Flying Easter (Tuesday, April 13th 2004)
Both storks were flying during Easter. Iristu was 600 and Altynai 700 kilometers away from the nest. It's a question of a few days for them to reach the nesting area.
I am deliberately writing about "nesting area" and not about the nesting near Ob. It's all because of Iristu who's persistently flying northeastward - as if he did not fly to Ob but somewhere near Yenisey. He may still change the course, but yesterday he was one degree eastern from his last year's nest.
And a brief summary now: Altynai stayed near Syrdaria till Saturday, April 10th. Her current progress is very quick - she flew over 250 kilometers yesterday between 4. and 9. o'clock GMT. Iristu left his stop near Balkhash lake either on Thursday 8th or on Friday 9th April and his direction to the nesting place is, compared to Altynai, a bit more reasonable... You can find the exact coordinates here and the new map system here.
Update 15.30: Altynai is only 250 kilometers from home now. She flew more than 1000 kilometers since yesterday morning till this afternoon!