This year so far birding has often seemed like trying to get blood out of a stone. Twitchable rarities have been few and far between and even scarce birds have been, well, scarce on the ground. This has made the usual summer birding doldrums seem even duller than usual.
So a juvenile rare Black Stork in Suffolk hence seemed worthy of a visit, and by this I mean a seven hour return journey drive. I’m either desperate or completely bonkers – my ever suffering wife certainly thinks the latter! I’ve only ever seen one in the UK, a brief flyover a few years back at Frampton RSPB so the chance to hopefully photograph this, by all accounts, obliging teenager was very tempting.
White Storks in the UK are troublesome birds. They went extinct as a breeding species in Britain in 1416 when the last recorded breeding pair nested on the roof of St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh. A significant number of recently reintroduced, and hopefully ringed, birds combined with the odd escapee hide the odd real european vagrant making it hard to decide which are really tickable.
The much rarer, at least in the UK, Black Stork usually has easier provenance. As far as I’m aware, they have never bred in the UK and, rather obviously therefore, there is no plan to (re)introduce them. That said, its breeding range is moving slowly northwards with the seemingly inevitable warming of the climate so who knows – perhaps my grandchildren will be watching them nesting in UK parks in the future. The Suffolk birds credentials are also enhanced by it being an unringed Juvenile, i.e hatched this spring. Unlike its white cousin, the literature describes it as a shy and weary species making the confiding Suffolk bird even more alluring.
For comparison, here’s what an adult looks like curtsey of my friend Nick taken in Lesvos this spring.
Now this is by no means a tiddler of the bird world, rather measuring on average 95 to 100 cm from beak tip to end of tail with a 145-to-155 cm wingspan, this is a truly impressive bird. The adult Black Stork has, yes you’ve guess it again you old clever clogs, mainly black plumage with white underparts, long red legs and a long pointed red beak. It is a widespread but uncommon species which breeds in scattered locations across Europe (predominantly in Portugal and Spain, and central and eastern parts), and east across the Palearctic to the Pacific Ocean. It is a long-distance migrant with European populations wintering in tropical Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asian populations in the Indian subcontinent.
I’ve never been to this RSPB reserve and, somewhat surprisingly, I didn’t see any of the usual brown signposts but my sat nav eventually took me down a small lane and I found a place to park next to a farm as instructed by RBA. Now the weather forecast was light showers changing to sunny intervals but the ominous looking sky said otherwise. I had read that it was a good 30 minute walk to the Storks location so I decided to put full waterproofs on and I’m dam glad I did as It absolutely threw it down a couple of times while I was there. Back on my well-worn hobby horse again. I don’t know why the met office bother with their multi-million pound supercomputer. I recon it would be just as accurate and save the taxpayer a lot of money if they wrote various weather conditions on bits of paper, sunny, heavy rain etc., threw them in a bucket and picked one out!
I walked out along the sea wall as instructed by RBA and met several returning birders who assured me that the Stork was still there and “showing well”. It had been very faithful to a dyke adjacent to the sea wall and was indeed feeding there on what looked like small amphibians when I arrived. I spent some 4 hours on site chatting to other birders as is my want and getting very good views of the youngster between the torrential rain showers. Wisely, it tended to take cover under the bank when the heavens opened. Although I knew how big the Stork was I was still surprised by its size, especially so as it was still in an egg somewhere this spring. Not too surprisingly, it was a bit bedraggled, especially around the neck, giving it a rather prehistoric jizz. A flock of noisy Sandwich Terns and a hunting Sparrowhawk kept us amused between Stork showings. The rain and proximity of the sea combined with the general dampness gave the countryside a rather bedraggled and forlorn look, perhaps typical of most English summers but not this one!
As the heavens started to darken once more I decided to call it a day and walk back along the very exposed sea wall to my car. I was keen to get away before the various planned overnight road closures which would have made my already long return drive even longer.
Footnote – my blogs are posted with sometimes rather imaginative spelling and grammar due to my extreme dyslexia!
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