19.04.2002

Battles with loss of an egg

On Thursday attacks by an outsider stork ensued again. In the evening the struggle became so intense that one egg wound up at the edge of the nest. This egg is lost. Early Friday a second egg lay outside of the nest hollow, but was rolled back by the storks. It is not clear at this time how many eggs have remained in the nest. Be kind enough to help with the observation and report them to the guestbook. At present many storks are arriving in Lausatia from their winter quarters. They were delayed by bad weather in Turkey. Being gliding birds, storks require good thermal air currents to conquer long distances. During periods of bad weather they either rest or cover only short stretches. With the return of large quantities of breeding storks, conflicts over coveted eyries begin. These are entirely natural occurences. It is possible that a late arriving previous eyrie "owner" fights to reclaim his former lodgings.

Many concerned observers of the fights have expressed the wish that the egg at the edge of the nest be returned to the nest hollow. Yet we, the people of the Nature Protection Federation, have a basic rule not to interfere with the events at the eyrie. Only that way can we draw scientific conclusions. In addition one has to consider this: During an attempt to return the egg to the nest hollow we would drive away the storks and possibly endanger the whole brood. Outsider storks could use the opportunity to dump all eggs out of the nest.

Winfried Boehmer
NABU-Project Leader

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