With the milder temperatures, the storks are also returning from their winter quarters. At least one vanguard is already there, others are taking their time.
Riedlingen (dpa/lsw) – The first white storks have returned to Baden-Württemberg from their winter homes in southwestern Europe. Specimens have been spotted in the Rhine and Neckar valleys or on the Kaiserstuhl, among other places, and they are also back in Riedlingen (Biberach district). “With every period of good weather, a bunch of white storks arrive again,” said the state’s stork commissioner, Judith Opitz. The birds usually cover the distance from central Spain to Baden-Württemberg in seven to eight days.
As soon as they get home, they start building their nests: “As soon as they land in their eyrie, the storks start to freshly pad the family seat,” describes the Nabu expert Ute Reinhard. “When the couples meet again, there is always a lot of rattling and – if the nest is occupied – sometimes a violent argument.” It then only takes a few weeks until the eggs are laid. According to Nabu, storks breed primarily on house roofs, towers, power poles or trees.
The birds arriving from mid-February are only the vanguard. “Spain as a winter quarters has the great advantage of the shorter outward and return flights,” says Reinhard. The storks could start breeding earlier. Birds from the roosts in North Africa are in less of a hurry. Distances of up to 4,500 kilometers lie ahead if they start in Morocco or Mali. Still others spend the entire winter in the Southwest. “In Upper Swabia, for example, around a third of all animals stay there,” said the Nabu.
According to the association, white stork populations have been recovering for several years.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:220226-99-295747/2
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