It's spring and the storks are arriving back in Poland!
Last night, (in the wee hours of the morning, actually), I was checking out the web cams for the various stork sites that I listed in my sidebar under Stork Sites . In one nest, Mama and Papa stork looked like they were settling in really well, just snuggling down, flapping wings, and twisting around as those beautiful birds will do.
Lo and behold, as they stood up, I noticed a white spot in the nest. An egg! The first one that I have seen this year. Looks like the season for eggs and new babies is upon us.
I was going to get my pencil and sketchbook out and draw, but decided that I probably should try to go to bed. (The tomcats had other ideas, though. They have figured out how to make me get up, just about the time my eyes close and I drift off to sleep!) I may as well have stayed up and sketched the storks!
You can click on the links on the right under Stork Sites to see the various sites I have found to share. Some are in Poland, some are in Germany. Some have English, and some do not. But, you can usually figure out what is going. Or what I do is to ask someone who can advise me!
Debbie Greenlee has been very kind to keep us informed and has given me permission to share information with you.
The nest with the egg is on the Bociany Przygodzic site at http://www.bociany.ec.pl . If you look below the web cam to the big words, "Froum Galeria" and click another window opens for a bulletin board. On that new page, click on he second message topic, "Kadry...z przmruz.eniem oka ;)2008". A new page comes up. Scroll down the photos and click on "PODZIWIA". Scroll down until you get the enlarged photo and you can see that it is an egg that she is tending to. Apparently, this egg was made on April 5, according to the other photo on that last page.
Here is another website for watching storks. Look at
This is a school project that is very interesting. At this site, there is a diary of how the project started. It doesn't have an English page, but it is still of interest.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the words, "Zobacz film. An 18 minute film will show you what was involved in this project. Although everything is in Polish, you can get a feel for the language by listening. You probably will be able to understand what is going on without understanding Polish. At the end, there is a champagne and ribbon cutting event.
Monika, who is the leader of the Ustron~stork project, has invited people to post a message on the project's website.
Here are two threads where you can guess the arrival of Beskidek and Czantorek, although Beskidek has already arrived.
Monika advises that you can write in English on the forum. She expressed wishes for a happy year for the storks.
There is a page on their site called "Przyjaciele", which means friends. This will include names of people who are helping to support the project.
Ustron ~ is in Beilsko-Bial~a (southern Poland) near Katowice.
The storks in this nest are named "Beskidek (father/ojciec) and Czantorke (mother/matka).
Beskidek meanst "little Beskid", referring to the Beskid mounton range in which Ustron~is located. It's similar to Americans living near the Rocky Mountains, such as in Denver, and calling an eagle there "Rocky".
Czantorka comes from Mount Czantoria Wielka which is a prominent peak in the Beskids, and it is in Ustron~.
The organizers of the online stork project are Monika Kosinska (director) and Marek Radziszewski of "SNEP Kol~o 15 w Ustroniu", Association of Elementary School Teachers, Circle 15 (read this as Chapter 15) in Ustron, a teachers organization in Poland. Their website is
They held a symposium (for kids) about storks on June 5, 2007. See more about this event with cute pictures of the kids with their storks at
Debbie has been very nice in trying to collect funds to help with the expenses of the stork project. So, if you are interested in contributing, let me know and I'll tell Debbie.
Also, if you would like to purchase one of my pencil drawings of the storks, let me know. I will contribute a portion of sales toward the stork project.
The above sketch was done last year, after I discovered the stork web cams. I really liked the way that this stork was stretching out those wings toward the camera. So powerful! I used a #314 Draughting pencil to draw the storks.
If you are as fascinated as I am with the storks, you might want to make yourself a little chart that shows what time it is in Poland, as compared to where you are. I did this last year. They are interesting even during their night time hours, but it is also helpful to watch during daylight in order to appreciate the colors and surroundings even more.
Enjoy watching those amazing birds! I hope that they have a wonderful year with many healthy babies!
