Although later than usual, the stork nest in Vlaha finally welcomed its new occupants on the 10th of April. At 3:14 p.m., the first stork landed on the nest, and, as our live webcam recorded, just four minutes later there were already two birds standing together. The time-lapse footage shows that they wasted no time settling in—the first mating took place shortly afterwards, and by the end of the day the camera had captured three mating events.
The pair also got straight to work repairing their home. Within just a few days, they had filled in most of the large gap on the eastern side of the nest that had remained after the clean-up at the end of February.
Of course, these were not the first storks to visit the Vlaha nest this year. Several birds had stopped by briefly to rest before continuing their journey, with the webcam recording passing visitors on the 27th and 31st of March, and again on the 4th of April.
Even a casual observer can see that neither member of the newly arrived pair is ringed. This means we can say with certainty that they are not the male from Dumbrăvioara and his mate, who occupied the nest from May until the autumn migration last year.
Looking back over the past twenty years, we have never recorded such a late arrival in Vlaha. In previous years, there were a few cases where a stork arriving in the second half of March did not find a mate until mid-April, and in one exceptional year not until June.
Based on the assessment we published last year, we can confidently say that the nest has still been occupied in good time. There is plenty of time left for the pair to lay eggs, hatch their chicks, and successfully raise them before the autumn migration begins.