The ringing of stork chicks and the educational activities organized on this occasion were, again a part of a series of events organized by Milvus Group’s events in June of this year. Our colleagues and volunteers climbed up to stork nests built by storks on top of electricity poles in Harghita, Cluj and Mures counties to mark the nestlings. As always, the chicks were given two rings, one resistant metal ring, inscribed with RO (country code) and a serial number. On the other leg, a larger plastic ring with black numbers or letters on a white background was fixed to allow reading from a distance.

In Harghita County we visited only one locality, Sânpaul, where 92 chicks from 23 nests were marked. There could have been more, as we know of 49 nests in this village, but time being limited, we could not reach all the locations. The activity was also watched by the ZDF TV team, so the storks will be featured in the December program of their Terra X documentary series about Romania. To the delight of schoolchildren and kindergarten children from the locality and the village of Mărtiniș, we lowered a chick down so that the little ones could see the whole ringing procedure. 

In Cluj County, curious schoolchildren and all those present first gathered on a side street in the village of Vlaha. It’s a nest already known to many, as the happenings in the nest can be followed live on the clujbird.ro website. Five chicks received rings, and one of the storks was lucky enough to return to its siblings after being cuddled and caressed by the kids present at the ringing. The pre-schoolers and schoolchildren of Săvădisla were equally happy.  They too were able to experience direct contact with the storks in a relatively new nest in the center of the village. The event was publicized in a detailed report by M1 television.

In Mures County, curious citizens were able to meet the storks in Târgu Mures, from the only nest existent in this town. We continued our ringing activity with the marking of chicks in Dumbrăvioara, known as the “stork village”, from where we are broadcasting from two stork nests. We continued our ringing activity along the E60 road, managing to ring in total 119 chicks from 41 nests.

Thanks to our volunteers, the electricity company and the local authority of Săvădisla for their help! Our bird events are supported by Betfair Romania Development.