The first white storks have begun their autumn migration from Ukraine to Africa, even as chicks remain in many nests across the country, according to Vitaliy Hryshchenko, deputy director for scientific affairs at the Kaniv Nature Reserve.
Hryshchenko said the earliest birds to depart are those with nothing holding them back: adults that did not breed this year, pairs whose nesting failed, and pairs whose chicks fledged early. Young storks began leaving nests as early as the first week of July.
After the young depart, family groups gradually merge into flocks that gather in food-rich areas such as pastures, meadows, and harvested fields before joining the main southward stream.
Hryshchenko noted that autumn migration works in reverse to spring: where large flocks break into pairs as birds head to nesting sites, they merge into ever-larger groups on the way south. Flocks passing through Ukraine typically number in the tens or hundreds. At the Bosphorus, thousands gather, and in Israel flocks of up to 100,000 white storks have been seen passing simultaneously, effectively blotting out the sky.
