All signs point to there being no stork chicks in the Vlaha nest this year either. The adult storks are still diligently taking turns incubating the egg, but if there were a live chick inside, it should have hatched several days ago.
We have been able to look into the Vlaha nest through our webcam since 2017. Every year since then, we have recorded the dates when the eggs were laid and when the chicks hatched. In six years, the first chicks hatched on the 34th day of incubation, and in two years they emerged on the 36th day.
This year, the eggs were laid relatively late, on the 22nd, 24th and 26th of April, but that was not the biggest problem. The unexpected return from last year's resident completely disrupted the usual course of events. During the hour-and-a-half rampage by ringed stork 8031 on the 3rd of May, the bird threw two eggs out of the nest. The third was saved from the fall only by the branches along the edge of the nest. The devoted parents later managed to push this egg back into the centre of the nest, and it is the one they are still incubating today.
We do not know which of the three original eggs survived, but based on everything we have observed over the years, even if it were the third egg, it should have hatched by the 1st of June at the latest.
And so we wait, with heavy hearts, for the moment when the stork pair finally realizes that there is no longer any life inside the egg they have cared for so devotedly.