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
Wonderful reports Bente and great pictures to go with them :-)
"Let loose the Kraken!"
Hello Hazel and Stuart, I'm glad that you liked the latest pictures. Today I have more news: The young storks of two nests have fledged! When I came back from work yesterday, I could see already from the train that the nests were empty, and there were about 6 storks in the meadows. Today I went there and had a closer look. There was an entire family of storks, and nearby were two egyptian geese. One of the young storks was quite interested in the egyptian geese, but everything stayed very civilised. There are two other nests where the chicks have not fledged yet. I've got a few new pictures, if you care to see them?
Mum / Dad is coming back to the nest and greeting the other parent enthusiastically with clapping beak:
(The chicks in this nest are ringed, by the way...)
Back at my usual nest now... Two of the chicks are "fencing" a bit:
And last but not least: A picture of a Stork-Family in the meadows: The parents on the right and on the left, the 4 chicks between them:
Thank you for looking again, and have a nice evening!
Yours, Bente
Thanks for the update Bente, it's lovely to see so many youngsters in your nests, there must be a good supply of food. What do they find to eat around there? Ours are said to live mainly on American Crayfish which are in the ditches.
Best wishes
Hazel in Southwest France
Hello Hazel,
as far as I can tell, the Storks around here eat mostly mice and frogs, but I've also seen a Stork eating a worm. And we have blindworms and grass snakes around here, so I suppose they eat them as well, when they catch them. And you are right: There must be plenty of food this year, or there would not be so many young Storks fledging now. I'm really relieved and very happy that everything seems alright so far.
Hi Bente, I'm just catching up with all things Storky again. It' s been great to see the developments over the past three months, from wondering what would happen at the start of the breeding season to seeing a family of Storks feeding in the meadow. I missed your last few updates and have to say really well done in catching the youngster's first flight from the nest, a memory that will stay with you for a very long time I think. Please keep the updates coming.
Paul
My bird photos HERE
Hello again,
it is a long time now since I last posted here, but since the young storks have fledged there wasn't much to see. So I have no pictures this time.
As far as I can see the family-groups have now broken up. There are now not more than 2 or 3 storks around at one place at the same time. Two nests are still used as sleeping-place at night by 2 storks at the same time.
About two weeks ago or so, when I was on my way to work, there were about 15-19 storks at one of the man-made ponds. But they were far away, and my train was going fast, so I'm not quite sure about the number. I read some days later, in the newspaper, that the young storks are already gathering for flying south. Unfortunately I will not be able to tell you when they leave, because they are exploring the area, and some day they will be just gone. Last year I have seen the last stork, that was around, on september 5th or so. So the storks will probably leave any moment from now on to the beginning of september.
This is maybe the last post about storks for this year, as I'll be on holiday soon, and I might not be here when the last storks leave.
Thank you very much for looking in!
Thanks for the update, Bente, even if there are no more developments here, I'm already looking forward to the 2015 thread.
-edit- If you get bored, you could always bake more of you delicious looking cakes for your 'pastry' thread....yum.!!
Hello Bente, Thanks for the update on the Storks, we are lucky in that a lot of our adults stay for the winter, although the youngsters migrate.
It's always hard to say the last time you see something. Our Black kites went at the end of July, but we're never sure of the exact day!!The first ones are easier to note!
Like the others B, I have really enjoyed reading about the Storks & seeing all your marvellous pics (saw some for real but in captivity at Wildwood last Wednesday) & looking forward to more news about them next season! Have a good holiday & get some great pics for us to share!!
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
Likewise with me, I enjoyed reading about your storks, We saw some in Portugal earlier this year. Have a lovely holiday.
J