Great breeding season in Lower Austria

“Returning traffic” for the white storks is imminent

They are still in the "route planning" stage and will soon be heading south.(Bild: Marius Treffner)

You have to be a stork: In the floodplains of Lower Austria, the proud birds are becoming more numerous from year to year. This is mainly due to the good breeding conditions. But now it's time to say goodbye again.

While most holidaymakers in Lower Austria will be returning home next week at the latest, the white storks are only now preparing for their big journey. The breeding season has come to an end. And observations show that this year a pleasing number of young storks have fledged in the March-Thaya floodplains and in the other local nests.

BirdLife experts have counted 236 so far across the country. With an average of 2.5 young birds for each stork pair, this means a very good breeding success, as Eva Karner-Ranner confirms. In the previous season, there were only 2.18 offspring, says the bird conservation organization's coordinator for the stork census.

This year's weather conditions were probably also largely responsible for this: "The heavy rainfall in spring ensured an abundance of food in the wet meadows and floodplains," say the scientists. With a bit of luck, large gatherings of the large black and white birds can now be observed in the foothills of the Alps in Lower Austria, for example. There they are gathering their last reserves of strength for the long flight to East or South Africa.