The Birthdays Continue, 15th of July
Photos by Mutikluti
It rained half the night and finally let up at three a.m. Air temperatures were 13 degrees. The middle chick's birthday weather was fair and dry, temperatures above 20 degrees and all were fed well. Within two month in nest are happen great changes:
Documented data says black storks' first flight is generally between the 56th and 71st days of life. Today's birthday boy has the best chances for being the first to see the big new world.
Past years' experience would indicate that the first flight won't happen in the very near future—it's possible that the rainy weather has allowed too few feeding opportunities for the chicks, and the cool conditions also deplete the chicks of energy they would otherwise use elsewhere in their development. I don't recall that last year being nearly this rainy. This year we have several four-chick nests in Estonia, in two of which one chick has recently starved to death, and in one nest only one chick has survived. In light of this, Donna's spring "regulating activity" was the right thing to do.
Wednesday we may experience some difficulties with our signal transmission.
