Every year, the male stork Klepetan leaves his winter residence in southern Africa near Cape Town, about 14,500 kilometers away, and in the spring arrives to his companion Malena in a nest on the roof of the courtyard building of the regional primary school in Brodski Varoš. It takes him a little over a month to get to Malena. Klepetan wears a tracking collar. The female stork Malena with a broken wing, which has been cared for by a retired janitor for 28 years due to an injury, cannot travel with him but is faithfully waiting for him in their nest. They already have 66 offspring, and when the new birds hatches, Klepetan teaches them to fly until the beginning of August and then moves with them to southern Africa.
As the weather changes from year to year, the climate becomes more and more variable and all this affects the fact that Klepetan each year returns later. But one thing is for sure, he always comes back and the love story starts over and over again.
Croatia is a popular nesting place for white storks and about 1500 pairs live in Croatia. Klepetan and Malena are a pair of white storks (Ciconia ciconia). In the Lonjsko polje Nature Park you can see about 70 active white stork nests, and through our live webcam you can observe one of the white stork nests in the European white stork village Čigoč.