Continuing the animal related theme ( I promise we'll get back to rc soaring some time soon ).... spotted over the North Downs today...
I give you from left to right; 1 crow, 1 stork and 1 buzzard.
The stork is likely part of a reintroduction programme from sites in Sussex and the Cotswolds. FYI it was not carrying a young baby.
Once common in the UK, it's believed they were partially wiped out during the Civil War when they were seen to be representative of freedom! Since then, hunting and habitat loss has contributed to their terminal decline.
They are still common over in Germany, Portugal, Spain, Ukraine and Poland where they migrate to breed during the summer.
Prior to 2020 there were no records of nesting storks since 1416.
Approx 20 are sighted every year in the UK, and in 2020, a pair bred in the United Kingdom for the first time in over 600 years.
They are excellent thermal hunters, so if you see one.... stalk it!! (see what I did there?!)
