Number of storks have reached the same nesting grounds on which they were marked and equipped with transmitters approximately a year ago. Unfortunately many of them did not return and died on their wintering grounds or during their return journey. In some cases we cannot exactly determine if they are alive or not, if they got delayed on the way or why we are unable to retrieve any signal about their location.
Let's first take a look at our Czech storks. Daliborhas been back on his nesting ground in west Bohemia for a couple of days, while about Tomášthe last news we have from him is two weeks old when he was near the Black Sea.
Belgian storks were most probably equipped with a transmitter during their migratory flight because Philippecompletely stayed away from Belgium during his return journey and settled in central Germany, to the west of Magdeburg. We do not know if Anneor Mathildeare alive but the last news we have of them comes from the same place in western Africa, so we doubt that.
Storks from Luxembourg were more lucky during their long and tiring journey to the wintering grounds and back. Louand Julienare back on their nesting ground near the border with Belgium, only Léois still on his wintering ground in Doňana National Park in southern Spain. Josephine returned to her nesting ground in central France, as well as Spanish Esperanza.
Both the Lithuanian storks are a big mystery. Last news we have of Maijaare from Egypt from the western banks of the Red Sea, from Variswe have last heard from central Turkey. This information is two weeks old though.
A lot of interesting information came from Estonian storks. Tooniis now on his way around the Black Sea in Bulgaria and it is the same route Jaakhas taken as his return journey, he has reached much further at the moment north of Belarusia. This stork is returning via a different route with which he set off to the south. The question is which one of the routes was more unusual. If we look at a map with marked routes of all the storks it seems that the more unusual route was the on going south along the eastern banks of the Red Sea, while the return journey is along a more traditional route.