Triumph of White Stork

Sarny Teachers’ College of Rivne State Humanitarian University received an honorary diploma signed by Prince Joseph Wenzel of Liechtenstein. The award was given for the work on monitoring the white storks. The study was conducted by Iryna Slobodzian, local teacher, and her students, encompassing the territory of the three oblasts – Rivne, Zhytomyr, and Volyn. The research has been a part of an international educational program “Stork,” which is organized by the Ornithological Society of Western Ukraine in cooperation with Polish institutions; in 2011 the Principality of Liechtenstein joined the program. More than 200 educational institutions participate in the research, including the Sarny Teachers’ College.

 “The program has several areas of research, including bird watching, counting baby storks, study of the stern area, collecting legends about storks. We are engaged in monitoring the nests of these birds,” says Iryna Slobodzian. “In the college I established the association ‘University Nature,’ the members of which are first-year students. One of the association’s activities is collecting the information on the storks’ nests. According to the results of our past year’s survey, 80 settlements in Rivne, Zhytomyr, and Volyn oblasts had 400 nests of these birds. By the way, some villages have no nests at all. Sometimes we find a place where a stork nest was destroyed by lightning. And sometimes a nest is just abandoned by the birds. Some of the nests are built directly on the power lines. There were reported cases when electricians had to make a special platform to lift them up. There are nests that weigh up to half a ton – in case one of them falls, the power line might be damaged. In general, the information on the nests of these birds is interesting for science. White Stork is not listed in the Red Book of Ukraine – however, their flights are researched as some of the birds are GPS-tracked. For example, the storks from our area spend their winter in the South and West Africa. Meanwhile, any information collected is donated to Rivne Nature Reserve, the institution we cooperate with.”

 The Sarny Teachers’ College takes part in the “Stork” program since 2007. And for the first time it receives such an award. According to Iryna Slobodzian, they have been awarded for the consistency of their work and research. Apart from the honorary diploma, the institution was also presented with multimedia equipment worth 500 euros.