In the early morning light we saw the first egg in the nest

Black stork        Must-toonekurg          Ciconia nigra     

Looking back a little in time: male Karl arrived at the nest on April 4. He was more or less ready with the renovation of the nest in the morning of April 4, when female Kati arrived.

The black stork pair had not seen each other since the departure last year.  Nice pleasure to meet again, in this world full of dangers. The days passed with checking the familiar surroundings as well as basic breeding actions

Tonight the female laid the first egg. The weather is cold at night, at a guess 5 degrees minus in the air and a slight snowfall. There was frost on the back plumage of the black storks which shows the good thermal insulation of the feathers – the frost did not melt. As the morning light came, the male already sat warming the egg (he is equipped with a radio transmitter and a leg ring).

The monitoring device on Karl’s back shows that this spring he goes up to 10 km away for foraging and mainly at so called   frog ponds – places where frogs prepare to spawn. In flowing waters the water level is too high for catching fish and it is not easy to capture a prey.

Despite the sunny weather, warmth  is not promised by the meteorologists before the end of April – nice if they were to turn out somewhat wrong …