OH saw a stork on its nest in Avenches on Thursday last so we decided to go out to Altreu in Solothurn canton and see if they'd arrived there too. And yes, there were several pairs already claiming their nesting spots. Haven't started building up their nests yet, but it won't be long. We go over several times a year to watch their progress and see the young ones once they're born. They also have an info centre in the village which is open from April to October - opens on the 15th April this year.

http://www.infowiti.ch/

How dare you try to give us false hope... Ned Stark is dead... DEAD! *weeps*

What?

Ned Stark.

Game Of Thrones.

Dead.

No Stork.

Still saying what? Has nothing to do with my opening post and a bit difficult to confuse Storks with Stark - unless you happen to be drunk on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Frogs have also started they migration to breeding ponds much earlier than normal. Conditions today are very Spring like- 15C in the valley and 9C up at 950 metres- totally bonkers.

Beautiful day here - outside temp guage is saying 14.9C!

Not been a good breeding season. Altreu has 42 breeding pairs, but only 29 young born. Only 5 had two young and many had none at all. Last year several pairs had 4 young each.

Don't know about Stork. More of a Flora man myself.

So much for teaching the teenagers about contraception.

This year in Altreu, plenty of nests and very few young birds. The weather was too cold.

Yeah, the nest in your first pic Big Mara had 4 young last year. We were afraid they'd lose one before they could fly because the nest was so crowded.

Now the storks will be storking us on the EF!

A pair of storks have settled in Bern, one with, & one without a ring,

https://www.berner-storch.ch/webcam/

so presumably they are not yet married...

Yes, they're back at Altreu too. We went out to see if they were last Saturday as the OH had spotted a stork on the nest in Avenches he sees when driving to/from work. And yes, a lot of them are back and busy building nests. Though with the recent windy weather they probably will have to make more repairs.

Kites are back too.

Let's hope storks do better this year. In 2016 more than 50% of youngsters died due to the very wet conditions in summer- combination of waterlogged feathers and lack of food.

Or one of them is cheating on it's usual partner?

Unlikely as they're monogamous. But it could be that the partner died and the other now has a new partner.

"It is a monogamous breeder, but does not pair for life."

"Although a pair may be found to occupy a nest, partners may change several times during the early stages and breeding activities begin only after a stable pairing is achieved."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_stork

Herring is a food smoked for nurtitional reasons, not recreational ones.