Custody, problems, commitments
After a first analysis of the protected areas along the Mureș River which recently entered in the custody of the Milvus Group, we identified a whole series of problems. By far the worst is the one caused by garbage. The river banks, and as such the local protected areas, are used as public dumping sites, without any respect for the local natural patrimony. Garbage disposed upstream remains hanged on the branches after any significant changes in water levels.
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In Romania, the reptiles (thus the vipers too) hibernate in winter, so their annual activity period is from spring to autumn. But even during this period, the observations probability differs. Often snakes use common hibernacula, and that’s why in spring they may be crowded around the entry. These are the so called viper-nests people often speak about, and this is where you can observe spousal agglomerations as well. If one sees such a crowd (which is in fact a rarity), a misconception arises that the number of vipers increased! 
For several weeks we paid attention to what happens in the monitored nest. Slowly but surely, the nest is being built thanks to the tireless work of the two storks who have decided to make their “home” right in front of our eyes! These two storks have no colour rings. 
A colour-ringed stork visited twice the nest with the webcam. Firstly on the 20th and after that on the 27th of March. Unfortunately it spent only a couple of minutes in the nest. On the second occasion we managed to read the ring code and our suspicion was confirmed: it is a stork breeding in the neighbouring village, Glodeni. The bird was ringed in 2002, it is a male and nests in Glodeni in the same nest since 2010. We patiently wait for the developments and we are wondering, if it will move here or it is just a passing visitor? 
