Storks on the move
2022 heralds an unusual anniversary in the world of birds and bird migration. In 1822 a hunter in Germany shot down a White
Stork with a 75-cm spear impaled in its neck. The spear was made of black wood and was clearly African in origin. Until then no one knew where White Storks went to in winter, as the concept of migration as we know it hadn’t been proved and there were many theories, including birds flying to the moon.
There have now been at least 25 ‘ Pfeilstorsch’ or arrow-pierced storks found in Germany, and with modern ringing and tracking techniques we know a lot more about the migration of White Storks. The original specimen was stuffed and can be seen in the Zoological Collection of the University of Rostock in Germany.
The last wild White Storks to breed in Britain were at St Giles Cathedral in
Edinburgh in 1416, so
British zoologists never really wondered where they went. Elsewhere in Europe ringing revealed that there were two migration routes for storks, one in the west, across the Straits of Gibraltar, and the other to the east, across the Bosphorus in Turkey, and then through the Middle East and into Africa. However, recent tracking has shown that some storks have changed their migration strategy, and instead of going to North Africa, they remain in Spain, feeding on refuse tips.
In Britain, the White Stork Project, based in Kent, Surrey and East and West Sussex, is aiming to re-establish a breeding population of storks in Britain using wild birds from Poland and northern France. In May 2020 the first chicks hatched successfully in a nest with a released female bird, and a wild male as parents. In 2021 several pairs hatched chicks and 14 young fledged.
Nobody knows exactly what migration strategy these birds will have as Polish birds usually head east, and French birds go west. All of the released birds from the project, as well as the young hatched so far, have been ringed and some of them GPS-tagged to help with following their movements. Tracking and reports of ringed birds have shown that some have flown to Europe, with reports from The Netherlands, France and Spain, and one bird called Marge has reached Morocco. If you want to follow the progress of the project and see the movements of the birds go to