The camera is running from dawn to dusk, but those who opt for the regular show "Brooding Storks on Power Poles" don't have to hope for too much action in the next few days.

Because the two couples selected for this purpose, whose everyday life on the outskirts of Mainz will be presented to a larger audience via live web cam for the time being, have only just moved into their new home.

Markus Schug

Correspondent Rhein-Main-Süd.

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"Eggs have not been laid yet.

But that can happen any day,” says Mainzer Netze GmbH, which is not the first time that interested viewers have been able to look over the shoulders of the birds, also known as rattle storks, while they are incubating and raising their young – i.e. for about a month can look.

In the northern Ried alone, on the Mainspitze and around Mainz and Wiesbaden, there are currently around 500 of the well-travelled migratory birds that, at least in the past, liked to spend the winter in Africa.

Increasingly, however, guests are now staying in Germany even during the cold months, where they can be found in Büttelborn, for example, all year round in the vicinity of the local rubbish dump.

Wind turbines are supposed to keep storks away from dangerous places

Either way, the Rhine Valley from Ingelheim to Biebesheim has long been one of the most densely populated stork regions in Europe.

Because life on pylons is not without danger for the nest dwellers, Mainzer Netze GmbH and Überlandwerke Groß-Gerau GmbH have come up with some ideas to protect the birds.

Small wind turbines have been mounted on some high-voltage pylons to keep the storks away from dangerous places.

The two raised hides near Laubenheim monitored by the webcam are in any case located at “uncritical points on the power pole”, so that the expected family idyll should not be disturbed.

The live broadcast can be viewed online at https://www.mainzer-stadtwerke.de/nachhaltigkeit/tier-und-umweltschutz

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