05.04.2004

Stork Romance at Vetschau - The whole World watches

VETSCHAU/SPREE FOREST. On Sunday, April 4th, the time had finally come. At 3:00 p.m. a second white stork landed at the Internet eyrie in Vetschau/ Spree Forest. At once both storks layed their beaks on their backs and richly clattered in greeting. It was obvious that the female quickly accepted the male stork who had been waiting now for several days - Love at first sight! A short time later the first matings took place. On March 29th the first stork had appeared and had waited for a partner since then. He stood or sat in the nest mostly; only in search for fodder he left the eyrie for an few hours every day. That the most recently arrived stork is actually a female was easy to determine. She is of stockier body than her partner. This shows that she is a female. The males are a little larger and stronger. In addition, she has white coloured legs and is easy to distinguish from the other. The white legs still stem from Africa. In high temperatures storks chalk their legs and so prevent overheating. Neither of the storks wear bands which means one cannot ascertain from where they hail or whether they have incubated here in previous years. In about ten to twelve days the laying of eggs will begin. As a rule, three to five eggs will be layed in two-day intervals. After thirty-two days the young ones will hatch.

The speciality of the Vetschau white storks: Stork fans from all over the world follow this stork love and family life on the Internet site www.storchennest.de. All happenings are fed to the net via camera and Mikro of the Nature Protection Federation of Germany and the energy provider enviaM.

Winfried Böhmer

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