In the heart of Tudela, next to bell tower of the old church of Santa María in the Plaza de los Fueros, a stork couple take care of their three young. In these first weeks of life, they warm them at night, feed them during the day and expand the nest while waiting for the little stilts to take the next step in their development: to fly away.
This whole process can be followed live on the Internet thanks to the initiative launched by the empresa local Triple D, dedicated to the installation of deterrent systems for birds (Rotwind) designed to avoid the risk of electrocution in certain places where they build nests.
This is the third edition of this particular ‘Big Brother’ that can be followed through the YouTube channel ‘Rotwind’. A channel that will continue to broadcast ‘life live’ in this nest until, with the arrival of next autumn, the storks leave it to seek warmer climates.
IN YOUR WATCHTOWER
In order to carry out this broadcast, the person in charge of Triple D, Roberto Iriz, has a camera in the steeple of the aforementioned church that, on this occasion, has a remote control turning system that allows you to move the lens from your own home and, thus, capture various shots.
As Iriz explains, the pair of storks that inhabit this nest is the same that did in the previous two years. They are Mejana (the female) and Ribotas (the male) who, for another year, have had offspring in Tudela with three young that, according to her indications, “do not stop growing.”
In order to carry out this new edition of his ‘Big Brother’Iriz has had the collaboration of the Nuestra Señora de Gracia residence (La Milagrosa), which has allowed him to climb the church bell tower to place the camera; and the Inspirazzione perfume store, located in the Plaza de los Fueros, which provides Iriz with Internet connection.
CLOSE TO 800 FOLLOWERS
The Rotwind YouTube channel It has about 800 subscribers and, since its opening in 2019, it has already exceeded 180,000 views from all over the world. “Obviously, most of the canal’s visitors are from Spain, but there are also many from other European countries such as France, Germany or Poland,” says Iriz.
“At any time of the day there are people connected watching what happens in the nest. In addition, as there is the possibility to post comments, interesting conversations are generated between the visitors to the page that are very gratifying, because they show me that there is real interest in this initiative and that people enjoy watching the evolution of the storks ”, says Iriz , who highlights that this ‘network’ of fixed followers that the channel has also serves to alert you of any incident that may occur in the nest. “Like on that occasion when a user saw how a cigoñino had become entangled with a rope, after which I went up and released him,” recalls Iriz.
RING AND GPS
The arrival of the coronavirus pandemic andAt the beginning of the confinement, Iriz was forced to give up ringing or the placement of a GPS tracker of the pair of storks that are the protagonists of this project.
“When the cold season of the year begins, the storks head south in search of warmer temperatures than those we usually have in Tudela”, explains the man from Tudela. “If they find an appropriate place and with enough food, they usually stay in different areas of Andalusia, but if not, some storks come to Morocco,” says Iriz, who hopes that this year, with a more relaxed situation from the point of health view, “can resume this goal and have institutional support to be able to follow up on our pair of storks.”
The ‘christening’ of the babies, in a school in Vigo
Just as last year it was the students of the Anunciata school in Tudela who had the opportunity to name the babies born in the nest of the Plaza de los Fueros, this time they were the children of an educational center in Vigo those who have had this honor. Those responsible for the Galician school contacted the promoter of this initiative, Roberto Iriz, to indicate that the center was monitoring life in the nest as a teaching activity. Thus, the students of this school chose for the three babies such Galician names as Vigo, Cíes and Rande.
– .
