Bad Freienwalde/Vetschau - With the first warm rays of sun return, the first storks from their winter quarters. In some places, you can expect a nasty Surprise: their nests are already occupied. And while not as before by the other storks that were a little faster, but by Nile geese.
however, not directly from Africa but have been bred in the Netherlands and North Rhine-Westphalia, says Bernd Ludwig. He directs for many years, the working group "white stork protection" at the Naturschutzbund (Nabu) Brandenburg: "Eventually, the geese have been exposed to or are loose and have increased since then. In some areas they are a big Problem because they attack the incoming storks aggressive, and from their nesting grounds were distribute.“
Nile geese are a little goose, smaller than gray and red wing feathers to fall by their light - gray body coloring, as well as rust or brown, but her brown eyes spots. In Brandenburg, there have so far only occasionally – for example, in the Prignitz and in Großbeeren – fighting between Nilgänsen and storks returned, says Ludwig. In neighboring Saxony, the staff of the conservation Institute in Dresden, in my opinion, even Alarm.
In the state of Brandenburg is a lack of more stork nests"I read about it," says Winfried Böhmer, once established, the white stork centre in Vetschau with the famous Internet camera over the Horst: "But in Brandenburg, unfortunately, we have been for years declining Numbers of breeding storks. And a very large supply of nesting sites. There should, in spite of the Nile geese for each Pair a, Horst.“
daily mirror people for Free orderHowever, we the majority of the Brandenburg storks in a few weeks, come back, says Böhmer: "you are Ostzieher, which means they fly over the Balkans, Turkey and the Bosporus, especially to North and East Africa, while many of the storks from Western and Central Germany to pull through the Strait of Gibraltar to West Africa or even in Spain in the winter.“
One of the Latter of the state of Brandenburg is famous stork "Kurt Chen red Abel". "He's already been spotted about two weeks ago, back in his Nest in the bathroom were free of the forest," says Gisela Ziehm from the naturschutzbund upper Barnim: "It is a little strange that we can welcome almost every year the first stork of the state of Brandenburg." That it was the same Kurt Chen red is, in fact, for years, always profitable, doubts Gisela Ziehm. The same applies to its companion, "Erna tail feather".
In some areas, aggressive Nile geese distribute the returning storks from the nests.Photo: imago/McPHOTO"We have given our first stork pair of years ago these names to remember Kurt and Erna Kretschmann, two Freienhufener, have made a very the conservation of nature and the storks deserves," says Ziehm: "Erna Kretschmann has even invented the yellow nature conservation-owl and taken care of together with her husband already in GDR times to plant and animal world."
the fact is, Kurt Chen red Abel number one, two, or three, in these days already Nest for Erna. And also be prepared to defend it. Not only against Nile geese, but especially against his own kind. Also between the male storks, there are often fights to the nesting site and the female.
in 2017, it was deadly severe weather, 2018 droughtfollowed In the past year, the storks had to accept because of the dry spring and summer great losses in the rearing, says Winfried Boehmer. "You have to eat nothing was found and, therefore, their young from the nests thrown in." According to Bernd Ludwig, the 260 small storks cost the lives. In the year 2017, almost twice as many, namely, 444 were killed, however, by the numerous storms with heavy rain.
in Addition, the intensive agriculture in Brandenburg destroyed with your mono-culture and pesticides only insects, grasshoppers, frogs, lizards, and other reptiles and amphibians, but also the storks the basis of the food escapes, complain animal friends. In addition, numerous storks still die by electrocution, because the masts, on which they settle, are not sufficiently secured.
More about weather in Berlin-spring is coming: Who is tweeting out there? Stefan Jacobs"The Nile geese are really the smallest Problem," says Winfried Boehmer. "The hunt for the Distress of any adult storks from the Nest."