Acrocephalus 113 - 114.qxd  28.3.2003  8:52  Pagel4^K
Acrocephalus 23 (113-114): 147, 2002
Forum: Comments on the short article Tucakov, M. (2002): A case of
late breeding of the Black Stork Gconid nigra in northwestern
Voivodina (Serbia). Acrocephalus 23 (112): 97-98.
Razprava: Komentarji na članek TUCAKOV, M. (2002): Primer poznega gnezdenja črne štorklje Ciconinna Nigra v severozahodni Vojvodini. Acrocephalus 23 (112): 97-98.
Béla Kalocsa1 & Eniko Anna Tamás
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H-6500 Baja, JNagy I. u. 15., Hungary, e-maü: kalocsaiffbaja.hu
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H-6500 B aja, Apáczai u. 8., Hungary, e-mail: etiffbaja.hu
We have been monitoring the Black Stork Ciconia     3. We found a negative effect of heavy rainfall on the
nigra population in the lower Hungarian valley of the     reproduction success of the Black Stork in 2001.
river Danube (from the throat of Sió channel to the     There   was   a  very  rainy  period   not   long   after
southern border of Hungary), and we consider the     hatching, when the young were still lying in the
Danube   floodplains   as   a   continuous   habitat,     bottom of the nests (they were too young to stand).
regardless of the country borders from the Sió throat     The bottom of the nests is typically filled with soil
down to Kopa~ki rit and Apatin. Reading the article     and mosses, very dense and quite hard, so water
of Marko Tucakov we would  like  to  add  a few     remains in it. Many young died, according to our
thoughts on the subject of late breeding, food supply     theory because they had to lie in the water for a week
and reproduction success of the Black Stork.                 or even more in relatively cold weather. Of course
there is no proof, just that there was no other visible
1.  It is interesting that Tucakov, based on data from     reason to account for the dead chicks found in such literature, times the laying, hatching and fledging on     nests.
average 3-4 weeks later than we do. In our 10-years
of experience in the Gemenc region, laying takes     4. From 1992 to 2002 (11 years) the lowest yearly
place at the end of March or beginning of April,     average number of young per nest in the Gemenc
hatching in the first half of May – we have several     area (the floodplain between Sió throat and Báta)
times seen young in the first week of May. Fledging     was 2.4 (in 1998) and the highest 4.1  (in 2000),
takes place in the first half of July on average. The     while the mean number of young for the 11 years
earliest proven fledging in Gemenc took place on     was 3.0. July 11th, and the latest on September 2nd. In our
experience, even those young which are already able     5. In the article mentioned by Tucakov [Kalocsa, B.
to fly often stay on and around the nest until the     & E. Tamás (1996): Nesting of Black Storks in the
beginning of August, and the adults still feed them.     Gemenc    floodplain    forest.    IInd    International
It has also happened that young Black Storks left the     Conference on the Black Stork, Trujillo, Spain] we
nest and then, some days after, they were back on the     certainly wrote that Black Storks often build a new
nest again.                                                                       nest due to human disturbance,  but we have no
proof of nesting in such a “new nest” in the same year
2.  Black Storks may often fly 10, even 15, km from     they leave the “old one”. This is not to mean it the nest site, if the closest Suitable feeding place are     cannot be so, of course.
dry. There is, for example, a regularly occupied nest
near Vaskút, 10 km from the floodplain, with dry    Altogether we agree with Tucakov that the breeding
sand all around. There were 5 young in it in 2000.     recorded by him was indeed late. We also agree that
There was very heavy precipitation in the beginning     it is difficult to determine the reasons; whether, for
of 2000,   resulting  in   a  number   of agricultural     example, it was due to human disturbance or to
problems. There was also a rather high flood wave on     failed previous breeding attempts.
the river Danube before the breeding season, so wet
feeding places could remain, although possibly hard
to find. We have also quite frequently observed Black
Storks crossing the river for food.
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