The best day (Thursday 17th July 2003)
"We'll try yet the nest near Malyshev?" we were making the decision last evening. We already failed there once. The stork just sat at the edge of the nest for a second so that it wasn't possible to trap him. To tell the truth, we weren't expecting we could be any more successful next time. But we already marked the stork at "Roman's" nest - and there was no nest other than Malyshev one we knew about (we don't like the idea of trapping both old storks at one nest and so we need three nests suitable for trapping). This morning we left for Malyshev.
At eight, Lubos got hidden into a shelter near the nest and, while Jarda and Khalil stayed nearby to help him in case we managed to trap the stork, I drove away with Nikolai to search for other nests. With his friend Vovka Shamalkov we approached the nest that was said to have been occupied for years. We found it abandoned.
We returned to Malyshev nest before noon. Jarda and Khalil weren't there. Even Lubos wasn't in the shelter. Success?
We drove to a forest glade. Lubos nearly finished putting the transmitter on the stork's back!
"It's the biggest male we ever trapped," he says. "Three point six kilograms!"
Viva! We've got two storks already. Two days ago we did not believe things could run so smooth...
So now we have to find the third nest. Today with Nikolai and yestarday altogether we tried to discover it. There are still many chances the one in Taradanov looks probable.We've got friends there, mainly Oleg Zakourcev who helped us even last year.
After we got to Oleg's place this afternoon, his neighbors started to gather. One of them claimed he knew about a nest on the ground. It's strange but we'll make sure. Three boys who arrived on a horse-carriage just mentioned that they knew about a nest not distant from the village. At first, we did not pay to them but then we started to question them.
Half an hour later we stood under an occupied nest! One of the boys - Sash Lebedyev - showed us. Now we've got the third nest and a good hope that we'll soon succeed to mark the third stork. Today was a wonderful day...
