A spectacular natural spectacle took place in the itzgrund on ground thursday. Four storks have drawn their circles above the castle church and the nesting aid erected last year. But probably it will have been only a short visit of the stork platform, because after a few minutes the spectacle was over – and also in the following time the nesting aid remained empty. Here you can read how the 2018 stork season went in coburg county
However, this does not necessarily mean that the platform at the southern entrance to the village of lahm is unsuitable. Bird experts assume that it can take several years before a man-made nesting aid is discovered and accepted by storks. Too late were storks, which want to settle in the southern itzgrund, at present in no case. Hans-peter schonecker, who keeps an eye on the stork population at the coburg district group of the state association for the protection of birds (lbv), says: "breeding is still promising until about the end of april." Especially in the case of birds returning from their wintering grounds in africa via the long eastern route, it is often not until the middle/end of april before they have arrived in their breeding grounds to the north and east. So the stork then also there only begins with the egg-laying.
"The nesting aid in lahm is very suitable in terms of construction and location", when asked by the tageblatt, schonecker is convinced that the mast erected by reinhard grell and his colleagues from the horticultural association will be occupied by storks at some point in the future. The eyrie is high enough so that the birds have a clear all-round view from there. The nesting aid is located at the edge of the village, but this prevents the stork from coming into conflict with the medium-voltage power line that crosses the road and the it meadows at the north end of lahm. Read here what the lahmers did last year for an auand.
In principle, for the stork expert of the LBV, the itzgrund is a good food bi otop even further in the direction of bamberg. "Even lame storks were "bringing" their young roughly, is schonecker – who looked around for storks there on friday – convinced.
All in all, this year could turn out to be another good stork year in the coburg region. Except for the breeding pair from the "hessenhof" on the outskirts of coburg they are all there already. In most cases – at least where you can recognize it by the ringing – it is also the same birds as last year, the broods. The "hessenhof" storks have a little time on their hands-storks still, hans-peter schonecker extrapolates: "the last storks passing through had to pass coburg in the first week of may." Only after that, according to the birders, it will be too late to start breeding at their destination.
Breeding has already taken place seven times
At the seven occupied sites in the district, breeding has been taking place since the end of march 2019. The first young storks had to hatch at the end of april/beginning of may. At the moment you can see mostly only one female head looking out of the nest – of the breeding old birds. It is not unusual, see lahm, for the LBV stork representative, when several birds are interested in a nest: "the frequent attacks by foreign storks, which are reported to me again and again, are quite normal for this time of year."