First day at Ob (Sunday, July 13, 2003)
Twenty-four hours on the way and a five-hour time shift - we left Prague on Friday morning and reached Klyuchiki on upper Ob, South of Novosibirsk, yesterday afternoon. We are in the same area where we equipped tree storks with "backpacks" last year. We firmly believe we will be able to do the same again this year.
Forester Nikolai Jushkov drove us in his GAZ jeep to examine the nests. Petr's nest is vacant, even though it seems visited from time to time. There are three youngs in Roman's nest, but none of their parents has a backpack and we were not able to catch any signal. We were not able to reach Katerina's nest but Nikolai showed us a "new" nest near Malyshevo, some twenty kilometers from here. I used the quotation marks for new because it has been there since 1995 or earlier, but Nikolai did not know about it until this year. Lubos Peske attached our catching device to this nest and we will soon try to catch the first black stork.
"What about the mosquitoes," I can hear you ask. It was unbearable a month ago, according to Nikolai. Now, it seems there are fewer than last year. But one cannot stay long in the forest without a mosquito net hat, gloves etc.
!["New" black stork nest near Malyshevo.](https://vltava.rozhlas.cz/sites/default/files/styles/lightbox/public/images/00144007.jpeg?itok=_rINOuda ""New" black stork nest near Malyshevo. | foto: Khalil Baalbaki")