not able to bear the presence of a stranger, few metres above ground a female also flew by me. Going back to the place where she came from, at the roots of a windtrown pine, I found a neat pit with three white eggs in it! Even though, I paid extra attention to windthrown trees after I saw the eagle-owl male, it turned out that I had passed by the nest only some fifteen to twenty metres away. At this point my survey completed – I tried to get away as fast as possible, so that the female could return to nest and continue to nest her eggs! Hopefully this place also won’t be noticed by wild boars, carnivores or other passers-by, and after a month three pairs of wide eyes will be looking from the nest.