19.05.2010

The Stork Year is off to a normal one

Up to now no losses due to weather / but fodder shortages due to monocropping. "Up to now", so Bernd Ludwig, NABU State Coordinator for White Stork Protection, "the cold and rainy weather has not yet led to losses among white storks of Brandenburg. The parent storks warm up the young ones alternatingly in the nest. It could become a disaster, Ludwig knows, with continuous rain falls, as last Saturday. "Then water could collect in the nest hollow, caused by carried in pieces of plastic, and the young storks would freeze to death. Indeed the storks find enough earth worms, however, insects and amphibians become rare. In addition, there are too few field mice. It would be bad if a further cold spell crashes upon us in June, for the parent storks would no longer warm the young ones," explains Ludwig.

"So, as the arrival numbers show, the white stork year 2010 appears to become a normal one in Brandenburg", reports Ludwig of his first impressions. In Ruehstaedt (southeast of Wittenberge) has now 32 brood stork pairs, a few more than last year. The nearby village of Storchendorf possibly profited from the influx of "West Travelers", the stork expert suspects. "West Travelers" are storks which fly north from Africa via Gibraltar. More and more of them spend their winter in Spain and Portugal now and consequently arrive in the brood regions at the beginning of March, giving them a marked season advantage. All in all, however, the population of white storks decreases more and more in Brandenburg as well as in Mecklenburg-Hither Pomerania, the stork richest states of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Ludwig points to the data, which are supplied to him by volunteer stork protector of NABU on a yearly basis. In 2008 1,296 brood pairs were still counted, this shrunk to 1,193 last year. Of these 885 brood pairs had young storks, a total of 2,146. This means that only 1.8 young storks per eyrie became fledglings. To maintain the population, at least 2.0 young ones per eyrie are required. It is even worse in Mecklenburg-Hither Pomerania: During the "Super Summer" of 2004 the brood pair population stood at 1,244, in 2008 at 863, and in 2009 it was down to 770 brood pairs.

Ludwig is certain that the population of "East Travelers" only holds because "immigrants" from Eastern Europe arrive in Brandenburg. He fears, however, that the changes in agricultural production in Eastern European countries will also decrease the white stork population there. No wonder: Monocroppings of granola (rape seed) and corn which by way of intensive use of chemical fertilizers and plant pesticides grow rapidly, so that neither insects, amphibians nor small mammals find space to live, and storks are unable to find fodder.

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