Report from 26 to 29 June

We’ll begin with some good news: three weeks ago we found an injured White Stork, with two chicks still in the nest. The remaining adult successfully managed to raise them on its own, and now the two juveniles are ready to fledge. As a whole, the local White Storks will have fledged seven young this year.

Almost all of the Common Tern chicks that hatched in May survived and have now fledged. This was an excellent outcome and the terns must have been very pleased with it, so much so that they have laid a second clutch. In practical terms, this doubles the number of bests in the colony, and if we add up the first and the second clutches, the total number approaches thirty. Fantastic. Never before had our tern colony been so successful.

Once again, the Spotted Flycatchers build a nest under the farmhouse porch. The juveniles left the nest a few days ago, and the female is already incubating a second clutch. It is up to the male to teach the fledglings how to be a flycatcher.