Preliminary results of the white stork counting conducted every 10 years show that the number of these birds in the province Warmia and Mazury has dropped by 33 percent. But there are regions, for example near Elblag, Lubawa and Kętrzyn, where the decline in the number of storks reaches 80 percent.
Preliminary results of the white stork census in the province Warmia and Mazury have been provided to PAP by Head of Regional Office of the Polish Society for the Protection of Birds in Olsztyn, Sebastian Menderski.
"The population of the white stork in the province Warmia and Mazury in comparison to the year 2004 dropped by 33 percent" - emphasised Menderski. He noted that the data had been compiled on the basis of the results from 92 communes in the region (i.e. 80 percent). Despite this, he remarked, these results would change little when the full data become available, because in 18 communes storks have not been counted (there were no volunteers in the area of Wydminy, Mrągowo and Mikołajki), and for the overall count data from only 6 municipalities are missing (including Pieniężno, Kurzętnik and Węgorzewo).
Preliminary data available to the Polish Society for the Protection of Birds allow to conclude that last year approx 7 thousand pairs of storks lived in Warmia and Mazury, which, compared with 2004, when the previous stork census was performed, means the decline by as much as 33 percent. "Only in 7 communes we have not noticed the decline of storks" - admitted Menderski. He added that in the municipalities in the area of Elblag, Lubawa and Kętrzyn the decline is as high as 80 percent.
Assessing the causes of the decline of storks, Menderski said that a different method of counting storks has to be taken into account. 10 years ago, half of the census data came from the mayors, the rest from volunteers and schools. "It is possible that if some of the data were overstated" - he said.
Despite the incomplete census data from last year and suspicions of overvaluation in the previous census, ornithologists have no doubt that there are less storks in the region.
In their opinion, the key reason are the changes in agriculture in the last decade. "Before we had farms, which grew both potatoes and corn, had chickens, cows and pigs, the fields were small, and among them were balks. Today the farms are focused on one type of production, the fields are huge. These areas are practically excluded from the feeding grounds for storks" - told PAP Olsztyn nature museum director and ornithologist Marian Szymkiewicz.
He stressed that the maize production is rapidly growing in the region, which is a useless area for storks, not suitable for the acquisition of food.
Another factor unfavourable factor for stork is drought. This includes both the weather conditions (last year there was virtually no rain from July to October) and drying of small ponds, swamps on meadows or fields. "When we entered the EU, farmers dried a huge number of ponds and puddles, because initially it was thought that there would be no subsidies to such areas" - noted Szymkiewicz.
Menderski also pointed out that for 10 years in the Polish countryside there was cutting of mid-field woodlots, clearing trenches, digging new trenches. "All this affects the stork feeding grounds. No food, no storks" - he added.
Ornithologists interviewed by PAP also drew attention to the change public attitudes to the storks. "In many communes in the last 10 years there was been a kind of extermination of stork nests" - emphasised Menderski.
He added that many farmers become richer with subsidies from the EU and renovated their households. "They would often replaced the old tiles with metal sheets and storks were no longer welcome because their droppings would foul the roof. Trimmed lawns do not look good, when they are covered with white stool, thrown by the young storks. Storks have simply become unwelcome and unfit for the well-maintained households" - said Menderski.
He noted that taking down nests discourages storks from returning to the old villages. "These birds are quite lazy and prefer to fight for another nest, than to build their own elsewhere. This further leads to brood losses in other nests" - he said.
Szymkiewicz pointed out that currently there more stork nests on poles, than on roofs.
Ornithologists also drew attention to the fact that the living conditions worsen for the storks not only in Poland but also in Africa, where their wintering areas decrease.
Storks, which will come to Warmia and Masuria this year are on the way - according to the Polish Society for the Protection of Birds information they have already crossed the Bosphorus.
PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland
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