ARBaurial
Storks at Vedersø, Denmark
White Storks have long been symbols of good luck in Europe. They built nests on chimneys, rooftops, and towers, as well as in trees. In this instance, the local utility company has fixed an old cart wheel to the top of the telephone pole.
The rooftop nests may have also contributed to the association of storks and fertility but they no longer breed in Denmark. There were 2,000 breeding pairs at the beginning of the 20th century. Finding food is now difficult for this much-loved bird because many of the ponds are gone, and with these the amphibians the stork feeds on. The overall population of White Storks has declined steadily over the last half century since this photograph was taken by me. Pollution, pesticides and wetlands drainage have severely reduced suitable foraging habitat across the breeding range.
The legend that the European White Stork brings babies is believed to have originated in northern Germany, perhaps because storks arrive on their breeding grounds nine months after midsummer. Northern Europeans of Teutonic ancestry encouraged storks to nest on their homes hoping they would bring fertility and prosperity.
The following passage comes from a 1903 book, Danish Life in Town and Country, by Jessie Bröchner (New York and London, G.P. Putnam’s Sons):
"To make a Danish farmstead complete there should be a garden with bee hives and old fashioned flowers in the box edged beds, and, most important of all, a stork’s nest on the housetop. The stork is the sacred bird of Denmark; it may have lost some of its legendary prestige, but it is still welcomed as the bringer of happiness and good luck, and to kill a stork in Denmark is, if possible, an even greater crime than to shoot a fox in England. The storks seem to know that they are treasured guests, and they are in consequence very tame and fearless; often they follow the plough, and when stiltily walking along the road they hardly take the trouble to get out of the way of the carriage. There are, more especially in Jutland, villages boasting two or three hundred storks in the summer, and a stork’s nest is often seen on the top of the square white church tower, which is a peculiar feature of many a Danish landscape."
And now they are no more.
Storks at Vedersø, Denmark
White Storks have long been symbols of good luck in Europe. They built nests on chimneys, rooftops, and towers, as well as in trees. In this instance, the local utility company has fixed an old cart wheel to the top of the telephone pole.
The rooftop nests may have also contributed to the association of storks and fertility but they no longer breed in Denmark. There were 2,000 breeding pairs at the beginning of the 20th century. Finding food is now difficult for this much-loved bird because many of the ponds are gone, and with these the amphibians the stork feeds on. The overall population of White Storks has declined steadily over the last half century since this photograph was taken by me. Pollution, pesticides and wetlands drainage have severely reduced suitable foraging habitat across the breeding range.
The legend that the European White Stork brings babies is believed to have originated in northern Germany, perhaps because storks arrive on their breeding grounds nine months after midsummer. Northern Europeans of Teutonic ancestry encouraged storks to nest on their homes hoping they would bring fertility and prosperity.
The following passage comes from a 1903 book, Danish Life in Town and Country, by Jessie Bröchner (New York and London, G.P. Putnam’s Sons):
"To make a Danish farmstead complete there should be a garden with bee hives and old fashioned flowers in the box edged beds, and, most important of all, a stork’s nest on the housetop. The stork is the sacred bird of Denmark; it may have lost some of its legendary prestige, but it is still welcomed as the bringer of happiness and good luck, and to kill a stork in Denmark is, if possible, an even greater crime than to shoot a fox in England. The storks seem to know that they are treasured guests, and they are in consequence very tame and fearless; often they follow the plough, and when stiltily walking along the road they hardly take the trouble to get out of the way of the carriage. There are, more especially in Jutland, villages boasting two or three hundred storks in the summer, and a stork’s nest is often seen on the top of the square white church tower, which is a peculiar feature of many a Danish landscape."
And now they are no more.