Damian, the white stork and his first migration.

Damian, the white stork and his first migration.

In a Polish village, on a clear and beautiful Spring morning, two young girls are gazing out of their window from the eleventh floor when they notice a big nest built by a pair of white storks on top of a sycamore tree down below, not far from their building. They are pleasantly surprised when they see four small chicks in the nest, waiting for their parents to come feed them. The girls know that the chicks make a mew sound to beg for food and that's what they must be doing. The girls quickly grab their binoculars and take a close look at the nest and its occupants. While the parents have white feathers with black colour in the wings, red legs and pointed beaks, the chicks have sparse plumage, the legs are a dull brown and they have pink beaks. The girls are transfixed looking at the cute chicks, as they clamour for food brought by their parents. Then they notice one particular chick which seems to be bigger than the rest and most active of the lot. They give that chick a name - Damian.

Transformation of Damian over the first few days is amazing. From hatchlings, nestlings to fledglings, the progress was astounding, mesmerizing the girls as they took turns at the binoculars, gazing at the nest.

By instinct Damian wanted to escape from the nest as soon as he was three weeks old. The chances of survival increased if all the chicks were not in one place and became easy prey to the hawks, owls or falcons. So one day, following his instincts, and after a lot of hesitation, he fell from the nest and spread out its wing to break the fall. And, again by instinct, he flapped his wings to start his first flight, even though it was an ugly one! With practice, this initial flight was streamlined into an efficient one.

Damian spent the next few days, honing his skills in flying, and with confidence, increased the duration and distance of his flights. It was an exhilarating experience for him! For a couple of weeks, he still was dependent on his parents to get his meals. That did not prevent him though from making a few attempts at catching his prey, sometimes ending in hilarious situations! Once he stalked a small frog as it lay in shallow water. When it was in Damian's range, he made a grab for it but, alas! he was not quick enough; instead of the juicy frog, he got some mud and stones in his beak! But in a few days, he was good at hunting the small mammals, fish, reptiles, small birds, earthworms and insects. He was well fed and grew quickly into a healthy juvenile stork. 

Damian was now 6 months old when the good days of summer were almost over and it was autumn. By this time his wing span was close to four and half feet and he weighed three kilograms. He was good at communication with his parents, his siblings and the large flock of white storks populating the marshy land. As the weather got cooler, there was a gradual decrease in food supply for him and others. Damian knew by instinct and by the constant beak-clattering by the adults in a particular way that it was time to leave their breeding ground in Europe and start their momentous, long and arduous journey of survival to Africa. It was his first time but his brain was equipped and hard-wired to sense the exact time of migration and the best route suited to their location in Poland.

Damian saw flocks with thousands of birds departing daily in an organised and orderly manner. And then the red-letter day arrived for him. He felt immense exhilaration as he waited for his turn to get airborne. His parents had already departed when his time came. He took a few steps at a trot and then further flapped his huge wings to give him an upward lift. He put all his energy to increase the frequency of the flapping and thus gained speed and height. Soon he soared on the thermals in a spiral path and reached a height of five-thousand feet where the air resistance was low. It was an ideal height to complete his long journey southwards. Once he achieved that height and was getting uplift from the thermals, he only had to glide, occasionally flapping his wings to keep up to speed. That way he saved precious energy. The flapping flight metabolised twenty-five times more body fat than soaring.

The birds soon went into V - shaped formation to achieve minimum effort for the entire team. The formation had a single bird leading at the front and then two rows forming a V behind the leader. Damian was a juvenile and so had to be content with a 'back seat' at the tail end of the left row. He knew that the bird at the front end required the maximum effort while those in the two trailing rows had the benefit of reduced air resistance. The experienced and larger birds took their turn occupying the leader's role. Damian never got his turn at the top end as he was inexperienced and not fully developed yet. His time would come, he sighed!

Damian kept his distance from the bird in front of him depending on the speed at which they were travelling. He did not want to create a collision mid-air! He gazed at the earth down below. Looked so different! Everything had shrunk in size! He quickly learnt that a small amount of food was available mid-air as the small insects and spiders were caught in the rising thermals and were swept onto the birds' path. He soon became adept at spotting the insects and spiders and swaying expertly to catch them. Gotcha!

Damian did feel fatigued in mid-air as close to eight hours of continuous energy-sapping flight was something he was experiencing for the first time in his life. Again his in-built mechanism, ingrained in him since ages through his genes, helped him survive this arduous journey. He started taking short naps lasting about seven seconds each while still flying through the sky at a speed of hundred kilometres per hour! These series of power naps were refreshing, to say the least!

Damian was assured that the leading birds knew exactly where they were headed. They had the experience along with instincts to guide them. They had a superb eye-sight too so that they could easily fathom the right route by sighting the near and distant landmarks. Damian could feel in his own little head strange external forces interacting with nature's provisions to show him the direction. There was a magnetite material provided behind his beak which enabled him to locate the direction of earth's magnetic field. The true North and South poles were thus known to the migrating birds. His brain was also wired to navigate with the help of the sun's location in the sky during the day and the moon and the stars at night.

Damian felt the upward thrust of the warm thermals which eased his flight. However, these thermals were not generated over vast expanses of water. The leading birds with experience and instincts knew where these big swathes of water lay and so they made detours to stay over land. Damian was spending his tenth day in flight when he noticed the gradual increase in communication activities between the birds. The way they clattered their beaks generated different patterns of knocking sounds. Damian knew that the birds were making important decisions in respect of their journey. Soon he saw one group of birds, some distance from their flock, swerving right. That group would take the western path over the Strait of Gibraltar to avoid the big Mediterranean Ocean which loomed ahead, blocking their straight path towards Africa. His group decided to go left, selecting the Eastern path which took them over the Bosporus in Turkey. Both paths had their pros and cons. The Western route was much shorter but was more arduous. The Eastern path was longer but it required the same time as the other route. The birds took the same time flying by either route.

After every eight hours of flight or so, the flock settled down in an area suited to their feeding requirements. Damian being a juvenile, and of an age when his body was growing, required a substantial amount of food. He also had to take hundreds of seven second naps when on the ground. The short naps refreshed him while, at the same time, keeping him alert from the lurking dangers.

Their flight towards the South was uneventful till they reached Lake Qaraoun in Lebanon. Damian could sense that something was amiss because of the increased and excited beak-clattering of the storks in front of him. As they prepared to land in the marshy area around the lake, he heard sharp pulsating sounds emanating from the ground below. It seemed that the illegal hunters of the migrating storks were very active in that area. By instinct, Damian and the other birds went into an evading manoeuvre to escape the gun shots. He was unharmed but some were not so lucky. The flock got disturbed and went helter skelter before again assembling at a place further up their path. With this tragic experience, Damian formed a bad opinion of the two-legged upright walking mammals in that part of the world! 

The leading storks knew the perils of crossing the barren and the hot Sahara Desert and so instead they followed the corridor along the River Nile which would ensure a comfortable flight with plenty of food on the way.

Damian could now sense that their final winter destination was approaching. After such a long southbound journey, the birds land at their final destination in Uganda. They could cover such a long journey in only twenty-six days because of the tailwinds, and scarce supply of food on their route, at this time of the year. Their return journey would take much longer (forty-nine days to be exact), as there would be frequent stops to feast on the abundant supply of food. The headwinds would reduce their speed too.

Damian was elated that they had landed at a beautiful place full of vegetation and the lake promised a lot of food supply. His joy knew no bounds when he discovered that his parents had also landed at the same spot. A happy reunion after such an arduous and epic journey!