Altynai is at home! (Friday, April 16th 2004)
After 255 days, the stork female Altynai returned to her nesting place near Ob at the south of Novosibirsk area in Russia. She thus became the first black stork with closely mapped way to the Asian wintering place and back. Not counting short dislocations within the stops and wintering places, Altynai flew more than 9000 kilometers!
We marked Altynai with satellite and terrestrial transmitter last year in July (see Expedition to Siberia 2003). She left her nesting place near Ob on 4th September and reached the wintering place in the western Madhya Pradesh in India in 66 or 67 days (November 8 or 9). She moved away for 3400 kilometers along the beeline from the nest, however, she flew over the trace 4400 kilometers long. She covered this distance in 17 or 18 days, the remaining 49 days she spent at stops (she stayed longest near Syrdaria in the southern Kazakhstan - this area id probably very important for migratory water birds). During her "flight" days, she usually flew 150 to 300 kilometers per day. She also succeeded to overcome even 675 kilometers in one day!
In cooperation with the Bombay Natural History Society, we monitored Altynai in Madhya Pradesh in December shortly. We caught her in a downy quite dry and intensively agriculturally utilized landscape ear the retention pool Lakhundar. Around other 30 black storks stayed here together with Altynai. More information at Expedition to India.
In the first half of January, Altynai flew out across India further to south but soon got back to the western Madhya Pradesh. She started her way home on the first spring day and finished it after 26 days. This time she flew across the trace long 4100 kilometers "only". She remembered to stop near Syrdaria. If we won't count this stop, she flew home 15 days only... (For instance, she did cover even more than thousand kilometers in two days - April 12 and 13.)