The first Mongolian stork at the wintering grounds (Tuesday November 2, 2004)
Well, it seems so: Chingiz has probably reached his wintering grounds. The satellites registered him on the same place as 2 days ago last night - in northern Myanmar (= Burma). To be precise, Chingiz is in the valley less than 100 kilometres west-north-westward from Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin state. And even more precise: he is near the Malakawng village... The surrounding mountains will probably be forested, but the in the valley - around the river and its affluents - there are probably number of little fields; the habitation density is similar to our countryside, according to the information on Internet. Daily temperatures are close to 30 °C now, nightly around 15 degrees. With ongoing winter there will be colder there, but still warm enough for the storks to spend the winter...
And also a short summary of Chingiz journey: He left the nesting place in the central Mongolia on September 26, and after six "flying" days stopped for 21 or 22 days in Mataigou by the Yellow river. He started to fly on October 23 or 24 again and reached the current place in 8 or maybe 9 days.
He flew along the trace 2900 km long (compare: Altynai had to pass 4400 km to her wintering grounds last year, Iristu 4750 km), his longest daily flyover was 475 km. He usually flew 200 km per day. He spent on his way 36 days in a whole (Altynai did 66 or 67 and Iristu did 58 or 59 last year).