Young Weistrians gather in large groups to prepare for the trip to Africa – for example in Neuchâtel.
(sh). Around 80 streaks strut on Tuesday morning in a field on the edge of Neuchâtel. The day before there was an almost as large group on the way. There have been more trees to be seen in the area lately than before, but this crowd is an unfamiliar sight that amazes motorists and gassigngers take pictures. What’s going on there?
“They’re heading south,” explains Gustav Bickel from the Weistorch Breisgau association, which also rings the birds in Markgrflerland. There were plenty of offspring this year, for example in Neuchâtel and Mllheim, but also elsewhere in the region: “In Breisgau we had 248 youngsters,” says Gustav Bickel. There were also good breeding successes in previous years. About a quarter of the young birds come back when they are sexually mature. “And so many old people don’t die.” And so the stock grows. In Mllheim there used to be a pair of storks, this year a third has settled down and they all need nests.
The Strche troop from Neuchâtel are young birds from the area. The farmers are currently working in the fields, which also brings muse to the surface – a found food. “The young move in early to mid-August, some of the old ones are still sitting on the nest,” says Gustav Bickel. The “young gang”, as he calls them, have to prepare for the long journey to Africa – for example, that they have to spend the night in a tree on the way. In Bickel’s home town of Freiburg-Opfingen, he last saw the young Strche sitting on a lamp on the tennis court. Also in Reute, where the association released 33 young storks from its breeding station, some have already disappeared, as well as a bird made of wood.
The chairman of the association uses an app to observe birds that have not just been given a ring but a transmitter – “where they are and whether they have flown,” explains Bickel. “Then it shows a suitcase symbol.” He saved some of them as favorites, one covered 220 kilometers on Sunday and another 170 on Monday. The Weistorch flew with others through the Rhone Valley and is now on the Mediterranean.
Animal Tracker is a free app for smartphones that shows the positions of animals wearing GPS transmitters. Users can choose a section of the world map or the type of animal – from the African bush elephant to the pygmy snow goose.
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