Follow the storks
Most of our storks left Poland and now are on the way to Africa. Some of them achieved the Sahel, and they will stay there for several weeks. Unfortunately, many others finished the migration in tragic circumstances. Many died just a few days after they start flying, in the nearest vicinity of the nest, which supports our earlier study about early postflegling mortality (Tobolka 2014). Another big group of dead stork was in the very early stage of the migration. Until now, 21 out of 54 juvenile storks died: 14 in Poland, 1 in Ukraine, 4 in Romania and 2 in Bulgaria. Only in three cases, the cause of death was natural (killed by an avian predator). Remaining 18 was anthropogenic (mostly electrocution on medium voltage power lines). Błażej and Marcin, last week went to Romania and Bulgaria to collect the transmitters and record the cause of death. There were many, many more dead storks in these localities.
