Max's route since the summer of 2010 (source: Fribourg Natural History Museum, 19.01.11)
Fribourg, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The warm spell of the past 10 days has brought tears to the eyes of skiers, watching the snow melt in the Jura and lower parts of the Alps. But for those who hate cold weather, Max has good news: it’s time to return north, as the weather warms.
Max, a Swiss white stork who headed south to Madrid 10 September, began her trek north Friday 14 January.
She took two days to fly 150 km north, to Tudela, northwest of Saragossa, Spain and she is now likely to spend the next month working her way up to the shores of Lake Constance.
Max is a white stork who has been tracked by the Fribourg Natural History Museum, thanks to banding, for longer than any other bird in the wild, 11.5 years.
Her migratory patterns between her nesting home near Lake Constance, and her winter homes in Spain or occasionally North Africa, are watched closely by bird-lovers and weather watchers.
She was the cover girl bird for the Swiss publication Nos Oiseaux in September 2010.
Bern's fireworks for the Swiss national holiday were cancelled due to rain but on the other side of the Alps, towns were able to have displays
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) - The First of August national holiday in Switzerland was not a quiet one for emergency services. The east of the country was swept by high winds and rain late in the day and during the night from Sunday to Monday, causing flooding in Schwytz and St Gallen. A man drowned in Lake Constance, in the Valais resort of Crans-Montana a car veered out of control in the village centre and injured seven.
The accident in Crans-Montana occurred shortly after noon Sunday 1 August when a 74-year-old man lost control of his car for reasons that are not yet clear, drove onto a sidewalk where he hit five people, then hit the window of a bakery, damaging several vehicles in the process.
Storms opened up around 20:00 Sunday evening in central and eastern Switzerland, causing streams to overflow, blocking roads in some areas, but also putting a damper on holiday fireworks planned in canton Bern and notably at the Bruenig Pass. The city of Bern received a heavy dose: 2 cm of rain in less than an hour. Winds in Neuchatel and La Broye reached 90 kph, according to the national weather service and hail fell in some areas of the country.
A 49-year-old man fell into Lake Constance from his boat late Sunday when a storm suddenly whipped up on the lake and part of their equipment went into the water. The man fell overboard while trying to get it back. The friend who was with him tried to pull him back into the boat, unsuccessfully. She called police immediately and a 50-person, 15-boat international rescue team spent four hours looking for him, to no avail. The search continues Monday morning.
Links to other sites: TSR (Fre), 20 Minutes (Fre)
Max and mate, June 2009, © Heide Bürgermeister
Lunel, France (GenevaLunch) – Max, a white stork born in 1999 and tracked via radio signals in a ring around her leg that are picked up by satellite, is underway again on her yearly migration.
She left her nest in Tuefingen, Germany near Lake Constance last Thursday 27 August, and after a slow start, crossed Switzerland Saturday 29 August and spent the night 30 August in Lunel in the south of France, a flight of 450 km in a day, thanks to northerly winds down the valley of the Rhone.
Update 14:00 Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The weekend list of accidents has lengthened, with the death in Lake Constance of a 22-year-old man added to those of four climbers in Valais, and Ticino police reporting that a gardener for a golf course was killed while mowing the course. Six people were injured just outside Geneva on the Route de Thonon when a car apparently attempted to pass two other cars near Anières, causing the cars to flip over onto a bank. (details, Tribune de Geneve )
Police are investigating the drowning in northern Switzerland, but first reports are that the young man went swimming after drinking with friends late at night and when he didn’t return they raised the alert.
Max the white stork and partner, 2009 (photo ©H Buergermeister)
Tuefingen/Salem, Germany (GenevaLunch) – Max the white stork has a new family, with little heads popping above the top of the nest where the 10-year-old mother has been sitting on her eggs. For the time being the number of new little ones is unknown, but between 2002 and 2009 Max has given birth to 20 offspring. She was born in May 1999 near Avenches, in Switzerland, but she and her regular partner meet up and build a nest each spring on the north side of Lake Constance.
