Latest news with #whiteStork
Times
04-07-2025
- General
- Times
Grace takes flight in the return of white storks
It is remarkable how introduced species seem so utterly at home here. The befittingness is instant. We learnt this from the reintroduction and subsequent spread of the spectacular red kite. We are learning it afresh from the return of the white stork, below, to the Knepp Estate in West Sussex. The storks themselves act as if they had never been away — for several centuries. Airborne, white storks are grace personified. On still, azure days, groups of these large, streamlined white and black birds spiral in vortexes, up and away into the ether, out of sight but not out of mind. They also have a charming and calming contact call, which we belittlingly term 'beak rattling'. Heard distantly, it seems to emanate from somewhere beyond the here and now. It is an integral part of Knepp's immense depth of spirit of place, its genius loci. Knepp's breeding storks have produced 45 youngsters this year, making a total population of 90. Come August, many of these birds will migrate south. But Knepp is no one-trick wonder. It is renowned for its spring nightingales, now fallen silent, and a burgeoning turtle dove population. It also holds our largest population of purple emperor butterflies. The emperors are having one of their periodic years of abundance, perhaps even my lifetime's best. Emperor males are fearless and absurdly territorial. At high population level they become so over-zealous that they will chase anything larger than a bee out of their treetop airspace. Last year, I saw one chase off a little egret; the year before, a cormorant. This year, they have already assaulted four low-flying storks. They meet their nemesis when, armed only with a dazzling iridescence and a humongous ego, they attack insect-hunting hobbies, and get crunched. This time 50 years ago, the hot summer of 1975 was beginning to flame, albeit after a harsh late frost at May's end and snow in early June as far south as London (snow famously stopped play in the Derbyshire v Lancashire cricket match at Buxton on June 2). June dragged on in sullen heat. July wavered awhile, but then the sun broke through and ruled supreme. This was the precursor to the long hot summer of 1976. But weather, like history, scarcely repeats itself, making lessons hard to learn. Dutch elm disease rampaged that summer. Alison Ross, writing from Sussex in The Times described how the elm-dependent white-letter hairstreak butterfly 'fluttered over the dying wych elms in profusion' (August 25, 1975). I remember that abundance well. We lost virtually all our giant sentinel English elms during two sunstruck years, transforming the character of huge tracts of landscape and causing populations of elm-associated insects to crash, near-catastrophically. Some of those insects have recovered, somewhat, including this diminutive butterfly. Others have faded almost from memory, notably a handsome moth called the white-spotted pinion, which breeds on young shoots growing out of the trunks of tall elms (epicormic growth). Until that era, rookeries were strongly associated with stands of sentinel English elms. Ironically, the tree most favoured by rooks in recent years has been the ash, now being destroyed by dieback disease. Perhaps history does repeat itself but it would be naive to think that we're coping better with ash dieback than we did with Dutch elm disease. This year continues to rush forward. It is almost as if it wants to become next year. Down south, the vegetation on Midsummer Day spoke of mid-July: hawthorn berries were reddening, oaks were adorned with tiny stalked acorns, beech trees laden with swollen nuts, and many bramble flowers ending. Unless serious drought kicks in, we are going to see a bumper crop of fruits, nuts and berries come autumn, but that's another story. Insects have been appearing unusually if not unprecedentedly early. Butterflies are emerging so early that new county and even national appearance records are being set. On June's final day, I saw a brown hairstreak — a month early. Some species may squeeze in extra broods. They are weather-driven opportunists and many of them have recovered impressively from last year's bad-summer decline. Numbers of the two 'cabbage whites' are unusually high, and should increase further. They breed on a wide variety of plants allied to the cabbage family, wild and cultivated. Additionally, we receive immigrations from continental Europe. Come mid-August, we may be seeing mini blizzards of them. On the debit side, watch the wasps, they're coming too. Nature is ever a blend of nice and nasty.
The Independent
06-06-2025
- General
- The Independent
Conservationists celebrate as long-vanished bird returns to the UK
Conservationists have hailed the white stork as "an emblem for nature recovery" as they work to reintroduce the long-vanished breeding bird to the UK. Once a common sight in Britain, with their large nests adorning rooftops, buildings, and trees, the birds disappeared centuries ago due to hunting and habitat loss. While migratory storks still visit from the continent, conservationists say that the lack of existing colonies prevents them from settling to breed. Since 2016, a reintroduction project in southern England has been underway, aiming to establish new colonies using rehabilitated injured storks. These colonies are intended to act as a "magnet," attracting other wild birds to settle and breed. The scheme has enabled a wild population of breeding storks re-establish itself for the first time in centuries and delivered unexpected benefits for other birds and wildlife, conservationists say. The white stork project uses rescued non-flying birds from Warsaw Zoo, Poland, some of which are kept at Cotswold Wildlife Park where they breed, with their young released from Knepp Estate, in West Sussex and Wadhurst Park in East Sussex, to encourage them to come back there to nest. Other Polish birds, some of which have injuries that mean they can fly short distances but not migrate, live in or around pens on the estates, breeding and establishing the founding colonies that will attract other storks. At Knepp, the storks are in a landscape that has been 'rewilded' since 2000, with former agricultural land turned over to natural processes using animals including longhorn cattle, red and fallow deer and pigs, whose grazing and foraging help create a mosaic of scrub, disturbed ground and grassland. There are also areas of woodland, the river has been restored to a more natural state and in just a few years, beavers in an enclosure have turned a small stream into wetlands rich in dragonflies, damselflies and other insects. Walking through the scrub and grassland punctuated by large trees, it is hard to miss the metre-tall storks soaring through the skies or stalking through the grass, while the distinctive bill 'clattering' they make echoes through the landscape. White stork project officer Laura Vaughan-Hirsch said they 'love it' at Knepp, where the rewilding process has created healthy soils and habitat and an abundance and diversity of insect life. While they are primarily wetland birds, 'they love mixed habitats, grasslands, woodlands and lovely big trees to nest in, anything that's insect-rich, worm-rich, that's their thing', she said. The first chicks were born to birds nesting in the trees in 2020, and non-flying storks produced their first young in ground nests in the fox-proof enclosure in 2023. This year Ms Vaughan-Hirsch said at least six birds born at Knepp have returned after an annual migration to Africa to nest in the colony, including one who has set up home in the same tree as her parents, and has been stealing nesting material from them. The team are expecting around 40 fledglings in 2025, including youngsters from the ground-nesting storks which are hand-fed pieces of fish to supplement food their parents can source in the pen. The storks' success at Knepp shows that 'sort the habitat out, the soils, insects, healthy water systems, and then your storks will come eventually,' she said. 'We all see the white stork as a big charismatic species but what it really is, is an emblem for nature recovery,' she said. With each chick needing 35kg of food, such as crickets or worms, between hatching and fledging, their survival in the landscape is an indicator of how healthy the ecosystem is. And in turn the storks' nests – which can weigh up to a tonne – in trees or even on roofs attract an array of insects, while wrens, collared doves, house sparrows and, this year for the first time, blue tits have been seen nesting in the vast structures. Isabella Tree, who owns Knepp with her husband Charlie Burrell, said their impact on other species was an 'unexpected outcome' of the reintroduction. 'What are we are seeing is that even species that don't have a reputation as being keystone species have an effect on ecosystems. 'They are doing extraordinary things that we had never really known about.' And she said: 'We think we know what impact a species will have on the landscape, but how can we when our landscape is so fragmented and so depleted. The only way to find out is to try it.' It is ever more important as climate change pushes species to find new habitat to boost populations of even birds with naturally big ranges, she suggests. She said the scheme had naysayers in the beginning – including conservationists who did not think it should be attempted or would work. But she said: 'The absolute joy and excitement is that they are now flying to Morocco on migration and coming back and nesting and having chicks and interacting with wild birds and bringing wild birds back with them as pairs.' And the storks are a 'totem' for wider river catchment restoration and a way of connecting people with nature, she said. 'We have such a long relationship with these birds, from thousands of years ago, from Egyptians, and ancient Greeks and ancient Islam these birds have been cherished, and they're somehow in our DNA. 'We recognise ourselves in them, they kind of walk like us, they look like brigadiers on a parade ground when they're walking across the fields, and when they're flying they look like pterodactyls,' she said. Further projects to reintroduce storks are under way in Cornwall and Devon. And at Knepp it is hoped the birds will spread out from the estate and start nesting away from the current colony, raising the possibility that, in some areas at least, they will become a familiar sight in the skies, trees and on rooftops again.
BBC News
21-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
Belfast: Rare sighting of white stork in Northern Ireland
A rare sighting of a white stork has caught people's attention in various parts of Northern Ulster Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (USPCA) posted on Facebook that it had received "numerous calls from concerned members of the public regarding an "injured stork over the past two days". It seems the bird was spotted in Botanic Gardens, Belfast, parts of Downpatrick in County Down and even in Donegal.A USPCA wildlife officer assessed the stork in Belfast and found it to be "in good health and free flying". Storks are not native to Northern Ireland and the charity has advised the public, especially dog owners, to leave the wildbird alone."We would advise the public, not to approach, and give the bird as much space as possible to avoid stress. Dog owners should also be aware around the bird," it charity added that if left alone the stork will move on, but if anyone has further concerns to contact them. The bird appears to have a metal ring attached to its leg, which might indicate it is from a private collection. The white stork was spotted in Botanic Gardens in Belfast on Tuesday but seemed to be in good spirits, according to onlookers. History of storks on the British Isles White storks are a breeding bird of southern Europe, with a red bill and black and white feathers. A small breeding population live in southern England as part of a reintroduction attempt in 2016, according to the charity British Trust for Ornithology (BTO).The only documented record of a pair of white storks breeding in the UK is from Scotland in 1416, when a pair was reported to have nested on St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh. The BTO added that, "since the 1960s, white storks have been recorded in small, but increasing, numbers as scarce migrants, some of which have been considered to be of wild origin, while others are likely to have been released or be birds that have escaped from collections or from reintroduction projects, making it difficult to accurately assess their numbers".
