00:00Thank you for listening.
02:11Okay, so hello my friends, I hope you're all doing well.
02:15As you've probably gathered, I'm up at the stork's nest, the black stork.
02:22It was a bit of a hike up, I tell you, carrying all that gear.
02:25But anyway, I managed to get up here.
02:28So, I'll backtrack a second actually.
02:31So, three weeks ago is when I came up to check on this location where I'm sat now to get
02:38a good view of the stork, of the nest.
02:43And at that time they hadn't arrived yet.
02:47And on that same day I set up a couple of trail cams just up the hill here on a
02:51beautiful animal trail.
02:56And I came back, I left them for two weeks, came back to recover the trail cams.
03:04And when I came back, and that's a week ago now, one of the storks was on the nest.
03:11The trail cams had some fantastic footage of deer, wild boar, a little beech martin.
03:21And then even one of the storks came down and was foraging for a nesting material along the trail there.
03:27So it picked that up.
03:30But at that time, which is a week ago now, there wasn't enough foliage on the trees yet to give
03:40me decent cover to actually get here undetected.
03:46Sorry, something just big just flew past.
03:51Um, so I let it go for a week, um, and coming back today, there's a lot more foliage.
03:59Uh, having said that, I wasn't completely covered.
04:05Um, and the nest, the stork was on her nest.
04:10Um, but I moved as quietly, slowly as I could, which is why I didn't record my, uh, coming down
04:16to this point.
04:18Um, so I set up the, um, set up the, the blind here.
04:21Um, let me show you that.
04:26Um, so I set up the blind, um, and, um, I have a pretty level view with the nest.
04:35I'm not looking down into it, but I'm pretty level with it.
04:39Um, and like I said, I have one of the storks sat on there, probably the female.
04:45Um, so today is basically phase one of, um, capturing the whole story that I want.
04:50Uh, which is, um, to get the male and the female interacting, the courtship, him bringing back nesting material or
05:00food for her.
05:02Um, so that's the first step that I want to do, uh, want to try and capture today.
05:07Um, so I've got, I've taken a few shots already, uh, but they're pretty inactive.
05:13It's just her sat on the nest, um, wide, uh, wide and close.
05:20Um, and so now I've just got to wait for him to come back, hopefully with some nesting material or
05:27something.
05:28Um, and for them to, uh, do their courtship, their mating, all that sort of thing, so that I can
05:34get phase one of the story done, or part one of the story.
05:38So that's it.
05:40Um, the other thing I should say is that I've been hearing, since I got here, I've been here for
05:44about half an hour, uh, and I've been hearing, um, some pretty heavy footage rustling going around, so I'm not
05:52sure what is around me.
05:55It could be a deer, it could be a boar, um, I'm hoping not the boar, uh, because they do
06:02scare me.
06:03Uh, but, yeah, so maybe I might, if I get really lucky, I might even see a deer.
06:09Okay, so I'll catch up with you in a little bit, hopefully, when the male returns.
06:14Uh, so I've just got to camp out here and wait for that to happen.
06:18So I'll catch up with you in a sec.
06:21The male just flew back.
06:24And I'm not sure I caught it, because I had an issue with the card.
06:30And it cut out recording, so I don't know if I even got it, of him flying in.
06:37And he, I think he brought a couple of sticks for the nest, and now they're just standing together, positioning
06:45them.
06:47Absolutely beautiful.
06:49Beautiful.
07:13So the male just flew off.
07:19Unfortunately, I missed that, uh, because I was fiddling around, trying to get my drive to work properly, because it's
07:26not, for some reason, it doesn't want to record in 6K.
07:30Yeah, anyway, so I missed him flying off, but hopefully this time I'll be able to get him flying back
07:37to the nest, uh, with some sticks, and what have you.
07:40And then, last time, they didn't do any courtship or mating rituals, um, he, an interesting bit of behavior, uh,
07:55he brought the sticks back, and, uh, he was fixing, fixing up the nest.
08:03And he even fixed up the spot where she was lying, she got up, and then, he sort of rearranged
08:12that area, made, it looks like he was trying to make it more comfortable for her.
08:17Uh, and then he stood above her, she sat, she lay down, and he stood above her, preening, cleaning himself,
08:27and then he flew off.
08:29So, hopefully now, I'll be able to get a shot of him flying back in at some point.
08:34So, I'm just on standby to do that, she's just sitting quietly on, uh, on the nest.
08:42So, something alarmed her, I think, because she just suddenly stood up.
08:49And I don't know if it's, she can see or sense something below.
08:54Because I can certainly hear some rustling around occasionally.
09:04There's a dog barking in the, in the, in the great distance, but I don't think that's it.
09:10Okay, so whatever it was that was rustling around down there, I think, was making her really nervous.
09:16And eventually, she flew off just now.
09:18So, the nest is empty.
09:30So, about half an hour has elapsed, and still no sign of them.
09:39They did fly over, one of them flew over.
09:45So, I think, she's probably still in the area.
09:53But, I, I couldn't tell what it was that might have spooked her off the nest.
10:01Or, she was hungry.
10:04And she's gone to, uh, find something to eat.
10:07That's also a possibility.
10:13Whatever it was that was making the noise down below, it's gone.
10:32It's landed on one of the other trees just there.
10:48Okay, she's on the branch, near the nest, but not on it.
10:54Swing around a bit.
11:00Something else puffed down.
11:24I don't know if you can pick that up on the microphone here.
11:28There's something else making a noise further down.
11:41So, I'm going to push it in.
11:48Okay, what do I want?
11:49I want to push it in.
11:50Okay, sure.
11:55That's it.
11:56Okay.
11:57I want to push it in.
12:01Okay, sure.
12:02Okay, sure.
12:10Okay, so she flew off again, she didn't return to the nest.
12:28Wait a bit longer now and hope she comes back again.
12:41So it's gone 12 o'clock midday and still no sign of them, so they've been gone for over
12:49an hour now.
12:53In any event, I think it probably wasn't something that spooked her, I think they've probably
12:59just gone off for a feed.
13:02I can still hear something rooting around in the gully below.
13:14But it has yet to make an appearance.
13:25And in the meantime, I'm just waiting for the stalks to come back.
13:32I've got two and a half hours of battery left on the camera, so I can still hold out a
13:41little
13:41bit longer.
13:43But I really would like to get those shots today so I don't have to come back and disturb
13:47them again.
13:54But if they have gone down to the lake for a feed, it probably means they'll be gone
14:00a good long while.
14:01well.
14:03So I'll hang on for as long as I can, and if not then I'll call it quits and come
14:13back
14:13again in a day or two.
14:16I had a quick wander whilst they're missing, a quick wander up the hill with the binoculars,
14:25and I found a spot that I could actually view down into the nest a little bit better through
14:31the leaves.
14:32It's not good enough to actually film through, it's a bit tight.
14:38But I could get a peek into the nest and there's no eggs as yet.
14:47So hopefully there should be more mating activity and bonding, that sort of thing, yet to capture.
15:01So I haven't missed it.
15:08Okay, so I'll hang on here for a bit, and hopefully they'll come back.
15:17Okay, so it's been a good couple of hours now since they left, so I think I'm going to
15:25call it quits here for the moment, and make my escape whilst there's nothing on the nest,
15:35and nothing to disturb, and come back in a day or two to see if I can pick up where
15:44I left off.
15:55Because I have a feeling that they won't be back for quite a while, if they've gone off to feed.
16:22Okay, to be continued.
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