'Close to Storks' project
'Close to Storks' project
Written by Saturday, 23 May 2009 00:00
The project "Close to Storks" aims at observing a nest of White Storks via the Internet. It begun on March 2006 and was initiated by the South Wielkopolska Group of the Polish Society for the Protection of Birds – the BirdLife International partner in Poland. The monitored nest is located in the village Przygodzice (51.35 N, 17.49 E) in the Wielkopolska region, near the border of "Barycz Valley" Landscape Park and the Special Protected Area of Natura 2000 European ecological network.
The project aims at allowing the public to observe the behaviour of the White Stork during nesting and breeding. The White Stork is a species closely associated with Poland since the Polish population of White Storks - about 40.000 breeding pairs - represents 20% of the total world population of this species. The title of the project does not simply refer to our ability to closely monitor the nest round the clock, facilitated by contemporary technology. Most importantly, the name "Close to the Storks" encapsulates our sincere hope that the project will be conducive to raising awareness about the White Stork thus bringing us, the observers, emotionally closer to this beautiful bird.
The camera used to monitor and record the activities of the birds has been carefully set up to ensure it has absolutely no influence on their behaviour and does not interrupt their life.
During the breeding seasons between 2006-2009 the storks laid 5 eggs per season. Three, two and four nestlings left the nest between 2006 and 2008 respectively.
On-line transmission is available in different modes to widen accessibility. Transmission with the view refreshed every 7 seconds is available on bociany.ec.pl; on bociany.ittv.pl the streaming view is 25 frames per second while at the same e-address a streaming view for mobile phones (20 frames per second) is accessible.
The estimated number of viewers accessing the transmission to-date is 1.5 million for 2006, 3 millions for 2007 and 5 millions in 2008; this in itself indicates the massive success of the project worldwide. The viewers observed the storks from more than one hundred different locations (countries) world wide each year. Besides Poland, the biggest numbers of viewers were from the United Kingdom, Germany and France in Europe; USA, China and Japan from the rest of the world. On the 2nd of June 2008 bociany.ec.pl came first in the worldwide birdingtop500.com ranking, while, for this breeding season, it currently holds the third and fourth position. The media have also shown their great interest in the project.
In response to the great interest that the project has generated we are holding, since the summer of 2006, a "Close to Storks” annual meeting. In 2007 we started a forum to discuss the activity and behaviour of the birds. The forum, bocianyzprzygodzic.pun.pl is mainly accessible in Polish while recently a section in English has begun for non-Polish speakers.
This season (2009) we have had five nestlings hatching between the 15th and the 20th of May. For the rest of this season we hope you will enjoy observing the parental care of the pair as well as the young birds as they grow up and prepare for their first long journey in September.
Photos by the author except where otherwise indicated in the captions.
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , PwG OTOP, is the co-ordinator of the project "Close to Storks". You can contact him by clicking on the link.
Read more about the project "Close to the Storks".