looduskalender.ee

White stork in sheep flock

 

 

Less than a  month ago white storks were diligently busy on roadsides, but in the beginning of September we only meet a few stray birds. White storks always leave somehow suddenly – they behave as if there were no hurry to go anywhere and then one morning you suddenly notice that you have not seen the birds for several days...

 

In Estonia a white stork pair nested for the first time in Vastseliina in 1841 and this nest is in use to this day. Nesters are estimated to be around 5000 pairs in Estonia and the population trend is rising already since decades.

 

They spend the winter in tropical Africa and it is interesting to know that the first to migrate are the young birds that hatched this year: the migration urge is so strongly implanted in the genes. They arrive at the wintering grounds by way of Turkey and the Eastern Mediterranean; migration across open sea is avoided.