Record: 19 stork pairs breed in Upper Austria

Not all of the chicks have hatched yet, but in some nests, such as in Saxen and Perg, three strong young storks have already survived the critical phase and are constantly demanding food from their parents. A total of 19 nests are occupied in Upper Austria this year, which is a new record.

“Last year we had 14 breeding pairs, which is a huge increase this year,” says Robert Gattringer, stork expert at the Nature Conservation Association of Upper Austria. On average, the parents raise two to three chicks. If you calculate the number, you can expect 40 to 50 young birds this year, which, when they grow up, will perhaps raise their own chicks in the region above the Enns.

In a few weeks, the young storks will make their first attempts at flying. By the end of the summer, there will be a lot going on in the airspace above Upper Austria, much to the delight of residents and visitors to the places where the storks have settled this year.

60th anniversary in Saxen

New breeding pairs have been added this year in Pfarrkirchen near Bad Hall, Schenkenfelden, Mitterkirchen, Riedau, Leonstein, Ulrichsberg and Neukirchen an der Vöckla. Two nests were built at a company there, and a pair of storks is breeding in one of them for the first time this year. In Schenkenfelden, a breeding pair has built its nest on a cut-down spruce.

People are also happy about the protected animals in Perg, Saxen, Grein, Haslach, Bad Leonfelden, Freistadt, Reichenthal, Gilgenberg, Munderfing, Frankenmarkt (villages of Moos and Mösendorf) and Arbing.

“This year, by the way, it is 60 years since the first stork in Upper Austria settled in Saxen, and a year later the first chicks were born,” says Gattringer, who grew up in Saxen and was fascinated by the animals as a child. He has been keeping records of the stork population in Upper Austria since 1998. The Mühlviertler is particularly interested in the young in Saxen and Grein.

He has already ringed many young birds there so that it is possible to determine where the animals are and where their own nests will be later. The young storks only return from their winter home in Africa after three or four years, when they are sexually mature. But more and more storks are also wintering here, like the pair of storks in Perg that started breeding on March 19th this year.