Hamburg (dpa) – The stork Alexander, equipped with a transmitter, has landed again on the Elbe in the north. The white stork is one of seven tagged storks from Hamburg whose flight movements can be tracked precisely on the internet. “Stork Alexander flew the approximately 1,800 kilometers between Zaragoza and the Vier- und Marschlanden in 21 days, with a maximum daily performance of 338 kilometers,” said the Nature Conservation Union (Nabu) on Tuesday in Hamburg. After crossing the border to Germany, he took a break of several days in Saarland before making his way to Hamburg, it was said.
“I would have thought that he would come on Sunday with the nice weather, but he’s strolling around a bit,” said Hamburg’s stork father, Jürgen Pelch, to the dpa. According to the data on the website, Alexander was last on the road near Schwarmstedt in Lower Saxony on Saturday and has been in Hamburg since Monday.
According to Pelch, three males and one female had settled in Hamburg by then. “I also get regular reports from the Harburg district that a stork has landed again,” said the Nabu stork supervisor. The animals are completely on schedule. “Everything is in the green. It’s starting now. But it’s also going to take a long time. Little by little the storks will come to us until mid-April.”
The rest of the storks equipped with a tracking device by Nabu and Pelch were last in Africa. Sender stork Jan, who overwintered in Egypt, set out three days ago, according to Nabu. Unlike them, the stork Alexander usually only winters in Spain.
When the birds make their way north, they usually fly 300 to 400 kilometers a day. In 2022, 40 of the 50 stork nests in Hamburg were occupied and 30 of the pairs bred successfully.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:230221-99-674741/4
