Max the stork with her two remaining young. Max is the world's longest banded bird, tracked since 5 July 1999
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Max the stork, for those of you who follow the details of Switzerland’s most famous migratory bird, has lost one of three young born in April.
The other two, now three weeks old, appear to be thriving, says the Fribourg Natural History Museum 9 May, without providing details about what may have happened to little stork number 3.
Max and mate are keeping three little ones snug and warm and fed
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Max the stork now has three little ones in the family nest on the Swiss-German border.
This is Max’s 11th time around as mother, and she and her mate have managed to keep all three young birds alive during their first week, despite high winds and unseasonably cold temperatures.
Max raising her young on the Swiss-German border
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Max the stork, whose north-south migrations have been closely followed by thousands since she was banded 13 years ago, has given birth to at least two young birds, the Fribourg Natural History Museum reports.
This is the 11th time Max has raised young ones. She has been tracked longer than any bird in the wild.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Max the white stork, who offers Switzerland signs of the seasons, is on her way back home from her winter vacation spot in Spain. The Natural History Museum of Fribourg, which tracks the bird, says she is now in Montpellier, after a pause near the Spanish-French border in Figueras, and she will now head up the Rhone to her spring nesting area on the Swiss-German border.
The bird, which has been tracked longer than any other bird in the wild, built her nest 8 February in 2011. But she waited until 21 February in 2009, and this year, she’ll be considerably later, given that she has to find a mate once she arrives.
Max mating back in March 2011 - Photo ©H.Burgermeister
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Keep the woolens handy, for Max the stork is sitting tight in Catalonia and she isn’t in a hurry to come home.
Groundhog shadows may give us clues to the length of winter in some countries, but in Switzerland it’s Max the stork, banded and followed by the Fribourg Natural History Museum.
She began her migration north about a week ago, from central Spain, but she is now sitting in Catalonia without appearing ready to head up to a Switzerland that is far colder than usual.
Background, Max, GenevaLunch
Max the white stork, in early March 2009, on her snowy nest near the Swiss-German border - will she find snow again this year? (photo: Heida Buergermeister)
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Max knows something the rest of us don’t: spring is on the way. Freezing temperatures throughout Switzerland for the next few days and record snowfalls make it hard to believe, but one of the first harbingers of spring, Max the stork, has started her return north from the area around Madrid in central Spain.
Max’s movements are followed by the Natural History Museum of Fribourg, which banded the bird. This is her 13th winter migration and her movements tell us much about the change in seasons. Some years Max has wintered over in North Africa, but most often she opts for Spain, often further south than this year.
Max is a Swiss-born white stork who has been tracked for longer than any other bird in the wild. She left her summer home in Tuefingen, Saturday 10 September, taking about three weeks to make the trek to her winter home in Spain. Last year she arrived 8 February and was mating a month later. Her five 2011 offspring were born around 20 April.
GenevaLunch background: Max the stork
Max the Stork says summer is gone!
FRIBOURG, SWITZERLAND – Max, the Swiss-born white stork who has been tracked for longer than any other bird in the wild, left her summer home in Tuefingen, Saturday 10 September.
The Fribourg Natural History Museum, which banded and tracks the bird, says that for the first time in her 13 years of winter migrations, she left together with her partner, the father of this year’s offspring.
Max winters in the south of Spain or sometimes Morocco and her migration will take about three weeks, with stopovers in France.
The band she is wearing now is four years old and was slightly damaged, according to the museum.
Tracking is not as constant as in the past, and it’s not clear at the moment where precisely the bird has gone.
A week before they learned to fly the three young storks were testing their wings from their nest near the Swiss-German border
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Max, the world’s longest banded stork, has sent another batch of babies out into the world, with all three of the babies learning to fly by Sunday 26 June.
The three were born in early May, bring to 26 the number of offspring Max has had in nine years.
The family retreated to the nest together Sunday night, according to the Museum of Natural History in Fribourg, which tracks Max.
Max shades her 3 new young ones, who bring the number of her offspring to 26 in 9 years (photo ©2011 Heidi Buergermeister)
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Good news for Max the Swiss stork fans: a third baby bird has been spotted in the nest, making Max’s 2011 family the same size as her usual ones. Only two young ones had been spotted before this week until official photographer and neighbour Heidi Buergermeister saw a third head.
Happy Mother’s Day this week to Max!
The three little ones bring to 26 the number of offspring she has had, in 9 years.
One of Switzerland’s best-loved families could well be Max the stork and her annual crop of babies. Max, who will soon be 12 years old, has been banded and tracked longer than any other bird in the world. She migrates every fall to southern Spain or northern Morocco, then returns to the Swiss-German border area, Tuefingen, on the north side of Lake Constance, to mate and have her young.
She was born in 1999 in Avenches, canton Vaud, and the Museum of Natural History in Fribourg follows her movements closely and keeps her growing fan club informed.
Max mating back in March 2011 - Photo ©H.Burgermeister
Fribourg, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Max, the White Stork is at it again; raising a family that is. Two baby chicks were seen in the celebrity stork’s nest although the number could be higher.
According to a spokesperson for the Fribourg Natural History Museum which has been tracking Max since her birth in 1999, the stork has raised 26 young at her decade-old nesting site on the Swiss-German border.
At night either Max or her new partner, whom she paired up with in mid-March, looks over the brood while the other brings home the food. During the day the new parents protect the young from the strong sun.
Max, born in May 1999 in Avenches, Vaud, is a migratory bird who has been tracked for nearly 12 years, longer than any other banded bird in the wild.
The stork spends her summers in Germany, just over the border from Switzerland, then she heads south every winter to bask in the warmer weather of southern Spain or, occasionally, Morocco.
Max, the world's longest tracked bird in the wild, up to her usual Spring business
Fribourg, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Max is at it again: the Swiss white stork has been coupling madly this at her decade-old nesting site on the Swiss-German border.
And, as she has taken to doing for the past couple years, she’s first been coupling noisily with a new fellow in town, from 20 February to 8 March and then, when her old mate of the past few seasons arrived, she shifted back to him.
The new fellow appeared at first to have successfully kicked out the old mate from the nest, but the morning of 9 March Max and her mate of five years were busy together in the nest. Stay tuned for further nesting episodes.
Max is a migratory bird who has been tracked for nearly 12 years, longer than any other banded bird in the wild.
Mating in Switzerland in spring: bees do it, birds do it, Max the stork definitely does it
Spring and migratory birds and mating in Switzerland are an annual mix, and probably few other birds are watched as actively as Max, who was given a band 11 years ago and has since been followed closely by the History of Natural Science in Fribourg.
She spends her summers in Germany, just over the border from the country where she was born, Switzerland, then she heads south every winter to bask in the warmer weather of southern Spain or, occasionally, Morocco.
Max the white stork, in early March 2009, on her snowy nest near the Swiss-German border (photo: Heida Buergermeister)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Max the white stork, who winters in Spain or, some years, in North Africa, has returned to Switzerland, usually a sign that spring is on its way.
Max, 11, is a female white stork born near Avenches, Vaud in Switzerland. She is the longest-living satellite-tracked bird in the world. The Natural History Museum in Fribourg, which tracks her migrations and nesting habits.
She began her flight from Madrid 14 January, was in the south of France 5 February and Monday 7 February she crossed into Switzerland, spending the night in Baden.
She was mating by the first of March in 2010, so she probably has three weeks now to prepare a nest and get ready to welcome a mate.
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.
Max's 2010 winter migration path
Fribourg, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – That Swiss symbol of seasonal changes, Max the white stork, confirms what every parent of school children has suspected for the past two weeks: summer is really, truly over. Max has headed south in her annual winter migration.
Max is the world’s longest banded tracked stork, followed by the Natural History Museum of Fribourg for 10 years.
She suddenly left her summer home near the Swiss-German border 8 September and headed southwest across France to Spain. She arrived in Madrid 14 September, Tuesday, where she has been relaxing since.
All bird-watching eyes are now on Max to see if she opts for a winter in Spain or if she decides to head to yet warmer temperatures in Morocco, as she has done some years.
Max is a cover girl this month, featuring on the front of the Swiss bird magazine Nos Oiseaux.
Don’t book your low-cost cold weather flights yet. Max may yet give us more clues about the best places to winter.
Max the stork's new babies, April 2010 (photo, ©H Buergermeister)
Fribourg, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Max the banded white stork, the world’s longest satellite-tracked animal, had four young birds 20-12 April at her annual nesting place at Tuefingen, near the Swiss-German border.
The parents, migrant birds who have now met up in southern Germany every spring for nine years to nest together, have been busy caring for the little ones.
Observers spotted four newborns in the nest Monday 26 April when the parents stepped up to spread their wings and shade the little ones because the weather had turned warm.
The babies hatch a month after the eggs are laid but it is difficult to check on the number of babies in the nest, or even the eggs, because the parents take turns keeping them warm during the month before the eggs hatch.
Max the stork's new babies, April 2010 (photo, ©H Buergermeister)
The father, Max’s partner for several years, has been carrying water to the young birds in his beak and letting it drizzle into their open beak.
Max’s travels and nestings on GenevaLunch
Links to other sites: Fribourg Museum of Natural History on Facebook and Max’s history (Fre)
Click on images to view larger
Max and her old partner on the next, Sunday 28 February 2010 (photo © 2010 Heidi Buergermeister)
Updated 14:00 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The snow is still there but you have to go higher in the mountains to find it, temperatures were above 10C over the weekend in Geneva, Max the white stork was fighting with her boyfriend and now that her old partner is back in town things are heating up. Meanwhile, the moon put on a spectacular show over Lake Geneva early Monday. Call it the first hints of Spring.
Max, a banded white female stork, is the world’s longest satellite-tracked animal, now in her 12th year of tracking by the Natural History Museum and University of Fribourg. The tracking project was set up to learn about dangers for migrating birds: water towers in the south of France were one discovery, and the government moved to make them safer as a result.
Max returned from the south of Spain last week, arriving at her nest in Tuefingen on the German side of Lake Constance 21 February after a short pause at the zoo in Zurich. In Tuefingen, she promptly met up with a male, not her usual partner, who chased her from her nest. The two were seen later that night, side by side, hunting for food. He returned alone to the nest that night, which she has called home for 12 years.
No sign of Max the next day, but the male bird hung around the nest all day – and suddenly, in the evening, the two of them were spotted at the nest. The two were spotted coupling Sunday, says the museum, but the relationship was off to a stormy start before the two began to clatter their bills and preen, as white storks do when starting to mate.
Max’s old partner, who usually returns to the nest later than Max, suddenly reappeared Sunday. The two males fought and Max’s old beau,the father of her offspring, skulked away – only to come back later in fine form. It now appears that he’s chased away the interloper and he and Mac once again have a relationship and are sharing the nest. So much for Max’s faithfulness, notes the museum.
Meanwhile, the full moon which rose spectacularly Sunday night also gave people around Lake Geneva who were going to work between 06:45 and 07:15 1 March a beautiful setting moon, shortly before sunrise, over the lake. Welcome to Spring and shorter nights, longer days!
Traffic and weather forecasts, history of skiing show, horses on ice, motorcycle fair and other good train deals, horses on snow, giant greeting card
Plenty of snow in the Jura! February 2010 (photo: Shirley Curran)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – This weekend it is Geneva residents who head for the ski slopes en masse, with school holidays the week of 22 February. Expect crowds in all Swiss and nearby French resorts.
History of skiing and extraordinary collection of old skis – don’t miss it!
Conthey history of ski exhibit, Coop centre
Ski collection of Laurent Donze, more than 2,000 skis showing centuries of history
The newly redone large Coop in Conthey, two minutes off the autoroute in the heart of a large shopping complex, is home to an extraordinary collection of skis until 28 February. This is a must-see exhibit which recounts the history of skiing from ancient times, put together by Laurent Donzé, who has been president of the Swiss Cross Country Ski Federation. He told GenevaLunch he began collecting skis more than 30 years ago and he now has over 2,000 skis in his collection.
If you think downhill skiing began with the arrival in Switzerland of the British, you might find history shows it is a bit more complicated than that. The exhibit is well documented and illustrated, but the skis themselves offer a reminder of how the need for skis and their designs have changed.
Weather forecast
Rain mixed with snow Friday afternoon on the plain. Snow down to 700 metres in Alpine and Jura areas. Saturday: gradually clearing on the plain, with highs of 4-5C,. Snow Saturday in the Alps, with highs of 9C in the Alps due to warming foehn winds. Winds moderate on western edge of the Alps.
Traffic forecast
Geneva begins its vacation, but so do 10 other cantons Friday 19 February, so TCS warns that traffic will build during the afternoon. The area around Lausanne and heading towards Valais, around the Glion tunnel, are expected to be the worst-hit areas. List of expected heavy traffic areas and time, TCS. For current traffic advisories: TCS in French and the federal truck site in English. Reminder for drivers leaving Geneva: expect delays around Nyon and Gland due to roadworks that continue until 25 February.
Alpine resorts
Max and her partner, nesting, summer 2009
Fribourg, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Max, the white stork who has been tracked for longer than any other bird of her kind, 11 years, may have completed her winter migratory trip, and she is now 110 km south of Madrid.
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.
photo © 2009 H Buergermeister
Fribourg, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The family of Max, the Swiss white stork that has been tracked by the Natural History Museum of Fribourg for the past 10 years, is growing up: the three offspring born 20 April near the German-Swiss border are learning to fly.
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.
Life in the nest has heated up since this 22 February shot of Max (photo © Heide Buergermeister)
Fribourg and Tuerlingen, Germany (GenevaLunch) – High-drama near the Swiss-German border: the saga of Max the stork’s mating lifecontinues. Max, the world’s longest living satellite-tracked bird, spent Monday morning cleaning out and building up her nest with her new beau keeping her company. They copulated several times, reports the Museum of Natural History in Fribourg, which follows Max.
Max and her new beau, 1 March 2009 (photo © Heide Buergermeister)
Updated 3 March, 09:00 Fribourg, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Max has a new beau! But what will happen, asks the Museum of Natural History in Fribourg, when the father of her young for the past three seasons shows up at the nest?
Young Max with her mother, 1999, in their Avanches nest (photo: Natural History Museum, Fribourg, Switzerland)
Fribourg, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The high winds that tore through Switzerland, Italy, France and Portugal at the end of January caused enormous damage. They also unsettled a bird who has been followed by thousands: Max the Swiss stork.
Lake Geneva region, Switzerland (Tribune de Geneve/ats, Fre) – If you feel like summer is ending you are not alone: Max, a stork born in Avenches, Vaud in 1999, has just headed south from his summer home in Lake Constance. He is the longest-living satellite-tracked bird in the world and his previous nine migratory trips have been followed closely by the public. In 2006, researchers put satellite tracking devices on 26 storks in Switzerland, of which only 12 are still alive with functioning GPS transmitters.
He left Thursday and slept the night in Vaud before continuing over Lake Geneva and south down along the Rhone River, covering 500 km in one go thanks to strong winds. He flew past Nîmes and on to Narbonne, where he spent last night. He will likely continue his trip via Spain, crossing to North Africa at the Straits of Gibraltor.
- Max’s flight map
- Museum of Natural History, Fribourg: excellent site on migratory bird research in Switzerland
