Author Topic: White Storks - Netherlands / Beleef de Lente  (Read 13278 times)

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Offline The Peregrine Chick

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Re: White Storks - Netherlands / Beleef de Lente (2013)
« Reply #8 on: May 01, 2013, 16:11 »
Three out of the five eggs have hatched ;D  Wonder if anyone will get eaten this year ??? :P

If I didn't know about storks, this comment would have definitely made me stop and read more!!  :o ;D

Offline susha

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Re: White Storks - Netherlands / Beleef de Lente (2013)
« Reply #7 on: May 01, 2013, 11:03 »
I guess we can hope that the other two eggs just aren't viable...that would be so much better...just saying...

Offline irenekl

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Re: White Storks - Netherlands / Beleef de Lente (2013)
« Reply #6 on: May 01, 2013, 10:40 »
Yeah the dread is upon me.  You just know with 5 eggs elimination is going to occur.

Offline susha

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Re: White Storks - Netherlands / Beleef de Lente (2013)
« Reply #5 on: April 29, 2013, 18:22 »
Three out of the five eggs have hatched ;D  Wonder if anyone will get eaten this year ??? :P

Offline birdcamfan

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Re: White Storks - Netherlands / Beleef de Lente (2012)
« Reply #4 on: June 12, 2012, 16:52 »
I think the storks have eaten a few babies every year that I have watched. It was shocking at first but by the same token. I couldn't figure out how 5 giant stork babies could fit in the nest. I guess the parents decide how many they can feed and which are the weak ones and take things into their own hands. I think there must always be some reason behind this kind of behavior even if I am not a bird/animal expert.
You are right though irenekl. It has been a bit of a downer to watch this, my favorite site have bad result after bad result.

Offline The Peregrine Chick

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Re: White Storks - Netherlands / Beleef de Lente (2012)
« Reply #3 on: June 12, 2012, 16:39 »
Don't be too hard on the storks Irenekl, it is what they do and they are far from the only ones - eagles here do the same thing.

Here's some background information on White Stork reproduction:

A White Stork pair raises a single brood a year. The female typically lays four eggs, though clutches of 1–7 have been recorded. Incubation begins as soon as the first egg is laid, so the brood hatches asynchronously, beginning 33 to 34 days later (about the same as peregrines). The first hatchling typically has a competitive edge over the others and while stronger chicks are not aggressive towards weaker siblings, as is the case in some species, weak or small chicks are sometimes killed by their parents (called infanticide). This behaviour occurs in times of food shortage to reduce brood size and hence increase the chance of survival of the remaining nestlings. White Stork nestlings do not attack each other (sibling killing is called siblicide), and their parents' method of feeding them (disgorging large amounts of food at once) means that stronger siblings cannot outcompete weaker ones for food directly, hence parental infanticide is an efficient way of reducing brood size. Despite this, this behaviour has not commonly been observed.
 

Offline The Peregrine Chick

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Re: White Storks - Netherlands / Beleef de Lente (2012)
« Reply #2 on: June 12, 2012, 16:20 »
Link to the webcam for those wanting to watch the storks ....

http://www.beleefdelente.nl/vogel/ooievaar

Offline irenekl

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White Storks - Netherlands / Beleef de Lente
« Reply #1 on: June 12, 2012, 15:43 »
There is so much at the Beleef de Lent site this year that is disturbing for me as a viewer.  First we witnessed the mother stork killing her own young while it was still quite small, now one of the young boys is in the process of slowly hacking to death one of its siblings; in the small owl nestbox there is an erratic and very rough mother who constantly kicked around her eggs and missed incubating at least two of the three eggs at any given time and the one chick they did manage to hatch appears to have been injured by this mom or it has "spread leg syndrom".  They're not sure which yet; the barn swallows are fighting and they're survival rate is way down from last year; and last but not least there is poor, overly committed Pa at the peregrine nest.  
I've watched this site so much over the years and have to say this year it quite depresses me.