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
You'll have to start titling the blogs like movies… "Storks 2015 - The Return of the Storks!" for example ;-) It's been great following this year's crop with you.
"Let loose the Kraken!"
Hello everyone,
thank you very much for all the nice comments. I'm glad that you enjoyed it. And thank you for the good wishes for my holidays. I'll still be around for almost a fortnight, and leave on August 29th. Of course I'll keep my eyes open for anything that might be around and share it with you.
Paul, I wonder if it is wise to post often on the pastry-thread, as we would have to eat all the cake afterwards. After a while I would be hardly able to walk, I suppose ;-)
Stuart, I'm glad you enjoyed yourself, too. Thank you for the idea with the title. I'll have plenty of time to think about a catchy name.
So I think it is "Good Bye" on here. Thank you to all of you who always looked in so faithfully. See you again next year!
So it is not "good bye" yet, but another "Hello".
I'm already on holiday, preparing for my journey. Doing some packing now and then, doing some shopping, going to the hairdresser's... And as weather is horrible today, watching some television. And guess what!!! I nearly swallowed something the wrong throat: There was a report on TV about the Storks here in Hesse, with pictures of the Storks right here where I live! I recognised the landscape, the hills and the valley right away. They had an expert in the studio, and he told very interesting things:
Form the beginning of the 20th century the number of Storks was declining, until in 1986 there were no Storks coming to Hesse any more. One ornithologist said that something had to be done, and he went to Spain and looked what they did there. First he was laughed at, but soon people around here could see that he had been right by putting up the poles with platforms, offering nesting sites. This year there have been 400 couples raising young ones. This is as many as 130 years ago. They eat snails, mice, frogs, insects, but mainly worms. The Storks from around here travel for the winter to western Africa (Senegal, Mali, Mauretania, via Spain, but many Storks do stay in Spain, where they find lots of snails in the rice-fields). In contrast to that, the Storks from further north (the area at the river Elbe) usually travel to the east: Via Turkey and the Bosporus to Kenia, and even to South Africa. It is a long and dangerous journey. Many get shot in the near east (for sports, isn't this a shame!!), and in some parts of Africa Storks are shot to be eaten. The ones who make it to South Africa only stay there for two weeks or so, and then travel right back. We have a saying here:"The way is the destination", and this is certainly very true for the Storks.
Well, I thought you might like to hear.
Kind regards, Bente
Thanks B for that interesting info, wish it had been shown here!
Don't forget to pack your camers!!!
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
Hello Wendy,
how could I forget my camera! The accus are recharged, and everything is prepared! I only hope that the Lufthansa-flight-captains don't go on strike before friday, and there is a volcano on Iceland, that is about to cause trouble. So please keep your fingers crossed. And keep your eyes open for the thread "Where to watch wildlife ---abroad". I won't tell you more now, because I don't want to take away the surprise.
Just in case I don't post anything before my departure: I'll be back here approximately around the middle of september.
See you then! Bente
Eager anticipation here B ... have fun!
Have a lovely time
J
Hello once more!
I'm sorry that I haven't been around on the forums much. But tonight I have some news that you might like to hear: When I returned from my holidays on September 13th, I expected the Storks to have left for Africa. So you can imagine my surprise when 4 or 5 Storks were still here on my return. And yesterday there were still two of them- I'll be interested to see if they intend to stay for the whole winter.
I keep you informed.
See you soon, Bente
It will be interesting to see if they stay or go to Africa