looduskalender.ee

Mr. Middle and Miss Little—as the two storks still in the nest are known to many stork-camera viewers—are obviously ready to begin their first and most dangerous fall journey. But the weather has not been ideal for flying. It's been warm and rainy both night and day. The older birds don't want to fly in the rain; rather they huddle on a branch somewhere.

We'll soon see if both younger chicks depart together like last year. Based on the latest morning flight training, one might guess that Mr. Middle will fly away alone…

Many have asked where are Mr. Big and Padis. If someone knew, we would have written about it. The older chick's early departure was not a surprise—the same happened last year, and the formerly lost chicks were only recently seen (in Latvia). The real worry is Padis' early disappearance. Last year Donna left two weeks earlier and we knew that mother birds do depart earlier. Of course, it's possible that our knowledge isn't perfect…

But for the moment, in Estonia there are 12 black storks with transmitters, four of them chicks which hatched this year. Saaremaa Priit's (whose misadventures you may read about here) wife, Piia, has already made it to Romania, and their chick with a transmitter is in Latvia. Raivo's chick, who is wearing his transmitter for the third year, has flown where there's better weather—Russia has high pressure areas and is dry. But he didn't like it there.

Two chicks with transmitters (one of them Mr. Middle) are still waiting in the nest for just the right time.