Skip to main content

Storks

It’s a peculiar bird the Pelican,
Its beak can hold more than its belly can.
I don’t know a rhyme about a Stork but it too is a peculiar bird.
Firstly it’s a very large bird - standing at least waist height, with a large wingspan and very large beak.
It can fly but the peculiar thing about it, is that it nests in the most extreme, exposed places - at the top of buildings, next to bells, on telegraph poles, power lines (if not prevented from doing so by guards) and on specially contructed perches.

It nests singly or will form a sort of rookery (storkery?) if there’s enough perches available and it doesn’t appear to mind humans. This is probably because it’s clear that we pose no threat, as climbing bell towers on the outside or telegraph poles isn’t a common activity (unless you are Alain Robert)

In Extramadura, Storks are so common that even for the tourist they almost become a normal sight.

They are graceful in flight and seem to fly great distances to bring food for their young - judging by the time between flying off and returning - although that could also be because they have to find the food too.
If you have any memories of feeding the ducks then you will know how a duck makes its landing. It comes down towards the water on a low angle descent, out comes the undercarriage and it then touches the water, skidding along the surface until eventually stopping.
A Stork on the otherhand, doesn’t have the luxury of the aircraft carrier deck to aim for. It needs to make a pinpoint stop on top of the tower, which is covered by the nest anyway. So it flies horizontally but on final approach it turns downwards and then arcs back up into a perfect stall so that it has lost all speed just as it touches the nest and it simply holds on. Landed!

Comments

I looked for some stork rhymes to share. Came up with these two little 'beauties' - with hindsight it's probably better not to know any

Mum - are you leaning out the landy to get a better view? Or are you demonstrating a version of chicken!!?!



Last Night The Stork Came Calling
Last night the stork came calling
And there beneath its wing.
Lay sleeping oh so sweetly
The tiniest little thing.

From babyland so far away
Beside a silver sea,
Was brought a special treasure
As a gift to you and me.


The farmer and the stork (a nursery rhyme)

A Farmer placed his nets on his newly sown plough lands, and caught a quantity of Cranes, which came to pick up his seed. With them he trapped a Stork also. The Stork, having his leg fractured by the net, and was earnestly besought the Farmer to spare his life. Pray, save me, Master, he said, and let me go free this once. My broken limb should excite your pity. Besides, I am no Crane, I am a Stork, a bird of excellent character; and see how I love and slave for my father and mother. Look too, at my feathers, they are not the least like those of a Crane.

The Farmer laughed aloud, and said: "It may be all as you say; I only know this, I have taken you with these robbers, the Cranes, and you must die in their company."



Moral: Birds of a feather flock together.

By Aesop
Tim said…
Oh wow that's a bit harsh. Are the other fables equally so?
Ruth Totterdell said…
We visited a village with lots of storks in India. I loved it. When they were flying overhead and there was a shadow it was like being in Jurassic park! Crazy birds.

Popular posts from this blog

The empty map of Macedonia and into Greece

Continuing south towards the Serbia / Macedonia border, the satnav warned of a lack of detail, "do you wish to continue with this route?" However we are not intrepid explorers and Macedonia comes with a few " be careful" warnings, so we decided to stay on the motorway :-) We didn't explore Serbia; it will wait for another trip. So it was on to the border. Here, passport and V5 were required again and also proof of insurance. We didn't have any of course. When we rang the UK insurance company call centres prior to the trip, most had no idea where these countries are. They don't understand non-EU. "Macedonia - can you spell that"? The nice man at the passport office was already expecting me to say that I would buy my insurance at the "Green card office" and he handed back one passport and the V5 and put mine in his pocket until I had the necessary paper for the Landy. Unfortunately in spite of the Land Rover being classed as PL...

"I'm the dog"

El Berro and  Camping Sierra Espuña  are nicely positioned for walking in these 'low' Sierras and of course the obligatory GR XYZ  long distance path crosses the village. The campsite people gave us a couple of short walk suggestions, written on A4 and translated by some English guy, Michael Ball. We waited until the end of the afternoon, so that the temperature was somewhat manageable and then picked one of the ~1 hour walks that start at the campsite. The walk is so simple that there's no description, just a small diagram that's well annotated with the type of path (wide main track / footpath), other markers (gate, incorrect route, fence). You can't go wrong, can you? Well the first part was easy. Follow the path out of the village, up a valley, through woodland, up and up. Then reach the ridge and the marked ring of stones. Don't turn right, carry on straight across. Then wander through a few trees and down to a dry riverbed, at which point you walk the (ve...

Our Landy

Here is our new Landy. It's a 1996 Defender 110 County Station Wagon. The engine is the 300Tdi which is a straightforward diesel that doesn't have an ecu so we won't need access to computer diagnostics in order to fault find. It was bought at the end of 2014 in 'restored' condition, but we soon discovered that the restoration was wallpaper and in fact it required some serious work on the drivetrain, hubs and brakes. The jobs done: Rear half-shafts and drive flanges Front n/s CV joint and drive flange Front ventilated brake discs One old and one new front disc New brake callipers fitted to each corner Rear lower link arm bushes Front radius arm bushes New shockers all round Front turrets replaced with galvanised versions New transmission brake shoes ( after replacing the failed rear transfer box oil seal). Replaced the rear body cappings with galvanised - hence the silver coloured band around the body. Galvanised capping, supports the r...