Black Stork Nest 2 2025

[brofasa]

More preening. Male no.1 is very attentive.


21:48 The male wants to mate but the female rejects him.

21:49 The male preens the female again.
He stops for a bit, then preens her neck again.

21:54 Unsuccessful mating

21:55 The male preens the female.


They preen themselves, then rest.
22:03 The male preens the female.

22:05 Night vision. Both are at home.

Male on the left, female on the right.

[Anne7]

.
May 22nd

Good morning everyone

Male no 1 and the female spent the night on the nest, in harmony.



The male looks tired and somewhat dishevelled. His neck and head are most probably hurting. Not surprising after all that fighting on the nest. And there have probably been fights outside the nest too.



05:28

[Anne7]

.
06:21 The female flies out. He startles.


The male does some nest work.

07:43 The female comes home


Happy greetings.

[Anne7]

.
07:56 The female flies out again.



08:06 She brings moss.


The female starts cleaning the nest bowl, distributing the moss.
08:07 The male wants to mate, she refuses.

08:12 A mating attempt fails. The female isn’t in the mood.

They preen, they rest, do some nest work…

09:21 The female flies out again.
He flies out too.

[Anne7]

.
09:44 Male no 1 is back on the nest and sings



The female comes home a few seconds later.




10:17 Mating


May they have a peaceful and quiet day.

[Askja]

Good morning all!
That's nice, my morning backlog is already cleared; thank you Anne!

Taking over from Anne at 10:18. The female and male No.1 are on the nest, preening themselves.
11:25 they still stand in almost the same position, having slept and preened and slept again.
11:27 the male would like to mate but she evades him step for step.
11:31 he approaches her again but she starts demonstratively preening herself head down.

11:32 Yaaawn... how boring nest life is...


11:43 the male attentively watches his sourroundings; all seems okay so far.


11:51 he still watches to the right side, there must be something.
11:53 female smallish PS
11:55 now both are watching something in front of them
11:56 the female walks onto the side branch, checks the trees around her for a while, and takes off.

12:04 the male stayed on but has intently watched the forest in all directions of the compass since. Now a large shadow moves over the nest, and the male sings briefly.


12:05 Male No.1 flies away.

13:34 Male No.1 is back on the nest, singing.
14:45 Since he came home the male has been standing in the nest, mostly resting, but having a watchful eye on the forest. Something has woken him up - now he sings out towards the front, but nobody is coming.

16:00 he is still standing alone in the nest, sometimes poking a bit in the nest ground but otherwise resting peacefully.

[Askja]

16:25 Male No.1: Big stretch for those rusty bones! - followed by a small PS.


17:00 except for a bit of yoga, no change on the nest. No.1 is still alone.
17:23 the female arrives home and both great each other heartily. Then he lies down in front of her.

17:23 He had been waiting for almost 4 hours... now she's here


17:36 while he lies in the nest she preens his neck and his back. He falls asleep frequently but seems to have kind of a hick-up which wakes him up again. (I have noted all afternoon that he has some annoyance that makes him shake or move his head several times a minute)
17:51 female PS
17:53 mating

17:54 preening and cleaning every possible place


17:56 male PS.
17:58 the female walks onto the side branch, the male works in the nest bowl, then he tries to get some branches back on the rim of the nest.
18:00 the female flies away which takes him by surprise.

[Anne7]

Thanks, Askja

18:06 The male flies out too.



19:01 Male no 1 is back home.

[Anne7]

.
The male is patiently waiting for the female

20:19 Stretching his damaged wing.


20:20 There she is.


Nice greeting.



Good night everyone

Tomorrow and Saturday I won’t be able to help. I will finally be back home on Sunday.

[brofasa]

Hello everyone

Synchronized preening.


20:27 Successful mating
20:39 Unsuccessful mating

The male preens the female.


20:47 The male wants to mate but the female refuses.
20:48 The male wants to mate but the female refuses again.
20:49 Unsuccessful mating

20:51 The male flies away.

The female remains in the nest alone and curiously observes something for a while with long neck.

[brofasa]

The female remains in the nest alone, preening, tending to the nest bowl and resting.


21:29 Female ps
She starts eating something from the nest. Moss, maybe?

21:47 Night vision. The female is alone at home.


22:40 Female ps

[Askja]

Good morning all!

23.05.2025

Our female had a quiet night alone on the nest
02:17 a smallish PS
02:51 the cuckoo is the first in the morning chorus of the forest

~03:00 first signs of the new day's light - a few minutes later the general twittering begins.
03:55 The female has woken up and is preening herself, then another PS and some morning excercises.
04:10 male No.1 arrives at the nest. They greet each other heartily. His right wing was not clearly visible but I could see his 3 dangling hand feathers.

04:10 No.1 arrives.


04:10 Greeting


04:18 the female steps onto the side branch. The male loosens the nest bowl bottom.
04:47 male PS. He is still working in the nest bowl.
04:52 the female comes back into the nest. He wants to mate but she walks away.
04:55 the female flies away, seconds later male No.1 flies away.
04:57 male No.1 arrives, seconds later the female comes in.
04:59 mating, probably failed.

05:02 male No.1 flies away, seconds later the female flies away.

07:00 the nest is still empty.
08:00 Nobody at home. It's raining heavily.
09:00 Still nobody here. Still raining.

09:24 male No.1 arrives back in the nest, singing.

09:24 No.1 looks terribly soaked and battered

[Askja]

10:00 the male still stands there alone in the rain.
10:58 he does a healthy PS. For a few minutes he pokes in the nest bottom, throwing out clots of old plant matter. Rain, rain.

11:21 a dripping No.1 stands in the nest; sometimes he falls asleep.


11:30 for several minutes he catches the insects that are probably fleeing from the drenched nest bottom.

11:33 No.1 sorting out clots of old nest bedding


The camera is stuttering...
11:35 transmission stopped
20:56 camera is back, two BS are on the nest

[brofasa]

20:56 The camera is indeed back.

Two black storks are home.

I am not sure which male it is. He has his back turned to us. But I think I can see some traces of the damaged neck feathers.
Might be male no.1.

They are resting and preening themselves occasionally.

22:08 Night vision. Both are home.
And it is indeed male no.1.


22:09 Male ps
22:12 Female ps

Scratch scratch scratch...


Good night everyone!

[Askja]

Good morning all

24.05.2025

Our storks have spent another quiet night together on the nest. The female remained standing on her branch all night.
03:10 they wake up and start preening but then decide to rest a bit longer.
03:37 is it proper wake-up time now? The female comes back into the nest and does a PS.
03:39 the male does a PS.
03:43 the female perceives a mating advance even before it becomes obvious, walks a round around the nest, then hops onto her branch again.
04:37 they have slept for another hour, now the male does a PS and a stretch but goes back to sleep.

05:03 daylight vision

05:03 the female is catching insects from the air for an early breakfast


05:08 male No.1 wakes up, loosens his wings, does a PS.
05:10 he digs in the nest for a while, then works on twigs and branches.
05:20 the female flies away, from her branch to the front left. The male comments her departure with loud singing...
05:21 ... which brings her back immediately.

05:23 she hops onto the farther side branch. The male lies down in the nest.
05:26 he gets up and does some more nest work, but he's not very enthusiastic about it.
05:40 strange: he does an exercise like young birds do when training their wings.

05:40 Unusual for an adult? wing exercise


06:21, 06:43 male smallish PS
Time goes by with preening, nest work or just standing about.

06:51 the female flutters back into the nest. The male flies away.
06:53 male No.1 is back; he has brought a small branch.
06:54 he approaches her for a mating. She tries to escape but he does it anyway. Unsuccessfully, though.
06:56 the male flies away.
06:58 he is back with a larger branch.

06:58 Um... you need to take your feet off the branch!


07:01 the male flies away
07:06 he is back with another little branch.
07:07 the female flies off into the forest. This time he doesn't call after her.
07:56 he has been standing like petrified since the female had flown away. Now he does a PS and starts singing. Then he resumes his nest work.

09:00 the male is still alone in the nest. Time has gone by with standing about and preening. Now he is singing again.
09:30 the male starts singing loud and long...
09:32 ... and here she comes - she cannot have been far away. Friendly greeting, and a PS from the female. A minute later she walks onto her branch again.
09:40 the female flies away.
09:41 the male flies away.

Note: In some of the departures/arrivals of the male I have not been able to see his right wing clearly. Only when I write "No.1" I have really seen the gap.

11:00 still nobody at home.
14:00 the nest is still empty. The weather has turned rainy and windy.
18:00 still nobody here. Still raining.

[Anne7]

.
Good evening everyone

Thanks, Askja and Brofasa

19:39:59 Male no.1 comes home. He looks wet.


He stands almost motionless in the nest bowl, waiting for the female.

I have a feeling he is still not feeling well. He still looks battered and tired. Presumably he has bruises all over his body, and a sore neck and head.

20:15:30 Seconds before the camera went down.


20:15 The camera is turned off.
That was to be expected with this rainy weather.

[Anne7]

May 28th
Hi everyone

14:57 The camera is back!
Nobody at home.

16:15 A BS arrives and sings
Is this male #1? I will try to find out.

No, it isn't Male #1. No gap in the right wing. No damaged neck feathers either.
So this is probably Male #2.

16:15:45


He seems to be wary and looks up.


I fear that the presence of Male #2 on the nest means that, while the camera was off, there have been more battles, again.

He rearranges a stick in the nest.


The male looks around somewhat nervously.

[Anne7]

.
He goes onto the side branch

The male observes the surroundings.


16:24 He leaves

[Anne7]

.
18:04 A BS flies in. No gap in the wing. Probably #2 again


He calls


Moving or shaking a few sticks on the nest rim



He does some nestwork, he rearranges sticks, he preens, he rests.
He dozes off, standing on 1 leg in the nestbowl.

19:07 A medium PS, and then again resting while standing on 1 leg.

[Anne7]

.
19:58 the male flies out.

Empty nest