Goodbyes of Cico and Luna
After their young ones have left, the parent storks Cico and Luna have embarked on their journey to the winter quarter regions. Luna bade farewell in the forenoon of August 19th and Cico a day later. During the last week the storks, by repeated clatter of their beaks and copulations, enforced their claim on the brood location. With the trek to Africa the family ties are dissolved and if everything turns out well Cico and Luna will meet again in the coming year in Vetschau/Spree Forest.
In the meantime most storks of Lower Lusatia have embarked to their winter quarter regions. As Cico and Luna, about 75% of German white storks, take the easterly route to Africa. The flight route of most storks passes over the Bosporus in Turkey, to Sudan further to Tanzania and even as far as South Africa. After arriving here they have covered a distance of about 6,250 miles (10,000 km) only to have a short rest period before it is time to for the return trip. Those interested in further information regarding the routes of flight of white storks can find it at the Internet site
www.nabu.de.
In the middle of September the camera will be removed, cleaned and serviced in order for it to be replaced before our storks will return to their brood homeland. We will again get glimpses into the life of a stork as well as savour fascinating and moving shots of the upbringing of young storks.
"Bon voyage"
Since July the 23rd one of the young storks of the Vetschau Internet Storks has not returned to the eyrie. On August the 11th the remaining three young storks bade farewell to Vetschau/Spree Forest to embark on their first long journey.
The young storks gather in groups and fly without leadership from their parents to the winter quarters in Africa. Their adolescence until full maturity in two to three years time they will stay there. Only then will they return to build nests. At the ages of three to five years, occasionally even later, the white stork breed will for the first time.
The parent storks, "Cico" and "Luna" are still at the eyrie to stay overnight sporadically. They "fatten" themselves to increase their weights to have sufficient reserves for their own migration.
We extend our best wishes to our young storks, "Klappi", "Twiggi", Friedrich" and "Paula" and hope to recognize them by their bands sometime in the future.
We would wish that the best breeding result since the establishment of the eyrie at Vetschau of four fledgling storks could be repeated in the coming year. For this we have to maintain sufficient feeding areas for white storks as well as the whole manifold of species.
