Long way home (Monday March 22, 2004)
Today around the noon of local time, Iristu stayed nearly 1500 kilometers from his wintering ground, over Afghanistan. He overcame a very dangerous part of his way over Pakistan without any drawback. Also Altynai started her long way to Siberian home, and during Saturday and Sunday, she flew over 400 kilometers over India.
Iristu followed nearly the same trace as when he had been flying to the wintering grounds up to the weekend. Then he diverted from it at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border slightly northward. It may be an illusory diversion - his coordinates are bad quality A with frequent errors in the longitude. After all, Iristu, a "tireless" in a long run, continues with a constant speed and could be, if keeping the same tempo, home in three weeks, in the mid-April. Will he not stop somewhere to wait for better weather near Ob? I'd bet he will not... The nesting, from laying the first egg till the chicks' fly-out, takes about 15 weeks to the Black Storks, so the arrival in the middle of April would be optimal. On the other hand, Novosibirsk reports nightly temperatures down to -30 degrees.
There is almost nothing to write about Altynai's travel. Yet she's been on her way for 2 days now. Let me mention that after the trip to the south and the next long stay near the wide surrounding of Lakhundar reservoir (where we had watched her in December), she moved almost 100 kilometers away north-eastward where she'd stayed till last Saturday.