ESTONIA Jõgeva County NEW NEST

[marika.solo]

- 18.00 time for preening, resting and fist long neck and at 18.11.33 out

[marika.solo]

May 14
Hello everyone

YT
And it is a bit raining?
​​7:12 arrival male
​​7:12 good ps to the left
slightly nest work
​​7:17 resting, standing on one leg
Today is a rainy day everywhere in Estonia.
it is the strange male
​​7:11:37 both wings are good visible

[marika.solo]

Just yesterday I was relatively closely monitoring the events at the nest and I have no idea how many actors there are.
Of the incubating pair, the male is certain (he has a wing with missing feathers), and then only the young female visitor with a ring.
And there is the stork that often came and stood on the parent branch.
Are there any other storks in the scene? The pair on the nest at the time of the presence of the ringed stork somehow does not fit into the familiar picture.

[marika.solo]

Today male some time shortly calls, moves the nest material and is resting.

[marika.solo]

- 12.19 he is again calling, permanently and ... female arrived to the nest
- male settles down and ​she is preening him (courtship ritual)

[marika.solo]

- since morning the same male has been here with complete feathers on his wings - but who is she? and is he the male who has been persistently visiting the parent branch?
- her behaviour towards the male (the same one that is here now?) only changed yesterday when the female with the ring was there

- it's hard to say whether this female "cheated" this male (maybe he arrived late) or this female "cheated" the male with that wing (with gap) ​... what is the true story of this nest, story of this pair that we see now on the nest?

[marika.solo]

17.03 mating (time stamp is not good visible)

[marika.solo]

- for night the male is back on the nest (arrived at 19.52)

[marika.solo]

for identification only

[marika.solo]

May 15
Hello everyone

- male spent the night on the nest
- some nest rearranging, but no new nest material is delivered
- female arrived in the morning at 08.20
- when she flies away, the male immediately calls her back (she often returns)

the courtship continues - today we see repeatedly mating (successful - "cloacal kiss" mostly visible)
male is often down/"sitting" and female is preening him

btw. they do not mate just for having offspring - they build and/or strengthen their relationship/bond (mating is also seen during incubation and even at the end of a successful season)

as always, we can only watch and accept what happens ...