The Summer Is Over, Young Storks Flew To South

Three of four young black storks that have been monitored in the Project African Odyssey left the nest definitively and now they are "on the road". Male stork named Otakar flew as far as 170 km on Friday afternoon and finally stopped at the czech-austrian borderline. Female stork Sissi reached the Traunsee lake in Austria on Friday evening (230 km far). At last male stork Vaclav was located in south-eastern Germany (close to the Salzburg area) on Monday morning, about 250 km from the nest.
The young storks left the nest for the very first time not more than two weeks ago. The reason they left the nesting place so soon might be this pleasant weather we are having in these days. Thus, they could easily fly using ascending air flows. Also, some other storks migrating-by might have encourage them to go. What we do not know is whether all the young storks keep flying together; on Friday noon, all of them have been surprisingly located ten kilometers far from the nest.
Yesterday, parent male stork Krystof stayed near the nest; no information about female stork Dominika are available so far.
The African Odyssey project is organized by the Czech Radio 2 - PRAHA. This radio station provides information about the storks on a regular basis (the Dobre jitro show on Mondays, the Meteor show, website http://capi.internet.cz). The satellite monitoring system is sponsored by DHL International Czech Republic and Kooperativa, pojišťovna a.s.
Miroslav Bobek
Head of the African Odyssey Project

Who Is Flying?

We again monitor the entire stork family during the 1999-2000 period.
Dominika, mother of Otakar, Karel and Vaclav; she was equipped with a communication set consisting of satellite and ground transmitter by the end of the July, 1999; However, her nest had been monitored in details before.
Krystof, nesting partner of Dominika; he was equipped with transmitters in the middle of July, 1999.
Otakar - the oldest young stork of Dominika and Krystof; born on the 3rd of June, 1999.
Karel - the middle young stork of Dominika and Krystof; born on the 4th of June, 1999.
Vaclav - the youngest stork from all; born on the 5th of June, 1999.
Sissi - born in the end of May, 1999 in Alpenzoo, Innsbruck; re-settled into the nest of Dominika and Krystof on the 6th of July, 1999;
both parent storks and young storks accepted her without any problems; her first flight from the nest was registered on the 9th of August.


Texts by Miroslav Bobek and František Pojer
Photo by Khalil Baalbaki, Gérard Jadoul and archive of Africka odysea
Design by Tom Vild
Page by Lenka Hampapová
Supported by the company Internet servis, a.s.

Africkaodysea@Internet.cz