Hello!
For all of you, who would like to hear some more about the Storks in my home-area, there is something I would like to share. On Saturday there was a large article in the newspaper. It was the usual report about the Storks that have already returned and about the nestingsites in the region.
First of all, for you to take your bearings, I have a rather bad photo of a map. The scale is 1:25.000, and it shows the ca. 10 kilometres between the suburb of the town, where I live, and another town more to the west. I have tried to mark the areas, where the nests are, with colourful post-it-pieces and black crosses on them. The orange one on the right side of the map is right here at my hometown and stands for 4 nests. Three of them I can see from the train on my way to work, and two of them are already occupied. On the left side there are a blue and a green spot. The blue one is a nest on a Church, the green also stands for three nests. And today I have seen, that a couple is trying to make themself at home on a dead tree, where they make an attempt of building a nest without any aid by humans (normally there are posts put up with a platform on top, on that the Storks build their nest). Surprisingly, this dead tree is not more than 30 metres away from the railroad-tracks. The two Storks stood up there and were completely calm and relaxed, as the train passed by.
And now lets start with my report about the newspaper-article:
In the whole area, that is even larger than the part shown on the map, there are now 32 nests. 27 are already occupied by couples, and the other three by single birds. All these storks are experienced birds, that already had chicks in the past. Some of the couples have not returned to their previous nests, but have moved to other nests. That is not definite, as latecomers might still be able to chase them away. The article also says that it is more important to a stork to keep his usual nest than his usual partner. Isn't that interesting? The oldest Stork, that has returned, is a 17-year-old male, who nests in the area, that I have marked with green. He has returned with a young female, and it is supposed that his former partner must have died. The male from a nest more to the east from us, has last year had a deadly accident with a train. This year a new male has come, and replaced him.He has a ring with the number DEW 9 X 956, that means that he is hatched in 2011 at Neuenhaßlau (you can see it right in the middle of the map, it is not far from here). In the article is also something about a "Chaos-Couple". If everything in the article is true, they have kidnapped a chick from another nest last year. And now, they have occupied another nest than last year, but they also defend their old nest. So there are heavy fights to be expected.
The experienced couples are quite relaxed with humans and dogs, but newcomers can easily be disturbed, and might give up their nest and chicks then, so all the people are asked not to approach the nests and not to preoccupie the Storks.
This is all for now. If there is more in the newspaper, or if I can take some pictures, I'll try to post soemthing here.
Kind regards from Germany,
Bente
That's a lovely article about your storks Bente. Your father is right that the storks legs sometimes look white, covered with p**p, but I don't know if it's to guard against the sun, but why not?? He might be pulling your leg!!LOL
Best wishes
Hazel in Southwest France
Hi Bente. Another really interesting post from you. Between yourself and Hazel I'm learning a great deal about these lovely birds.
Hazel: So sorry to read about your young Storks, it's always upsetting when there are tragic incidents such as this, even more so with youngsters with everything still in front of them.
Paul
My bird photos HERE
Hello and good evening, I've been to the Storks yesterday evening and had to notice that the day of fledging is not far away any more. So I've returned there another time today. But today it was very windy, and so the Stork-kids sat down in the nest and were quite invisible most of the time.So I've not many pictures from today, but quite a lot from yesterday. It was good to see the young storks practise (well, at least one of them. He / She seem so very eager). I've taken lots of sequences, as I could not get enough of all this wing-flapping. I hope I don't bore you with this. Please enjoy!
First of all: How do you call this? Bulrush? Very pretty at this time
A little gymnastics. Four "little" storks on their own.
Is Mum looking? No?
Alright then! Mum is not here, so lets go!
Mum is on the nest again, standing at the right edge, preening. And two young ones still practising for their career at the circus. This time not the "Two-Headed-Stork", but the "Stork-with-a-second-set-of-wings":
"Mum, look what I can already do!"
"Ooooooh!!!! I hope the wind will not blow stronger right now!"
"Phew!!!!! That was close!!!!"
"I could have danced all night..."
And once again. Mum says:"Child, be careful!"
"Baby" is practising, and Mum is clapping.
A family-discussion?
And with this little flower I close for now. In a few minutes I'll post a few pics of "Dad" from today.
See you soon, Bente
Hello again,
this time I have a few pics of Papa-Stork, who was in search for food on a field, where a local farmer was just turning around his hay:
See you soon her. I'll keep you informed about the progress of the young storks.
Kind regards, Bente
Lovely Photo's Bente, It is nice to see how the young storks have grown. Yes you are right they are bullrushes in your photo.
J
Great series of shots Bente. The young ones are so big now and it's great to see them hovering over the nest. It can't be long before they take their first real flight.
Hello and good evening,
welcome to today's stork-news. First: Our railway-storks seem to have abandoned their nest on the mast and retreated to their former "home", from that they had been chased away by their neighbours, a stork-couple raising four chicks. At least I could see them standing on the nest-platform yesterday and today. I have no idea what can have happened, but maybe they are just a young and inexperienced couple that is uncertain about what to do.
The other news is about the young storks on one of the nests. My parents and I went there to look what they were doing. We didn't expect to happen anything, as it was quite windy sometimes, but we arrived just in time to see one of the chicks take off. I was able to make a short movie about the probably first flight of a second chick. I've never posted my own video-clips, so I've again taken pictures out of the movie. There are quite a lot of pictures, so I hope 1st: that I'll be able to post them at all, and 2nd: that you are not already fed up with storks. Anyway, lets go:
The take-off was so spectacular! The young stork seemed to have been taken by surprise. One moment he hoovered calmly in the air, and the next he drifted backwards and down. But the surprise was overcome so quickly---The next step, gliding and flapping , seemed to be so natural...
I was surprised that the young storks just flew this once. After that they returned to the nest and had a very thorough "preening-session". I would have expected them not to get enough of flying, but we stayed another hour and they never took off again. However, maybe I can see the young ones on another nest fledge as well, and I am so very, very, very happy having witnessed this first flights.
Thank you very much for looking!
Regards, Bente
Well you certainly got your wish Bente, to see the first flight, & capture it on film too. I saw one get a few feet off the plateform but then it re-landed without flying. They seem to do a lot of wing exercises at the moment. Thanks for taking the time to post it. It is great to see.
Hello for another update!
First of all a little update about the railway-storks: They are a really puzzeling couple and seem not to be sure about what they want: Now they seem to have returned again to the nest on the mast by the railway-tracks, and the other nest on the platform in the meadows seems to be abandoned once more.
This morning I've visited the young storks on another nest. They haven't fledged yet and are still practising. But this is not what I've enjoyed most today. Let me show you some pictures about the relationship amongst the siblings. It was amusing watching them. I managed to sneak quite near to them and watch them from my hide in a bush.
First: One chick tried to practise, but something went wrong and it walked straight over one his siblings:
Mum is back, and the chicks are begging for food:
A big fight for food:
The winner of the fight is gulping down his price:
But finally everyone has got something to eat:
A few caresses for brother or sister:
And having a little scratch:
I hope you liked to watch. Good night now, and see you soon!
Yours, Bente
Lovely set again Bente, it's like a rugby scrum at feeding time! As you say, they all seem to get a share in the end. It's amazing when you see them with their beaks inside mums or dads beak trying to get the food out quicker!