One of the baby storks died in the nest in Vlaha on Friday 19 May. At its last feeding on Wednesday evening, everything seemed to be fine, but by early Friday morning it had stopped moving. Throughout the day, hay had been put on its head several times. Saturday morning at 6:15 Leske threw the carcass out of the nest.
The last time we recorded a similar case was in 2017.
The first two storks hatched in the nest of Vlaha on Tuesday morning, the 9th of May. This time the parents clutched for 36 days after the first egg was laid. Of course, the calendar is relative, as Leske laid the eggs shortly before midnight. If she had only laid them a couple of hours later, they would have been counted on a different day. Nor do we know exactly when during the night the eggshell was broken. In fact, at 6.16 a.m. the heads were already moving. So it is possible that the 34 days were only delayed by a few hours this time.
A strange incident was observed on 30 April between 14:11 and 14:13 near the stork nest in Vlaha. Leske was clutching eggs when four storks circling high above approached the nest. Two of them descended, one of them even landed on the nest and, together with Leske, scared away the other descender by loud bill clattering. It was then confirmed that Miska was the stork that had landed on the nest.
Leske and Miska are clutching five eggs in the nest of Vlaha, and it seems certain that the number of eggs will not increase. In the late evening of 3 April, Leske laid her first egg and, as we have seen in recent years, every other day after that Leske has laid another egg, always in the same 21:30 - 23:00 time slot. A sixth egg would have been laid on the evening of April 13th, but this did end up happening. They were happy with five eggs.
On Monday, 3 April at 23:06 Leske laid the first egg of the year. The weather was not kind to the pair, and a few hours later it started to snow, covering the nest with several centimetres of snow. The storks did not protect the egg and it was covered in snow. As we have become accustomed to, the clutching only starts when there are 2-3 eggs in the nest. In recent years, the first egg has been followed by another egg in the nest every two days. In the next few days we will see if the winter weather will change the reproductive schedule of the stork family.
Dear Biology teachers!
Would you like to give your students an interesting and fun project?
Three years ago, during the pandemic and online school, the Clujbird.ro team created its stork monitoring plan. The plan shows what exactly can be observed trough the live video broadcast from the stork nest in Vlaha.
We didn't have to wait long for this year's meeting. On Friday, 24th of March at sundown, the second stork has arrived on the nest in Vlaha. The odds are that the first stork was last year's Miska, and the second one was last year's Leske, but we can't know for certain.
On Wednesday, 22 March at 19:29, the first stork of the year landed on the nest of Vlaha. He immediately announced his arrival with loud bill-clattering, and started to repair the nest. In the coming days we will try to identify whether if this is the same stork as last year's.
We hope that the stork pair, whose daily life we have been following live on this website since, is on its way home and will soon arrive to their nest at Vlaha. The same couple or a different one? We don't know for sure. We've been keeping records of the nest's storks since 2007, but we've only been able to closely observe them in the last six years, after the installation of the webcam above their nest, which we shared with the people through the World Wide Web.
It now seems certain that the storks have left the Vlaha nest after this year's successful breeding and
rearing. The last time we saw a stork in the nest was on the night of August 11, but it also disappeared in the early hours of the morning.
As usual, at the end of July and beginning of August, the events in the nest accelerated. Two days after the flight of the first youngling on July 17, on July 19, its siblings took their first flight as well.
One of the young storks left the Vlaha nest for the first time on the morning of Sunday, July 17. As can be seen from the time lapse images, the bravest chick was only absent from the nest for two minutes at 6:13, then a longer absence followed from 8:01 to 8:50. The adventurous little one also missed the 8:06 feeding. However, he did not want to miss the 8:50 feeding. At that time, he arrived at the nest at the same time as the parent bringing the food. During his absence, he watched for a while from the roof of the neighboring house, wondering how he would be able to fly back.
On Tuesday, June 21, we ringed the little storks rearing in the nest in Magyarfenes. About 25 children were accompanied by their parents and grandparents to the event. They also had the opportunity to pet one of the young storks brought down for ringing. All storks have a metal ring on their left leg, which helps in identification if the bird dies, and someone finds its remains. A white plastic cylinder on which a four-digit number was written in black was placed on the right leg. This number can also be read from a photograph, so it is also suitable for identifying the living stork.
Just one week in after the baby storks hatched, we can almost be certain that the last egg was not viable. This means only 4 of the hatchlings will get a chance to develop in the Vlaha nest.
The number is considered average, the past few years there were also 4 young storks hatching in this nest, although only 2 times in the past 5 years the parents managed to raise all four of them.
During this week the two adult storks started to bring less and less food to the nest in Magyarfenes/Vlaha so the chicks were forced to take care of themselves. On Tuesday Leske and Miska’s catering service functioned well still. On the photos taken by the camera at 10:22, 13:36, 16:04, 17:32, 19:36 minutes and at 20:54 at night it is visible that the young storks are standing in a circle around an adult stork, that - we thought - brought food to them. From Wednesday these kind of scenes were dropping out and they took the shape for eating at 17:22, 18:42, 19:34 and at 20:06, 21:48.
On Tuesday, on the 21st of July the nest has become completely empty, which means that also the smallest stork, the 8310 one flew also from the nest. One of the followers of our website announced us on Monday, that he has seen the nest empty for a second but this takeoff must have been so short that the time lapse of our website - that connects pictures taken every two minutes – has not imortalized it. The takeoff from Tuesday lasted longer: the little storks have left the nest one by one which meant that between 14:14 and 14:38 the nest completely emptied.
The first little stork has flewn out from the Magyarfenes/Vlaha nest on Wednesday, the 15th of July at night. As it is shown from the website’s time lapse one of the little storks left the nest at 18:34 and he returned a couple of minutes after 19o’clock. In the meantime he missed a meal, that was served by Leske for the rest of the little ones left in the nest. We thank a follower of the website that he drew our attention upon the news.
The little storks raised in the stork nest of Magyarfenes/Vlaha are spreading their wings. In the last two years the first flying happened on the 14th and 16th of July, three years ago we recorded the first leaving of the nest o the 27th of July. The nestlings have been training for the last week, they are alternately preparing for the flying. They are moing their wings rising to about a metre high and they drop back down. The parents repeatedly call them with loud clattering from the neighboring electricity pylons and rooftops. The little ones are almost the size of their parents.
On Monday morning within the framework of the ringing program of the Milvus Group – Bird and Nature Protection Association we ringed the stork chicks growing up in the nest in Magyarfenes/Vlaha. The storks received a small metallic tag mounted on the left leg, with the inscription “Romania” and an individual number. The bigger, white cylinder where there is a black number readable with a telescope was mounted on the right leg, on the thigh. The storks ringed in Magyarfenes/Vlaha received the numbers 8307, 8308, 8309 and 8310.
The staff of the Milvus Group – Bird and Nature Protection Association took a photo at the border of Beszterce-Naszód/Bistrița-Năsăud and Maros/Mureș counties, near the pond close to Budurló/Budurleni of a stork ringed in 2018, that grew up in the Magyarfenes/Vlaha nest. The stork wearing the ring number 7250, together with another 40 storks was looking for food on the meadow close to the lake. There were another two ringed storks in the group.
Not even a month has passed since the first stork chick hatched in the nest in Magyarfenes/Vlaha and the four little ones are already trying to break their wings. The rhythm of their development is astonishing. They are almost half the size of the adult storks.
On Wednesday night, June the 3rd the baby storks growing up in the Magyarfenes/Vlaha nest were left for the first time on their own by their parents. The nestlings, from the breaking if the eggs could continuously enjoy the warmth and protection of the adult storks for 19 days. During the day two showers ran through the village, in both cases one of the adult storks protected the nestlings with his wings. At night the sun came out so both, Leske and Miska left to find some food. First Leske brought some food to the nest.
Berzele noastre au avut grijă ca și de Paștele Ortodox să avem un nou ou. În data de 18 aprilie, în zori, Leske a depus și cel de-al patrulea ou în cuibul de la Vlaha. În timp ce, în urmă cu două zile, cel de-al treilea ou a sosit în cuib încă înainte de ora 22, de data aceasta a trecut de miezul nopții și încă nu a sosit noul ou.
În decursul serii, Miska a fost cel care a stat mai mult pe ouă. Leske stătea în picioare, lângă el. Cu puțin timp înainte de miezul nopții a tot umblat cu ciocul pe Miska, până ce masculul i-a cedat locul. Apoi a putut sosi și cel de-al patrulea ou.
În data de 13 aprilie, în a doua zi a Paștelui Catolic, în jurul orei 22, Leske a depus și cel de-al doilea ou. Le mulțumim celor care au urmărit în direct evenimentul și ne-au anunțat de îndată despre noutăți. Noi ouă sunt așteptate la data de 15, 17 și 19 aprilie.
Perechea de berze muncește foarte harnică la amenajarea cuibului, mai ales în orele dimineții. În sfârșit au reușit să aducă și niște crengi cu o formă mai potrivită și care nu cad de îndată de pe cuib.
La 11 aprilie, în sâmbăta Paștelui Catolic, seara târziu, Leske a depus în cuibul de la Vlaha primul ei ou din acest an. De data aceasta perechea sa, Miska, nu a avut suspiciuni de infidelitate, așa că oul a rămas în cuib. Cei care au urmărit evenimentele de anul trecut știu că Leske a avut în 2019, înainte de sosirea lui Miska, o aventură de o noapte, cu o barză aflată în trecere. Într-un mod cu totul inexplicabil pentru noi, Miska și-a dat seama de acest lucru, astfel că a aruncat primele două ouă din cuib.
Text only in Romanian: