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.
Hot weather grape harvest 2009, La Colombe, Fechy
Golf-ball-sized hail 23 July, outside Ikea in Allaman, Vaud
Nyon, Switzerland (Geneva, Switzerland) – Swiss wines, vintage 2009, will be among those loved and remembered by consumers, thanks in large part to a warm, sunny and dry August that was enjoyed equally by humans and grapes. The 2009 official wine results are in, from the federal agricultural station Changins, near Nyon, and the news is good. The harvest, which began in September and for the most part ended in mid-October, was “very good”, with “exceptional” ripening conditions in August and early September. The one exception is some areas in canton Vaud’s La Côte region, hit hard by 15 minutes of hail 23 July, which wiped out some vine parcels’ (growing areas) grapes.
Grapes developed fully, with little rot occurring, thanks to dry weather in most parts of Switzerland: an “exemplary” situation where all climactic conditions came together to keep the grapes healthy.
Update 24 November 07:50 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Police continue to investigate the accident that put a 70-year-old man in hospital in serious condition Thursday 19 November after his Golf was hit by a Lamborghini Murcielago in Genthod, on the lake road. The driver was a 22-year-old Russian with an alcohol level of 1.11 per 1,000 (legal limit in Switzerland is 0.5), with a drivers license that is not valid in Switzerland. The car had Geneva plates. The Tribune de Geneve carries a front page story about the accident, suggesting that it was the result of a race or chase by four flash cars whose owners were trying to see which car is the fastest, a suggestion that other media have carried.
Geneva police spokesperson Patrick Pulh told GenevaLunch that police have not, in fact, been able to establish if there was any kind of race. “These cars make a lot of noise even when they are just idling.” he notes. “We haven’t been able to establish the speed at which they were going.” The ongoing investigation is seeking to clarify the roles of all the drivers involved, he says, and it’s difficult at this stage to say how long it will take.
Robert Taramarcaz, left, in a theatre production in August 2009 at his winery: top Chasselas producer
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Stefan Gysel from Hallau, canton Schaffhausen, age 32, has been named the Swiss Winemaker of the Year as part of the Grand Prix du Vin Suisse. A record 2,117 wines were entered, a 15 percent increase over 2008 for Switzerland’s main and only independent national wine competition. This is the third year of the competition, which evolved from an earlier national awards programme.
Two other top awards were given, the Vinissimo prize, which went to Alain Gerber of Hauteville, canton Neuchatel, for his Prélude 2007 in the category “wine with residual sugar” and the Swiss Bio prize to Reynald Permelin from Domaine de la Capitaine in Begnins, canton Vaud, for his Johanniter 2008 in the category “other single-grape white wines.”
