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 For three years, black stork female Kristyna has been observed. With a small communication kit on her back, she has flown to tropic Africa three times and each time she has safely returned home. Modern technology made it possible to track her pilgrimage properly and accurately. Now, we would like to learn as much as possible about Kristyna's life in the Czech Republic - while she is nesting in Brdy hills. However, we do not stand alone doing so. That is why we have put the whole thing on the Internet LIVE sessions. Well, feel free to enter the site and watch live the nest of Kristyna.
Saturday, August 15 1998 As we have previously announced, the live session from the nest has reached its end. Within future weeks and months, we will evaluate the data collected during the live project. The results will be presented on this page. We plan to expose the most interesting recorded material from the nest there, too. Stay tuned! If you want to follow further adventures of Kristyna, David and the babies, bookmark the African Odyssey site right now. -mb- Little Dragons got their transmitters Just a step behind parents Kristyna and David, the three baby storks were equipped with tiny transmitters, too. This happened in the Brdy hills, where the storks are currently nesting. Thus, the African Odyssey project entered a new phase. The project is led by the Czech Radio 2 Prague. For three years, black storks pilgrimages to Africa have been observed. If the journey to the winter habitat was mapped, the project would reach another world record. The three babies have already receive their communication sets, but they do not have been named yet. This is to become possible after laboratory test that should determine their sex. So far, they have been given an alias "little dragons" (both for their wild feeding-time behavior and their appearance) and color ring codes they have been marked with: ARU, ASU a AJU. The little dragons came to life at the end of May. They are supposed to stay in the nest for next two weeks. Every day, they spent more time standing and training their wings (from time to time, they jump up using the wings, but right after that they get scared and sit back), they clean the feather, rearrange the sticks in the nest (trying to find out whether it possible to eat them) and they can not wait to see Kristyna and David. The parents keep bringing small fish all the time. The DHL Worldwide Express company has become the official sponsor of the storks satellite control and the God-father of the storks for the next season coming. Miroslav Bobek, Czech Radio 2 - PRAHA Thursday July 9 1998 Another male black stork named David was equipped with the satellite and ground transmitter kit. He is taking care of the three babies in Brdy hills woods together with his female partner Kristyna. In a couple of weeks, additional storks are going to be equipped with the communication kit; the babies of Kristyna and David may be marked, too. Thus, for the very first time in history, the journey to Africa could be mapped with the whole family of migrant birds. Miroslav Bobek, Czech Radio 2 - PRAGUE Wednesday, July 8 1998 Since weekend, there have been serious problems with image transmitting. It is still raining heavily and there is nothing we can do to fix the devices. In fact, the rain and the moist might be the reason of the transmission failure. The forest got swamped and impedes the video signal transmission. Chances are when the sun starts shining, the transmission runs well again. However, we are going to do our best to find out the reason and to fix the problem (we hope there is another solution then cut all the trees). Honza is preparing a new amplifier and aerials. A good news: we hope the transmission to be restored on Friday. Images shot in previous days can be found on the African Odyssey website. -mb- June 22, 1998 Kristyna's got a new "backpack" Black stork female named Kristyna has got a new "backpack" (the fourth one counted from 1995) containing a satellite transmitter and a ground transmitter. The new kit is to enable tracking Kristyna in the next 12 months. Thus, the African Odyssey project has entered a new phase and still it is a leading project (compared with other projects, most of all American ones). Kristyna holds several world records:
The African Odyssey projects follows both scientific and media purposes. Regular information are available in the Czech Radio 2 - PRAGUE program. Feel free to visit the web site of the African Odyssey at http://capi.internet.cz; or the live show from Kristyna's nest at http://kristyna.rozhlas.cz. The most important shots are available each Friday in the Czech TV 1 program called Studio 6. Miroslav Bobek, Czech Radio 2 - PRAGUE Prague, June 9 Black stork female Named Kristyna (she has been observed for three years in the African Odyssey project) and her "husband" male David take care of her four babies. Via Internet technology, visitors from more than 70 countries all around the world have seen the story going in the nest. The LIVE sessions broadcast from the nest (it is situated in the Brdy Hills) has been officially started in May 25, 1998. At the time, however, Kristyna a David were warming the eggs and they were spending most of the time just sitting in the nest without any move to be seen. Recently, the life in the nest has dramatically changed. The babies are rising their heads and exploring the nest's neighbourhood. Kristyna and David are feeding the babies and they are protecting them from the direct sun or rain. David keeps bringing small twigs and moss to maintain the nest. Within last days, there have been some troubles with the LIVE show transmission (some recorded material was exposed on the Internet site). Forutnately, the problems have been solved successfully. Now the LIVE signal includes both image and sound tracks. However, the sound portion of the record is not being distributed on the Internet, as it is intended to be used within the Czech Radio 2 PRAGUE programme (e. g. Meteor, "stork" news in Good morning programme, etc.). 
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