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.
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
