The first white storks have returned to Saxony from their winter quarters – earlier than they have been for many years. The Sachsenstorch team already dated the first returnee in its online overview on December 29 in Schkeuditz.
In the days that followed, more animals came to the Free State. « This early return is surprising. The first animals usually come in late January or early February, » said expert Sylvia Siebert from the Nature Conservation Institute in Dresden.
The reason is the good food situation in the winter quarters, including in Spain. « Many storks overwinter on landfill sites that are not yet covered and get a lot of food there, even if it is not necessarily healthy, » explained Siebert.
Their route is shorter than that of the east migrants, which leads across the Bosporus and the Middle East to South Africa. The return of the east migrants is expected a little later.
There were also five quintuplets last year, also a record. There are enough nesting sites for storks in Saxony. Recently, however, the birds have lacked sufficient food. This requires wet meadows, ponds with flat banks, meadows with staggered mowing, and field margins.
The Upper Lusatia heathland and pond landscape, the Roderaue, and the Leipzig lowlands are considered strongholds of the white stork in Saxony.
