The Friends of the Storks groups in Ovenhausen and Lütmarsen, who are working closely together on the Grube Storks project, are celebrating a great year. Michael Jöbges from Recklinghausen succeeded in ringing three young storks high up on the tall chimney in Ovenhausen; in Lütmarsen there were four young birds in the eyrie in its first year of use. There were actually five storks in the nest to begin with, but one of the youngsters was knocked out and died. “It’s extremely rare to have four stork chicks,” explained Jöbges, a volunteer at the Heligoland Institute of Avian Research.
