26.06.2006

Highlight at www.storchennest.de - Young Stork receives Band

The Young Stork at the Vetschau Internet eyrie will receive a band on Monday at about 10:00 a.m. The banding will be done by Ms. Katharina Filling of Luckau. She has plenty of experienced and is licensed to do so. The required lifting apparatus will be supplied by enviaM.

Interested citizens as well as visitors to the Spree Forest are cordially invited to experience the activity directly at the White Stork Information Centre of Lower Lusatia in Vetschau/Spree Forest. The banding may also be observed on the Internet. The bands allow for easy identification of the animals. For instance, one can ascertain when they breed where or how old they may become. Often the public worries that the young ones could jump out of nest or the parent storks might abandon the young ones. None of this should be of concern. In case of a threatening danger, such as the banding in the young storks mind, the young ones press themselves flat into the nest hollow spontaneously and and remain motionless, head and neck extended forward. This instinctive behaviour, acinese, feints the loss of the ability to move, that is death, and offers the least impulse to animosity. During banding of young storks of previous years this behaviour could be observed perfectly. The bands were attached flawlessly. The rigidity of the young storks released itself after 20 minutes. The parent storls were away in search of fodder and were totally oblivious of the events at the eyrie. Even in the event that the parent storks are driven away for a short time, the bond with their young one is so strong, they return quickly. As in 2003 and 2004 a new type of bands will be used. Uric acid will not adhere to these plastic rings during the chalking of the legs. In this way the band can be affixed above the intertersal joint rather than at the foot as done previously. This upper banding has the advantage that the stork's band can be seen more easily. The number of the band can be read with binoculars without any difficulties.

Winfried Boehmer
NABU-Project Leader

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