Storks like most birds are migrants.
Ancient Egyptians associated storks with the soul. The Hebrew word for white stork is chasidah meaning “merciful” or “kind”. Greek and Roman mythology portray storks as models of parental devotion, and it was believed that they did not die of old age, but flew to islands and took the appearance of humans. Storks, of course, also bring children to the world. At least that has been the enduring folkloric story told to generations of children to avoid talking about sex and reproduction. 1
In the village of Uznach, in Canton St. Gallen, Switzerland, Ernst Friedrich has built a stork colony. It is composed of about thirty, some black and mostly white storks.
In August and September, white storks fly south, from their summer breeding grounds in Europe, to Africa, spending the winters in Kenya, Uganda and as south as the Cape Province of South Africa.
Not the storks of Uznach. They do not migrate. Instead, they live there throughout the year.
Imagine if western European leaders would adopt the same attitude with the migrants from the east as Mr. Friedrich has with the storks from…
…well, where are migrant birds from? Where are migrants from? Isn’t everyone, at one point or another in history, a migrant?
Enjoy the images I captured of the storks from Uznach in June 2015.
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Beautiful – as were the flying trees :-)
Los pájaros son de los pocos seres vivos cuyo vuelo tiene una huella ecológica despreciable.
Cómparala con la de un viaje en jet o …¡¡¡la huella de un astronauta!!!