For several days now, residents of Zagorič, Podgorica, have had the opportunity to observe a new neighbor who is resting on the roofs of houses. That the storks are surprising this year is also shown by the fact that in addition to this unusual guest, two young individuals, most likely in flight, visit the Morača river bank, feeding while they spend the rest of their time in the surroundings of Duklja, the Center for the Protection and Study of Birds (CZIP) announced.
According to CZIP knowledge, this is the first confirmed data on the presence of white storks (Ciconia ciconia) in the capital, since the oldest one dates back to 1894, when they were recorded on Plavnica (Lake Skadar), by the most famous Balkan ornithologist of that time, Othmar Reiser, originally from Austria.
This year, eight individuals were recorded during the flight over Mali Brdo, while last year, one flock was also recorded in the canyon of the Cijevna River. Flyovers probably happened before, but there were no confirmed findings since there were no photographs, and the descriptions did not correspond to this species, but rather to a gray or white heron.
Together with Albania, Montenegro is the country with the smallest number of storks in Europe, although it has ideal habitats for them.
"The reason that storks avoid us is the human factor, destruction of nests, disturbance, killing. For Podgorica, it took 123 years for storks to return, while Berane had the honor of hosting the first nesting pair in 2012, which after four successful years of migration to Africa and back, died. A pair from Rožaj that nested on the chimney of an old sawmill had a similar fate, when one of the storks was killed by a lightning strike, but had a successful nesting and healthy offspring. This year on to the surprise of ornithologists, new storks appeared, about 20 of them, first in Nikšić, near the Budoš tunnel, and then in Bijela Polje, Berene, Pljevlja, and now finally in Podgorica," CZIP announced.
CZIP, it was added, launched a series of initiatives to set up nesting platforms to enable the recovery of the population of this species next year.
"The first such initiative this year was accepted by the municipality of Bijelo Polje, which financed the construction of the platform, while the CEDIS company made it possible to install it on a light pole in the yard of Pavle Žižić Elementary School. In addition to this platform, thanks to the Electric Power Company of Montenegro, it was built and installed last year the first pilot platform in Berane in Polimska street, as a replacement for the existing nest that was in contact with the cables, while the second one, the construction of which was financed by the municipality of Berane, with the support of CEDIS, should be installed in the coming period," the announcement states.
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