Summary of the 2008 Nesting Season

Cameras Watching over Black Storks nest
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Summary of the 2008 Nesting Season

Post by Jo UK »

This topic is written by various members of the Hancock Discussion Forum, where many of us met and discussed the Black Stork nest events. of 2008 as seen and heard on the Looduskalender webcam

This is very definitely not a scientific review.
It is the Storkaholics viewpoint!
Martin

Post by Martin »

SHORT SUMMARY OF THE 2008 NESTING SEASON

The 2008 nesting season began on the 1st of April with Donna´s arrival on the nest at 12:08. At that time it was unknown if there will be any nesting at all, because most likely Tooni lost his life in Israel, on Golan Heights. The breakpoint was on the 3rd of April when an unknown male black stork landed on the nest at 9:38 in the morning. It didn´t take very long for Donna to accept the male as her new mate and so it began.

The male stork was a local bloke, as it turned out on 18th of April. He was from near Padise, Estonia and was born in 2001. Soon after the discovery of his origin, the male was named after his birth place and from that moment onwards he is known as Padis.
Everything was going well for them; they were prepairing the nest for the big event and enjoyed each other's company. 6 days later on the 9th of April they had their very first egg. By the 12th of April Donna had laid 3 eggs and Padis couldn´t be any prouder.

Then on the 13th of April at 8:38 a stranger landed on the nest and took off at the same second. At that time Donna was on the nest alone, incubating her eggs and Padis was out foraging. 5 minutes later the stranger returned with a clear plan to take over the nest along with Donna and the 3 eggs. Quickly the stranger took over the incubating process from Donna and she was left alone standing beside the stranger, not knowing what to do next. She made a couple of attempts to regain her position on the eggs, but couldn´t outsmart the stranger. 16 minutes later, at 8:59 Padis arrived and they had a 30-second long verbal argument, which lead to a fight, started by Donna. The fight was long and dangerous. The stranger proved to be very strong and agressive, probably younger too. Finally the couple managed to chase him away and regain their home peace....for now.
On the following day at 7:08 the stranger was back, again took over the incubating from Donna. 7:15 he rolled one of the eggs to the nest edge, the same happened 4 minutes later with the second egg. At 7:31 Padis arrived and the fight began. The fighting only lasted 2 minutes on the nest, Padis managed to push the stranger out of the nest and quickly followed him. About 2 minutes later Padis was back, safe and sound.
During the fights they lost one of their eggs and Padis also injured his wing. Overall, the damage was minimal and allowed them to proceed with their nesting. The broken egg was replaced with a new one and by the 20th of April, 2 more eggs were layed. The incubating kept going for another month. Meanwhile nothing spectacular happened, exept that Padis did something very strange. On the 30th of April he left the nest for 90 minutes, leaving the eggs unguarded and in the cold. He got lucky, the nest was untouched and it was sunny outside.
On the 12th of May the couple was hit by a building frenzy. Both of them brought a lot of moss and a few new branches - probably they knew that the big event wasn´t far now. Suprisingly for us but not to them, their first chick hatched on the 14th of May. It was a cold day and didn´t leave a lot of time for admiration. The next one hatched a day later and the third hatched a day later of the second one. The fourth chick hatched 3 days after the third one, on 18th of May.
Then, on the 19 of May, something unthinkable happened. Donna decided that three chicks are all she can manage and killed the fourth one by eating it. It remains unknown, if the chick was actually the fourth - there were some speculations that it might have been the third, but it won´t change the end result. The fifth egg was still intact and all hopes of the hatching were almost gone. After seeing what was the fate of the fourth chick, many of the observers were actually hoping that it wouldn´t. But nature had other thoughts and the very next day on 20th of May it did hatch. The destiny of the fifth chick was even worse as soon as it hatched it was consumed by Donna. The chances of it´s survival were non-existent, because by that time the oldest chick was 6 days old and was about triple the size of the newborn. Donna did what she thought was best for them, even if it was difficult to understand. Looking back at the time when it all happened, we know that it was the right thing for her to do.
Soon it was forgiven, but not forgotten and the nest life continued with the three remaining chicks. Two of them, the very first and the second were almost the same size, the second only slightly smaller. But the third one was significantly smaller than the others and didn´t seem to develop so well. All the chicks were named by the Hancock Wildlife Channel Forum users and got their names after their size. The oldest one was named Mr.Big, the second one was to be Mr.Mid and the smallest and weakest one is now known as Miss Little.
The trio was growing quickly, both parents were feeding them well and the majority of time during the first 2 weeks of their life was spent in sleeping and eating. The only real threat for them, the ravens, were lurking near by. The ravens only needed one mistake from either parent and the history of the nesting season could have been very different. On 21st of May at 12:07 the stranger was back, but this time it was Padis on the nest keeping the chicks warm. Padis managed to avoid the attack and stayed calm, the stranger landed on a near by branch, stood there for a couple of minutes and left. This was the third time, when the family got lucky: none of the chicks was injured. The weather was also on their side, it didn´t rain once for the whole month since their birth, which eventually lead to a drought and finding food became an ever bigger challange for the adults with every passing day.
25th of May was the day when the trio was left alone on the nest for the very first time, at 8:48 Padis thought that it´s extremely necessary to bring some insulation material and so he took off for a minute. The next time they were left alone was on 27th of May- this time it lasted for 7 minutes. Needless to say that it was Padis again who had other business to take care of. The first night alone on the nest was spent between 2nd and 3rd of June. Meanwhile on 31st of May Padis went missing for 24 hours. During his absence he managed to lose his plastic ring - sadly it remains unknown what had happened to him.
On the 13th of June at 8:22 the notorious stranger was back and was looking for trouble. He stayed near the nest for an hour, then at 9:45 he landed on the nest and was followed by Padis, who attacked him immeadiately. This time the stranger was victorious and simply threw Padis out of his own nest. Having done that, stranger just took off, but a minute later padis was back on the nest to feed the chicks. The stranger kept visiting the nest till the very end of the nesting season, but didn´t attack or land on the nest any more. It is not clear what were his intentions - there are some theories, but nothing very convincing.
Three days later, on 16th of June, it was time to weigh measure and ring the chicks. After the ringing it was clear that they were underfed, compared to the 2007 brood. Again there was no obvious reason for that. The biggest factor was the drought, of course, and also there is the possibility, that the stranger caused a lot of disturbance to Padis and due to that, left him very little time to forage properly.
The 14th of June was the day when the desperately needed rain finally arrived. The oldest chick was exactly one month old. After the rain, conditions for the parents for finding food improved, but clearly not enough. Overall the month of June passed without any major disturbances for the chicks. They were growing and developing rather slowly but surely.
The first half of July was also very peaceful, the weather had improved, it was raining quite often and the drought had passed. July 16th was a historical day, for the very first time in the history of black storks, a juvenile was equipped with the GPS transmitter. The name of that historical figure was Mr.Mid. It was useless at that time, because the trio was still learning to fly, but would prove to be very useful after they migrate. After the event the trio kept practising their flying skills which lasted till 26th of July, when the oldest chick made the first flight out of the nest. It took them a little longer to start flying than is considered to be normal. Again the reason was lack of food and energy. The second one to fly was Mr.Mid on the 29th of July. Miss Little who was still the smallest of them, stayed on the nest till 2nd of August. That was also the day when Padis was last seen. The reason for his early leaving is again unknown, the answer should come along with the 2009 nesting season. Mr.Big decided to start the migration on 6th of August. He left the nest early morning and never returned again. The remaining 2 juveniles stayed on the nest for another 8 days. At 12:07 on the 14th of August, Mr.Mid flew out of the nest, only to return on the same minute. He looked at Miss Little as if asking her:”shall we?” and a minute later Miss Little flew out of the nest, followed by Mr. Mid. That was it, they were gone for good. Donna returned at 15:55, only to find an empty nest. She stood there for 6 minutes, then left. Donna´s departure also marked the end for the nesting season, leaving the nest empty till next spring, when the great circle of black storks life brings them back again.

There was another turn to the story, on 28th of August, it was announced by the DNA results, that all the chicks in the nest were female. One of them didn´t need renaming, but two Mr.´s did. Mr.Mid was instantly renamed to Miss Mid, but there was a slight problem with Mr. Big, surely it won´t need the explanation why. Till this day, she stays unrenamed and probably will stay that way for good.

Urmas added:

Storkaholics of the World (SHoW) are people around the world spending lot of time watching Estonian Black Stork nest through webcam and making notes, screenshots, searching additional information about the species etc. and sharing these posting in Hancock Wildlife Channel discussion forum. More as 500 pages of posts are made during season 2008. Eagle Club of Estonia and Estonian Ornithological Society are very proud of dedicated and intercontinental work of storkaholics!

Black Stork webcam 2008 statistics:
Observers from at least 130 countries made 2,5 M hits to camera site and half of these were from Estonia
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Post by Jo UK »

Starting on Page 5, Juta's post of April 6th
Donna is back and has new "husband", who arrived 2 days ago. He is banded, but his birth is unknown, because the place and colour of the ring is different, as it should be.

The first egg was seen on April 9th. followed by two more at two day intervals.

Then, on Sunday 13 April - TROUBLE - an intruder came to the nest. It was an adult, larger than Donna or her mate. He sat on the eggs for a time. Donna, sensibly, stood quietly, waiting, until her mate returned. Then both of them fought the intruder and he was banished.
There were some cases of mistaken identity - some viewers thought it was Donna sitting on eggs, when it was the intruder. Juta posted this - April 14.
"I didn´t see this morning´s fight, but there is update. Intruder(male without rings) came and sat down on the eggs. Donna just watched. Then intruder decided that as those eggs are not his, they have to be thrown away. Then "right" male came and there was big fight and intruder flied away. One egg was broken."

Egg number three was laid next day, and then another fight. The intruder arrived while Mr. X (not named at that time) was sitting. The video http://mms://video.eenet.ee/arhiiv/2008-04-15.asf is worth watching, to see the determination of the male to protect his nest. He kept pushing at the intruder, and finally they both fell from the nest and flew off. Mr. X returned alone, later. The ravens were trying to take advantage of the disturbance, but Mr. X dealt with that, too. What a stressful day for him. He did well.

Donna produced a fourth egg on April 17th.
Next day - 18th, the Black Stork team were able to visit the nest area to attempt to identify the male adult. Success! They made a hide 80 metres from the nest, and photographed him.
Mr.X was born in 2001 in Harju county near Padise in Estonia. Our own Urmas ringed him.
On Sunday April 20th, there were five eggs.

April 28 - The male bird is named Padis http://www.looduskalender.ee/en/node/215

On 30 April, the nest was unattended for 90 minutes - reason unknown. Urmas thinks there must have been some kind of disturbance that wasn't obvious to us.
http://www.looduskalender.ee

May 5

- Blackflies pester Donna and Padis
Submitted by Looduskalender on 5 May 2008 - 11:06am
Many viewers have brought our attention to the strange behavior of Donna and Padis (DP)—they frequently shake their heads and seem to too often hold their beaks open. We've been asked if this is a symptom of illness.

May 6
- Urmas joined us on the forum. He requested that we post the date/time stamp in our observation posts. Reports of frequent egg-turning, frequent raven calls and sounds of a woodpecker.

May 12
-Urmas reported During last half of hour a great nest building in stork nest.
Both adults are active to bring new moss, grass and sticks.
Seems the weather turns cold! Home energy saving is necessary...
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Post by Jo UK »

May 12
- Home decoration in the storks' nest
This weekend almost nothing happened in the nest of Donna and Padis! They even changed places over the eggs only one time. The only action was an animal who passed the nest early in the morning (see mms://video.eenet.ee/arhiiv/2008-05-09.asf). It's possible this was a wild boar—for a second a dark shape can be seen in the corner of the frame.
But by the beginning of the workweek Donna and Padis got busy. They spent more than an hour making the nest more homey and comfortable (see mms://video.eenet.ee/arhiiv/2008-05-12.asf). Would the reason for this be the cooling temperatures or the coming of children?
Then there were some comments about possible infanticide at the nest. Last year, Tony reduced the numbers to 3.

May 14
- first chick hatched. Lots of excitement and reporting of new sounds of young chicks Estonians are feeling parental pride at having brought this wonder to the eyes of the world. Thank you, Estonia, for this excellent webcam with sound.
http://www.hancockwildlifechannel.org/m ... 4085257890
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Post by Jo UK »

May 16
- Mutikluti made the first report of a stranger stork nearby. (Unless it's the same stork involved in the fight on April13.)
mms://video.eenet.ee/arhiiv/2008-05-16-2.asf
Then Martin posted for the first time, with a very relevant question. How can we know that this year's female is the same as last year? We can't know for certain that this is Donna!

macko50 made this short video.
http://www.hancockwildlifechannel.org/m ... 6072957328
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Post by Kuremari »

Summary 17-19 May (pages 15-24)

May 17
- 04.10 EEST – 3 chicks and 2 eggs in the nest , reports Surfside.
Donna seems to be more careful with chicks, Padis almost every time steps on them while feeding – lack of experience as Martin says.

May 18
- Rainy morning and the 4th chick hatched.
Both of the parents bring food and take care of the little ones.
Donna & Padis are named Velvet Warriors – for protecting chicks from the arrogant Raven who consistently stays near the nest.
Martin took his very first snapshot and everyone is waiting for the 5th chick to hatch.

May 19
- Drama in the nest.
5.54 nest time something unthinkable happened. Donna eliminated the smallest chick and eat it (it`s called kronism). This is a real shock.

Submitted by Looduskalender on 20 May 2008 - 1:12pm
Text: Urmas Sellis

When Saturday morning the fourth chick hatched, the majority of viewers awaited with piety the final hatching. But that didn't happen on Saturday, Sunday, or even Monday. It seems the fifth egg may not hatch…
At the beginning of the workweek on Monday, the real fans watched at first light in hopes of seeing the last chick hatch with their own eyes.
But instead of a hatching chick, viewers saw nature play its cruellest joke—Donna decided that there was one chick too many in the nest and she removed him. She employed the most rational technique called kronism—she ate her own child.
….. the drama continues

By 13.40 nest time there are 3 chicks left in the nest. Mother Donna consumed the 5th chick. So 3 is the biggest number she thinks Padis and herself could raise and feed.
Just like last year.
Soon after arriwes Padis with food and the life in nest carries on as if nothing ever happened. Both parents take good care of the little ones and the chicks are growing by hours.
Our Black Storks are TV stars- some short videoclips are shown on National Television.
Proud member of SHoW (StorkaHolics of the World)
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Post by Jo UK »

May 20th Page 25

There had been some discussion about man-made versus naturally made nests. "Our" nest is a natural one, maybe built about 2004 - possibly by Padis who may have been displaced by Tooni for a year.
Bociany posted an endearing picture of a chick peering out from under an adult's wing! It was noticed that Martin is good at collecting precise facts - "Padis returned after an absence of 4 hours, 46 minutes" The type of food brought for the chicks is being recorded too - when visible. Padis brings fish. Donna brings frogs. The fifth egg is displaying larger holes now - we wonder what will become of it.
What happened to it is recorded on page 26. At 18.30 nest time, the fifth chick hatched, and was dispatched quickly by Donna. She ate it. Thee were some videos of the event, with warnings that graphic images may upset some people.

Later that evening -21.30 - both Mutikluti and Martin saw a labrador-sized animal running on the forest floor. Not identified. Martin reported hearing a crane and a raven near the nest. He is also recording arrivals and departures of the two adults, to see if they have a schedule of some kind. Urmas welcomes the research.
May 21 at 12.07 a stranger stork appeared and tried to fight with Padis who was egg-sitting then. Stranger was defeated quickly and went to sit on a branch nearby for 2 minutes. Martin posted this-
"The intruder was circlingthe nest about 4 minutes and after attacking Padis stayed on the branch about 2 minutes. About baby sitting I remember as the chicks grew, the sitting time reduced, but the feeding interval increased, they fed them more often but didn´t spend any time on the nest."
Mutikluti and Martin are often complimented on the pictures they post. Such skills we are developing! Then there was a side-track into linguistic territory. how to pronounce an Estonian word with four of the same vowels "It´s easy, you pronounce first 2 and then take a small pause(eat something, watch some TV, go shopping) and then you continue pronouncing the word

Edit: jäääär means edge of ice, where jää = ice and äär = edge" So, for some J is a vowel and for others, a consonant!
Back to the storks now - page 30
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Post by visitor »

May 22nd p.30-33

Overall it was a calm and successful day for our storks.

08.24 - Donna arrived, she was away exactly 12 hrs.
10.30 - very windy in the forest, Donna was having trouble keeping balance when standing.
12.19 - Padis arrived, an hour earlier than the day before.
14.37 - he was checking the sky, probably a stork was flying over, no attack this time.
16.46 - Donna arrived already, she was away for 4 rhs 27min, and Padis took off. Martin was sure that adults were going to add one baby sitting shift in the day, and he was right.
20.49 - Padis returned

Chicks got plenty of food, Small ate as well as Medium and Large. There is no love, when it comes down to food! The biggest chick was noticed cleaning its feathers.


May 23rd p.33-37

Windy morning.

6.14 - Donna arrived and Padis went off.
07.49 - Small got a frog between its beak, it was too big for her and the others were trying to get it...but even Donna couldn´t take it away from her.
8.53 - Padis arrived with some insulation material.
12.51 - Donna came back, but chicks didn´t even notice.
17.08 - a baby was noticed sitting like an adult stork.
17.36 - Padis arrived.
21.01 - Donna arrived and stayed for the night.

The raven was heard often during the day, he seemed to be near the nest most of the time. Chicks were still very little and weak, they had to work hard just to hold their heads up, they would be an easy prey for a raven, should the adults leave the nest in some reason...
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Post by visitor »

May 24th p.37-40

The morning in the nest began at 05.45, when the storklets started to bubble around under Donna, who was having a bad feather day. There was a nice white feather ruffling out on her back, until at 06.54 she gave a mighty wing flap and the pesky feather was gone.

Padis arrived at 8.16, Donna didn´t pay attention for several minutes, actually all family was sleepy. But not for long. Soon Donna left and now Padis was the one chicks were clambering over and around.

At 12.05 Donna came back and Padis took off. Chicks were enjoying a plentiful dinner, there were several frogs and a lot of fish, and in return the kids disturbed Ma's hair-do again.

Chicks were growing not in days, but in hours. They were starting to keep the nest clean, the biggest chick was seen stepping back before he made this little white "thingy". Chicks were hungry all day, though they ate a lot every time. Some frogs and fishes have been really big, but these little white buddies were able to swallow everything served.

In Vihterpalu, near Padise, was a big forestfire. Storkaholics were concerned about it, as Padis is from Padise.

Urmas wrote later:
Forest fire in region Padis was fledged could not be danger for that nest site.
But there are the nests of Osprey and Golden Eagle quite close - depends on wind direction, will these be in danger or not. Can't say now.
Couple of years ago in North-East Estonia was large forest fire, it went over Osprey nest site (these are different as in America, Ospreys breed here in bog islands and in remote forests). All trees around were burnt black, but nest tree as highest and oldest one was green... with nest on top and two alive eaglets in it! (we call Ospreys as Fish-eagles in Estonian).

Another quick changeover at 20.06 - Padis departed. Donna brought many frogs for her kids. Another nice day in the nest was over.


May 25th p.40-44

At 08.56 storkaholics had a reason to complain about parent's behaviour - chicks were left alone in the nest for the first time, when Padis went to bring some moss and twigs for the nest.

At 09.32 Donna returned and Padis took off, but few minutes later he returned, brought some more nest material and only after that he left. Adults were taking good care for the nest, the cavity of it was deepened, to protect the chicks from the wind and to ease the sitting on them. The two bigger chicks were helping as much as they could - they were copying Dad and playing with sticks.

Arrival and departure at 13.24 , Padis in, Donna out.

The size difference between Small and Big was huge, a careful observer could see the colour transformation on the biggest chick, actually on all of them... Mr. Big´s butt was quite dark already.

There was a discussion about how to call the chicks - will they always be chicks, or do they turn to juveniles or something else when getting bigger.

Again it was Urmas who solved the problem:
There is no difference, how we call them - important is healthy brood and quick fledging of all ... chicks!
Most of you are called also not by official names.... but you remain yourself.

At 18.17 Donna came to the nest and Padis left.

It's been nice to see how the chicks cuddle up together and back up each other - is that for warmth, physical support or to make sure they get their share of the food? The chicks have been friendly, even the smallest one seemed to be getting as much food as the other two and there weren't seen signs of aggression towards it from the two larger chicks.

The chicks were on "open air" a lot this day. On Looduskalender Urmas explained that they are being toughened up now - to develop their own thermo-regulation.

In the evening someone was messing with the camera zoom, making some storkaholics to think that the chicks are growing REALLY fast!

More complaints from storkaholics:
"I do wish Padis would not be so noisy when he returns to the nest. I had the sound on, but was not watching. I just about jumped out of my skin!"
"And the chicks should know it is not polite to talk when they eat. Such a noisy mealtime."

21.23 Padis arrived and Donna took off, leaving the kids sleeping under Daddy's wing this night.
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Post by visitor »

May 26th p.44-48

There was a lot of gurgling and bubbling going on under Padis in the very early morning already.

Six changeovers - the chicks needed lot of food.
6.16 - Donna arrived.
09.07 - Padis came back with food but chicks were sleeping and didn`t saw him.
12.21 - Donna in, Padis out...
12.31 - a stranger stork visited the nest. It was peaceful, sat on the left branch, looked at the nest and flew away 4 minutes later.
14.43 - another changeover, Padis in, Donna out.

The day was pretty warm, +16 degrees in the shade and the chicks were quite playful. And they demonstrated excellent toilet manners already.

17.15 - one of the chicks was spotted actually standing on it's own legs, for a moment, but anyway...
18.15 - Donna brought many frogs.
21.34 - Padis arrived and gave a free night to Donna.

This day the chicks got names - the smallest one was named Miss Little (by Juta), the largest Mr. Big and the other Mr. Middle (by Bairbre).

Martin predicted that the total number of pages on our thread will be 257.


May 27th p.48-51

6.18 - Donna arrived.
10.03 - Padis back.
12.04 - alert in the nest, Padis was very restless, looking at someone.

JoUK wrote:
Padis just made one of his ear-splitting shrieks , but I couldn't see a reason for it. Then he looked as though he wanted to sit on the chicks, but they are too big now! Now he is standing tall, looking alert.

12.15 - Padis took off, leaving the chicks alone in the nest. He returned at 12.23.
Mutikluti's pics captured well how the chicks went into a still, silent huddle when there was an alert.

Three more shifts:
13.30 - Donna arrived.
17.00 - Padis arrived.
20.08 - Donna arrived.

It started to rain in the evening and Donna took all the chicks under her wing.

The chicks were progressing very fast - they were starting to use their "wings", for keeping balance (very amusing to watch), Mr. Big and Mr. Middle both were standing on their legs for a moment, first time they stood around food...

Miss Little was spotted making strange, almost mechanical sound, like she had the hiccups.

Martin wrote:
It is quite obviuos now, that the chicks stay hungry after a feed, i guess that in few days time (maybe even tomorrow), they will be left alone on the nest. Mr.Big must take charge of the safety then. I think he will do just fine, when Padis returned on the nest today (after he left it guardless), then Mr.Big spread his "wings" and made that deep-throat sound like the chicks last year on that banding video when they first saw Urmas. It must be one of the funniest sounds ever.
If Mr.Big will continue that kind of growth rate, he will be fledging the nest in few days.
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Post by visitor »

May 28th p.51-57

The morning was very busy for both of the parents, a lot of nest renovation was done. Padis arrived at 6.08, but Donna didn't fly away for a long time, in three minutes she returned with some nest material and she repeated this action for many times. Chicks were very noisy, begging for breakfast, but Mother and later Father did bring only "nothing", until the nest looked like a soft ball. Just before a half past seven Padis flew away, Donna stayed at home for homeworks. Chicks were very active, all three were spotted trying to stand on their feet. Mr.Mid got his legs staight, but didn´t know yet how to lift his head at the same time.

Padis arrived at 10.45. At 13.46 he shook himself for a second and all the chicks made deep-throat sound at once, very funny.

At 14.22 the connection to the nest camera was lost for an hour. At 15.31 the camera came back on, the picture was closer than before, there were some fishes in the nest and no parents.
Chicks did their best, but couldn't eat all what Urmas left them - Donna arrrived at 15.52 and got some fish too.

Padis came back at 18.27.

After seven o'clock in the evening chicks woke from a nap and all three were in the waste disposal business, within seconds of each other. What goes in, has to come out again. All three have very big crops!

Donna didn't come back to the nest this evening.



May 29th p.57-62

Chicks were only two weeks old, but they had grown this much that a parent really had to spread out to cover them. Lot of standing practicing, Mr. Mid was able to stand for 2 seconds! In the afternoon some dark pin feathers were seen on the edge of the wing of Mr. Big.

After seven in the morning Padis brought some moss to the nest.

07.57 - Donna arrived, she was away for 13,5 hours.
12.01 - Padis back.
14.02 - Padis left the nest and chicks were alone.
14.35 - Donna arrived and brought a wonderful feast.
16.00 - chicks were left on their own again - for almost two hours this time.
17.52 - Padis arrived.

After nine o'clock in the evening both parents were in the nest. Half past nine they left to talk behind the corner, maybe about who will get the night off. After ten they returned, first Padis, then Donna, and she was the one who stayed for the night, Padis flew away.
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Post by visitor »

May 30th p.62-67

03.58 - both parents were in the nest again. Padis stayed with the chicks.
07.23 - Padis brought some moss.
07.35 - Donna arrived.
08.44 - Padis was back and served a breakfast, containing a big, fat fish - too big and fat for chicks, so Padis eventually ate it himself.
09.25 - Padis was constantly sneezing and made storkaholics to worry - did he catch cold?
10.48 - shift change, Donna came to the nest. Miss Little got herself a big frog, which made her to struggle a bit - the frog was too big for her to eat. While she was trying to swallow it, the Mr´s wanted to snatch it, but she didn´t let them, turned her back to them and finally she managed to eat the frog.
13.20 - Padis was back.

Mr.Big was making very good progress - he managed to stand about 5 seconds already. The two bigger chicks were able to stand and take a few steps on extended legs, Miss Little remained seated while they tottered around. The observers noticed that ravens were gone. Probably they gave up, cause the chicks were too big for them already.

It was a warm day at the nest, the chicks were huddled under Padis's shadow, but they didn't behave - first Miss Little, then Mr. Big annoyed Padis and half past four in the afternoon Father escaped.

In an hour Donna arrived and brought some nice frogs. At 19.07 she left.
Padis returned at 19.40 but chicks ignored him.

21.15 - Donna in, Padis out.

Discussion of the day - about leg rings and stork's eyes.



May 31st p.67-72

The mornings in the nest were starting early. Before five o'clock waste managements, stretches and preenings were observed.

Father didn't come to the nest this morning and Donna didn't have anything to give to the chicks to eat, they were searching the nest carefully to find something edible but with no useful results. At 9.13 chicks were seen sleeping in the sitting position.

At 9.44 Donna left the nest, chicks remained alone and storkaholics started to worry - where was Padis?

At 12.15 Martin wrote:
I looked at my records and the longest time Padis has been away is 14 hours and 17 minutes, it was the night between May 20th and 21st. At that time, the chicks were very small and didn´t need that much food as they do now. It may be safe to leave them alone, but they need to eat. So it is not very normal indeed. It is now been 15 hours since we last saw Padis.

More worries:
* 16 hours and no Padis.
* Yesterday he was constantly sneezing, i believe there is something wrong with him.
* If an adult stork catches cold, will they recover from it?.
* Maybe he is staying away from the nest on purpose, so he wouldn´t infect the chicks?
* Too many questions and no Urmas.
* I have a bad feeling about this.

Chicks were alone and hungry for more than four and a half hours. Only at 14.21 Donna arrived and fed them. Chicks were very noisy seeing Donna and she looked very suprised, just stood on the edge of the nest for a minute, wondering about something... She stayed only for 23 minutes, at 14.41 she went off again.

At 16.26 all chicks were spotted walking on their legs.

At 16.58 Donna brought many, many frogs and left the nest at 17.28. Kids looked to be very well fed, even if there were no fish yet this day.

Storkaholics were really worried about Padis by then - some e-mails were sent, some phonecalls were made... To make the misery complete, the camera stopped working before ten o'clock in the evening.

Fortunately the connection came back at 22.58 and after some playing with contrast and brightness there was seen on a picture that an adult - probably Donna - was in the nest. At least the chicks didn't have to face the night alone.
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Post by Kuremari »

Pages 73-98
June 01

6.35 nest time. Early morning in the forest. Donna and three hungry chics are sleeping in the nest.
9.46 Donna brings some food for children, but where is Padis??
For the great relief of all the storkfriends at 11.15 Padis returned to the nest. What adventures has he experienced, we will probably never get to know. The missing plastic ring is a proof of some kind of troubles he has been in.
The rest of the day runs its course. Mr.Big is so good at standing already.
Padis stays in guard of the chicks for the night.
June 02

04.12 nest time. Bociany in behalf of the night-watch crew from North America reports : 3 chicks and Padis peacefully asleep.
04.32 the whole family is awake and do some stretching and excersises. Padis takes off .
Nice busy morning.
Our observers loose connection with the nest until 11.44
All the 3 chicks have nice black feather-tips and they are getting more curious every day- they wander around the nest and look over the edge. But they are very quiet while beeing left alone in the nest .
15.52 Padis arriwes and stays in the nest for half an hour. The chicks use the possibility to tease their father by pinching his legs and tail.
The same scene is seen when Donna comes to feed the chicks.After staying for some time she gets enough of the chics misbehaviour and takes off.
Today the storklets spend their very first night without their parents.
Mutikluti has a theory : Parents just can´t be on nest with theses "little hooligans"anymore. They jerk parents´s feathers, peck their toes and so on. Not one normal parent be able to tolerate such behaviour for a long time!
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June 03

03.20 nest time. Bociany reports : chicks doing some stretches, no parents.
7.21 arrives Donna with food.
After feeding the chicks at 07.48 Padis spends the morning refitting the nest. He brings moss, sticks, branches and then more moss and more…. Is it getting colder???
11.32 dinner is served by Donna. Afterwards she cleans the nest and takes a brief rest.
12.10 she decided to leave.
12.59 arriwes Padis. The chicks are well fed today. They are happy and active and giving Padis some hard time. The trio is a real pain in the neck, so at 13.42 Padis had enough.
17.49 another feeding , but Martin is suspicious : who it was? The adult had no rings, but was definitely bigger than Donna, maybe a stranger?! Who knows.
Evening comes with magical sunrays enlightening the nest.
No parents at night-home alone again.

June 04

06.33 first feeding by Padis.
07.11 Donna with food and some moss. Between meals the chicks practice walking across the nest.
12.30 Donna with food , did not stay on the nest.
13.45 Padis did the feeding and almost immediately left .
Martin has second thoughts :
“ 15:54 Donna arrived, fed the chicks and took off. So i guess, i was wrong yesterday, thinking that it was a stranger. Sorry for the panic It looks that they are behaving like that now.”
It seems that Donna and Padis are now only feeding the chicks. Guarding is not needed anymore.
18.48 Padis with food and after 2 minutes he left.
21.10 Donna with supper, shortly after feeding she flew away.
Well fed chicks have a nap, then wander around and then again have a nap.
23.02 they are sleeping in a friendly cuddle. No parents.
“No wonder that they are constantly so sleepy: It's a really tough job to grow up so quickly They're saying that human babies grow in their sleep, it must be the same with the storks ” a comment by Siil
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June 05

03.23 DB53 reports : 3 chicks and one parent sleeping in the nest.
Bociany at 05.04 – sleeping chicks and Donna. She must have returned to the nest at night- so obviously the storks do fly in dark or at least in poor daylight .
05.14 the chicks wake up and Donna hurried away to catch some food.
But breakfast was served by Padis at 09.21.
Chicks are healthy and active in the morning,
Rachowiak wrote:“Yesterday (Jun 4th, at 11:47 PM) on Looduskalender (http://www.looduskalender.ee/en/node/589) somebody wrote, that "Yesterday Padis went missing again." I think it's not true. Both Jun 3rd and 4th Padis was in the nest several times, noticed on this forum by several of us.”
So Martin e-mailed Looduskalender about Padis being OK and also he gave them the link to the Hancock Wildlife Channel Estonian Black Storks thread.
Martin noticed that Someone got close to the nest, all three stood up and were scaring it away...it is good to see, that they are able to defend theirselves.
Message from Looduskalender:
Tere Martin.
Minu poolt jäi Padis märkamata, kirjutan märkuse LK-sse.Tänud märkuse eest ja igasugused tähelepanekud on teretulnud.
Varasuve GS
In English:I didn´t notice Padis, will make the correction in "Looduskalender"
Thank you for the notice and all sighting marks are welcome.

The chicks are very bold and mobile today. They walk around and do important storklets stuff.
11.29 Donna with food.
13.10 Padis fed the chicks.
One nice White Stork delivered a handsome grandson to Bairbre- congratulations!
15.20 Donna with fast food
17.30 Padis fed the chicks
The weather is very warm, so the chicks are resting in the shady part of the nest.
At about 23.00 nest time Roanna wrote: Holey moley! I had gone to another room & came running back at this huge weird sound! Everyone up (they were asleep when I went to make tea!) ...such a sound! Very fierce and growly coming out of these adorable fluffy storklets! Is that an alarm cry? I think I remember a mention of it before.
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June 06

01.00 alert again,
02.36 the forest is waking up, in some light the 3 storklets are seen sleeping, everything OK.
02.42 something upset the chicks again, they are giving an alarm cry.
02.47 chicks are snoozing and sleeping like angels.
03.03 all safe and sound.
Now the night-watch crew : Tasane, Martin and Roanna can get some earned sleep.
05.24 Bociany : chicks awake, doing exercises and all seems to be OK.
06.38 the locals are awake Juta wrote: Good morning! All is well!
But what a fans!!I can understand Roana and Bociany -there is another time. But Martin and Tasane! Storkoholics! Absoluutselt!
And so the web-cam watchers are officially renamed : STORKAHOLICS we are from now.
07.44 Breakfast delivered by Padis. Some big fish.
10.14 Donna`s time
And some more action, 12.55 the intruder is back.He stands on the branch, only his legs are seen. Poor storklets, they are having some anxious times.
13.05 the strangerstork left. Was it he, disturbing the peace in the nest at night?
14.20 Padis delivered lunch.
Youngest chick is 20 days old today and they are all are walking and standing very well indeed.
15.55.Donna on the nest she fed the chicks and flew away.
Jo UK wrote: Thank you, uasdfg.
The two video clips you gave us show two very different sets of behaviour. In the first, when the intruder stork was on the branch, the chicks adopted "head down" postures and made small noises.
At night, in the second video, they had upright postures and made much louder sounds.
So, two different causes of alarm?
The rest of the day is nice and peaceful.23.25 storklets are asleep.
23.45 a short alert again, all three stand up and make some noise.
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June 07

Tasane is in the night.shift : A nice quiet night in the nest is almost over, it's getting light in the forest. Chicks are sleeping like angels, I haven't noticed any strange sounds. Who ever it was disturbing the peace last night, it seems he has given up, hopefully for good.
I think the nest desperately needs some reparations, especially the left side has no edge at all! It seems to be very dangerous, so easy to fall... not sure if Donna and Padis will find time for that? It's been no rain in Estonia lately, must be hard for them to find enough food to feed the chicks
.
04.55 Bociany wrote: all awake and doing exercises for wings
05.36 a sudden alarm - all 3 jumped up and made a lot of noise - and apparently were successful in scaring off the "danger" within a few seconds
06.42 sleeping chicks
07.46 Padis with breakfast. During the feeding Jo UK noticed a skin lesion on one chick`s skin, while his wings were up. It seems to be Mr.Big but despite the lesion he looks fine and healthy.
08.33 Donna fed the chicks.
14.06 Donna with food.
Meanwhile Martin observes some real wildlife from his window – a moose walking in the street.
19.47 Padis with supper
This was the last feeding for the day. The storklets are growing very quickly, they have several black spots already and the feather-tips are longer every day.
The rest of the evening is spent serenely and contentedly .
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June 8th p.98-103

Six feedings:
8.20 - Donna(plausible)
10.37 - Donna
13.48 - Donna
15.10 - Padis
17.52 - Donna
20.26 - Donna

The visits of parents had become very short and it's almost impossible to say what did they bring - everithing was eaten immediately.

At 19.15 the chicks were growling, a few sounds that didn't come from the chicks were heard - someone was thumping around on a nearby branch?
20.12 - another short disturbance.
22.45 - something disturbed the chicks, they were all up.
23.15 - something they didn´t like.

Some heavy breathing was heard from one of the chicks. The greatest amount of noise was from 21.36 to 22.15. A few minutes of quiet breathing and it got noisy again at 22.31.

Evening's topic: how do storks see - straight ahead as predator birds or to the sides as prey.
Evening's problem: quoting and posting.


June 9th p.103-107

Five feedings:
Donna 6.59
Donna 8.59
Padis 14.29
Donna 16.25
Donna 20.11

It was a very windy day. Martin wrote:
This wind is getting out of control, I hope it won´t throw the chicks out of the nest. I guess the air traffic is disturbed due to strong wind, all flights are delayed.

Some disturbances again:
12.27 - chicks were growling, looking toward the camera.
12.44 - chicks were alert but silent, still looking down.
12.47 - chicks were completely still, no movement, this was something new.
12.51 - they were still freezed.
13.25 - alarm again.

At 15.40 Jo wrote:
I think we should strike a medal for devoted cam watchers. It could be presented - er - after fledging? In the nest?
Is anyone good at medal design?
Then we should give medals to Urmas for stork and camera care.
To uasdfg for keeping us supplied with videos.
To Joosep Tuvi who was available when we thought Padis was missing.
To Martin, for record keeping.
Any more medallists?

Alarm again at 18.51 - this was such a short-lived event - they settled in about a minute! Maybe there was an animal on the ground that bothered them?
At 19.26 the chicks were looking at someone, no idea who might have been down there.
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Post by visitor »

June 10th p.107-111

Nice day on the nest, no stranger storks, no ravens, chicks were playing stork-games and worked a bit as interior decoration architects.

Five feedings:
Donna 6.36
Padis 9.17
Donna 12.50
Padis 13.29
Donna 19.44

Jo gave some homework to Martin:
I expect Martin is good at comparing and contrasting shapes and structures, so if I send him pics of Donna's head, and pics of Padis's head, he would be able to see what gender differences there are, if any. 5-6 pics of Donna's head and 4 of Padis were sent.

Lili wrote:
I agree, there are definitely differences. Donna`s beak and also neck and legs are thinner. Even the red area around the eyes is different. But as of late they visit so quickly, I have difficults to be sure who is who. That`s why are pictures good, so we can take some time to look afterwards closer.

Renandeli's first post:
A tens of years old nest of Black Stork may be very heavy, weight 1000 kg! This is why the nests sometimes fall down (tells ornitology Maris Strazds, Latvia).

Lili designed a medal:
I think Urmas & Co deserve really an extra medal, that is sure ....I mean real medal, without joke. But I made one for all storkoholics, at least I tried. Don`t wonder why our black stork is yellow on it.... it is because it`s Gold Medal. I think you all are worth of Gold Medal.

Finally it started to rain in the evening. Chicks were soaked, but storkaholics were happy - more rain meant more food. Chicks heard their first thunder.



June 11th p.111-114

Four feedings:
Donna. 6.21
Donna 11.12
Padis 14.23
Donna 17.56

Miss Little was very lively this morning, walking around without any hesitation.

At 8.18 Mr. Big almost left the nest. Martin wrote:
He went to do his lime spray and stepped too close to the edge, at the same time a gust of strong wind hit the nest and he lost his balance and was about to fall over the edge, but luckily he reacted very fast and gained his balance. It was the scariest moment I´ve seen.

Peaceful afternoon, nothing happened on the nest, apart from a lot of wind noise. Chicks were snoozing and that cuckoo was back. It was raining in the evening.

Storkaholics were talking about different voices the chicks do. Jo wrote:
It is a strange noise. We associate it with food, but sometimes it seems to be just general chatter. It's almost a mechanical sound and it hasn't changed over the weeks. Their "other" voice, when there is an alarm, is odd, too!
They change so quickly from being a sleeping bundle, to being up and shouting, then dozing again.
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Post by visitor »

June 12th p.114-120

Rainy morning, chicks were wet, close to each other, legs and beaks crossed. A lot of love between them. No parents with food for 15,5 hours.

Martin wrote:
... he must fly from the nest to foraging area, then feed himself, wait for few hours to digest the food, then forage food for chicks and then fly back. If we knew the flight speed, then we could calculate the aproximate distance. Because of the drought, it must take quite a lot of time to gather enough food, so i think they actually don´t fly very far, but spend most of the time gathering the neccesary amount of food.

The chicks were quite talkative this morning and they had very teenage looking haircut. Mr. Mid was doing most of the vocalizing and there was a moment when it looked like he was taking issue with Mr. Big and Miss Little, and was telling them off.

Four feedings:
Padis 9.32
Donna 12.04 - the food didn't have time to land on the nest!
Padis 14.53
Donna 16.27

Mutikluti wrote:
If Donna feed her chicks, she do with her beak alike ring movements, Padis starts in a moment to feed the chicks.
Jo UK wrote:
Yes. Remember, not long ago, when we commented on the moments waiting before feeding? That doesn't seem to happen now.

13.25 - it started to rain again.
16.47 - the stranger stork visited the nest. The chicks were very noisy, they worked as a team, showing united agression towards the intruder.
17.13 - the stranger flew away.
18.17 - the stranger was back, but this time Padis was there to help his children. Padis`s voice was heard and the stranger left quickly without landing. Storklets were huddled and quiet and seemed unconcerned. Short alarms at 18.34, 18.42 and again after eight o'clock in the evening.

Martin wrote:
I noticed something interesting, when the stranger was lurking, Mr. Big and Mr. Mid were screaming and noding their heads up and down, but Miss Little was quiet, well at least wasn´t nodding her head.

Evening's topic: do Black Storks and the other birds/animals recognize their mates/kids after some months or years.

Martin recalculated the total number of pages to fledging, the new number was 303.



June 13th p.120-123

There was some action around 3 o´clock early in the morning, it lasted quite a while.

A lot of adult storks were visiting the nest this morning, even the most experienced observers were confused and couldn't work out who did what and when. Some opinions:
* At 8.24 Donna fed her teenagers and then saw stranger stork near the nest.
* I think the stranger fed the chicks, cause it´s way too tall to be Donna.
* Even if it was Donna who fed the chicks, then right after she left, 10 seconds later that stranger arrived and flew back and forward 2 times. Few minutes later I could hear some stork screaming far away. What is going on?
* I think also that it was stranger, he/she flew away, then back, probably stayed near, chicks (sorry, young storks) were alert. I think it was the same stork who fed them.
* Well you know, what day today is...Friday 13th, it has it´s charms.
* This nest is dramatic all time

At 9.47 there was a fight between Padis and the stranger. Padis lost the battle but not the war. In half an hour he was back with food for his chicks.

Martin wrote:
I like Padis, he´s such a fearless stork, taking on someone much bigger than he is. I got worried about him a bit after the stranger threw him out of the nest, whether he injured himself or not, but luckily he´s fine.

Five feedings:
Donna 8.22
Padis 10.24
Donna 13.03
Padis 16.18
Donna 17.57

In the evening one chick was having difficulties with breathing, same sound as before. It last all sleeping time, when he woke up, he was breathing normally. It was like one beak acted as brass instrument
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