Black Stork Nests in Europe

[asteria]

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3826264924277258

The only storklet Kinderek(the sibling did not survive) from Tytan's nest was fed and taken away to the resque station. Its mom already left the nest and Tytan fed the chick only once or twice a day, it is not enough. Kinderek is 40 days old but weights only 1500 g, while storklets of this age should weight 2000 g. In this situation it is the only chance to save the storklet.

[asteria]

Saving Kinderek: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUIpj7x4w9E

On July 23, 2024, the KOO, together with the Regional Directorate for Environmental Protection in Poznań and the Wolsztyn Forest District, made a very difficult decision to remove a black stork chick from its natural nest on the 37th day of its life. In the case of this species, this is the first such intervention in Poland. The nest tree is half dry, so it was impossible to risk people's health and life by entering the nest using arboricultural techniques. Therefore, a small lift was used, thanks to which specialists from KOO safely caught the hatchling, fed it with small live fish and transported it over 300 km to the wild animal rehabilitation center in Koło near Piotrków Trybunalski. It was the only chick of the pair, which started late breeding only in mid-May (May 13 - 1 egg). Two chicks hatched on June 16, one of them was eaten dead the next day by the male. Until July 12, the breeding was successful, but after heavy storms (50 l / 1 m2), the female probably fed only once and only the male continued to feed. Over the next 10 days, there was a major regression in the food supply, which was delivered only twice a day, and for the last three days only once a day (https://www.ciconianigra.sk/viewtopic.... Due to the heat wave , the chick was at risk of dehydration and starvation in front of thousands of Internet users who were emotionally attached to Kinderek. For the female, it was the first breeding season in this place and she probably did not know the nearby feeding grounds well. It is not certain whether the male had changed at the beginning of the season as a result of fights for the nest (birds without rings). The male who occupied this nest with Skierka in 2021 fed well and fed 2 young ones. Research using loggers shows that young storks from late breeding are usually in poor condition and not they survive: they either die of hunger at the end of the breeding season or in the first days of migration. Despite the principle of non-interference during online transmissions adopted by the KOO, further observations of this breeding point no longer make sense for humanitarian reasons (our humanism). Due to selection and natural selection, saving didn't make sense either. At 37 days of age, the chick weighed only 1.5 kg, when under normal circumstances and in a better habitat it should have weighed from 2 kg to 2.5 kg (five chicks in Bolewice, aged 45-47 days, weighed 3 kg each!). We believe that taking a young stork in the middle (!) of the nestling stage and placing it in a rehabilitation center gives it a chance to compensate for its current underdevelopment (see: • Widespread upright positioning of chicks in Bolew...) and restore it to nature. Protection of the black stork should not consist in spectacular rescue of individual individuals, but in systemic care for their breeding sites (old trees) and feeding base: maintaining oxbow lakes, refraining from desilting rivers and mid-field ditches and canals, maintaining floodplains, wet meadows, swamps and peat bogs.
Dariusz Anderwald

It looks like Tytan knew that Kinderek was taken away, probably he saw that. Tytan did not look worried, appeared in the nest to prepare it for the next season and left. After that a goshawk visited the empty nest.

[asteria]

The nest of Skierka is now empty, all the five kids left it.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=472553995517523

[asteria]

https://www.facebook.com/10006479154604 ... 936232966/
Kinderek is doing fine. He eats a dozen or so fish a day. Next week he will be moved to a large aviary and will remain there.

[asteria]

Kinderek is getting darker
https://www.facebook.com/10006479154604 ... 5822974067

[Jshallri]

Kinderek is getting darker
https://www.facebook.com/10006479154604 ... 5822974067

How nice to see him thriving under care!

More and more I am convinced that rescuing him was the proper course of action. Otherwise he would’ve starved to death or been predated.

[Liz01]

They want to release him into freedom. From my point of view, there is far too much human contact. Nothing compared to what Dr. Madis did with our Jan and Janika chicks. Here I see the danger that he will not survive his freedom.

[asteria]

Apart from weighting they do the same thing as people saving eliminated white storklets(and then successfully released them), but the problem is that Kinderek hatched too late and grew slower than ordinary storklets. It is not known when he is able to fledge. If it happens too late, hardly he will be released this fall.

[asteria]

Yesterday the storklets of Tonik&Tonicka were released to nature. This year they didn't get transmitters.
https://www.facebook.com/liborZmakova/v ... 281454518/

[asteria]

Kinderek at the age of 62 days in the Center in Koło.
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=83 ... 9896600362

Unfortunately he is not ready to be released on September,1.

[asteria]

Kinderek is exploring the world
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php? ... 4791546042

[asteria]

Kinderek is still not ready to start his fall migration, so he stays wintering in Kolo with one more young black stork.
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/8Pcnkj ... tid=xfxF2i

[asteria]

The first flight of Kinderek.

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/yUToDc ... tid=D5vuiz

[asteria]

Tonik and Tonichka moved to their winter aviary.
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php? ... 4821425598