NESTING OF THE WHITE STORK (CICONIA-CICONIA L) AND BLACK STORK (CICONIA-NIGRA L) IN THE WEST SLOVAKIA

The paper presents the results of a three-years investigation of the W hite Storks on the territory of the Protected Landscape Area Zahorie, the considerable part of which was closed to the public up to the year 1990. The first counting of the nests of White Stork could be made th ere only after the opening of the border with Western Europe. Altogeth er 34 nests were found in the investigated area, and of these 30 were in the alluvium of the river Morava. Majority of the nests was in the free landscape, out of the settlements. Ten nests were built on trees. The opening of the border zone to the public negatively influenced th e number of nesting pairs and number of the succesfully bred young.