photo - east newsUp to 40 percent of stork nests in north-eastern Poland are empty this spring.
Experts from the Polish Bird Protection Society, who monitor the stork population in this part of Poland, are baffled. Even in the popular “stork village” of Zywkowo there are conspicuously less storks than a year before. The village, with only nine farms, was a nesting place for 45 stork couples. Now, a half of the nests are empty.
“A lot of storks may have died during the autumn and spring migrations”, says Krzysztof Molewski, a Society member. “I have received photographs from Turkey, showing high voltage utility company lines, which were virtually white because so many storks got killed on them.”
A lot of young storks get killed during their first migrations from Europe to Africa. “Statistically, there should be 3-4 young ones in each nest to ensure the continuity of this species”, Krzysztof Molewski told the Polish news agency PAP.
Bird experts hope that some storks will make it to Poland eventually and manage to breed. Those, which arrived in early April, are already sitting on the eggs.
Over 40,000 out of the world’s 160,000 stork couples breed in Poland, so one in four of the Earth’s storks is Polish. (kk)