At 13:06 22.04.2004, you wrote:
Chris
Thanks for that - it could be some good news for a change, instead of the
usual bad although if the reason they are in England is because they have
been driven out of Europe by excessive agriculture, not so good. I just hope
the birds breed successfully and establish permanently.
Penny,
I think that this is maybe a too pessimistic assessment of
the situation in Europe. It is true that the White Stork suffered a steady
and large decline in Europe for many decades, but recently the situation
has changed to the better, mainly thanks to a suite of protective measures
and assisted breeding in many countries in W.Europa, foremost maybe in the
Netherlands. When I left the Netherlands in 1965, storks had practically
disappeared as a nesting bird, with only a few breeding pairs left. But
now, thanks to assisted nesting in several 'stork villages' , numbers have
increased again substantially, and in spite of my short visits to Holland,
the White Stork is once more on my year list there every year, with many
nests also outside the stork villages : Practically all storks in Holland
nest (and have always nested) on man-made stork nests on farms etc.
I have therefore little doubt that the British pair, far
from 'being driven out of Europe', in reality is part of the overflow of
the greatly increased production of young in W.Europe in recent years.
Wim
Vader, Tromsø Museum
9037
Tromsø, Norway
--------------------------------------------
Birding-Aus is now on the Web at
www.birding-aus.org
--------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message 'unsubscribe
birding-aus' (no quotes, no Subject line)
to
|
