“Based to preliminary data, the number of stork nests is up around 20 percent from the last census in 2004/2005. The data will further be analyzed thoroughly,” says BSPB ‘s Svilen Cheshmedzhiev, national coordinator of the campaign.
What is interesting is that most nests outside inhabited places disappear, while new ones appear in inhabited places, instead. In this regard, the record is in Kostievo village, Plovdiv region, in which ten years ago there were two nests, and now BSPB’s teams have counted 22. Another trend is that the new nests are mainly on electricity pillars, and also some of the stork homes which had previously been on buildings and chimneys have now moved to on pillars.
Storks breed on the average three little ones, but there are larger families with 4 little storks too, according to census data.
During the census no serious threats for white storks have been observed. Most old nests have been made safe and fixed on special platforms, which protect the birds from electrical shocks, and citizens – from blackouts.
Any nature lover can participate in the great stork census. You can record the data about the nests you have observed, how many little ones were in it, etc. in the special site BSPB has set up: www.shturkel.bg . Participation is pretty simple; you only need to fill the data in “Record nest data”. You can also add a photo and GPS coordinates. The nest is automatically marked on the interactive map of the site.
At the end of the campaign in July, ten volunteers, who have participated in the census and have filled the form in the site www.shturkel.bg will be randomly picked. They will receive as a gift the book “A Field Guide to the Birds”, aka “Ornithologists’ Bible”. By participating in the Great Census you help in assessment of the environment and in protection of biodiversity and become a part of citizenscience – a method through which common people participate in significant science studies.
The great stork census continues till July 15 in Bulgaria. Next summer, the towns and villages missed this year will be observed, and the data will be summarized.
The stork census is one of the greatest environmental campaigns in the world. It is conducted periodically, because storks are one of the best indicators of the state of the environment in which we live – availability of clean water, agriculture with less pesticides, old trees and preserved nature. The event is organized internationally by Bird Life International – a network of environmental organizations in 110 countries around the world, and by NABU, the German partner of the organization .
TWENTY PERCENT MORE STORKS ACCORDING TO PRELIMINARY DATA FROM VIIth INTERNATIONAL CENSUS
