I have to declare an interest here. I adore storks! Hence any hope of an objective report on this subject has just flown out of the window.In the Salamanca hamlet of Zarza de Pumareda a row has broken out between its 80 or so residents over a storks’ nest.
The birds currently nest on a tower on the church roof. A common place to find storks living. The problem is that some local people have paid for the church roof to be repaired and hence do not want the birds messing it up with their droppings.
They don’t want the storks to leave the village either. After all with an aged population of just 80 people living there they need all the residents they can get. So they have erected a stork pole with a nesting area on top for the birds to move on to.
Sadly the storks were not consulted about this. They have lived on top of the church for years and do not feel inclined to move. Storks mate for life and unless a nest is destroyed will return to it year after year or depending on the climate, simply stay put.
The mayor for the area is doing a fine imitation of a bird himself and has decided to sit on the fence in this row.
Now red letters have appeared on the side of the church reading – “Cigüeña sí”.
My thoughts entirely! Indeed –there but for the grace of God fly you and I!
2 comments:
Good one, Sancho!
You may remember when the environmental lobby, Agaden, constructed a similar aparatus on the top of the square's bell tower in Jimena. We used to watch the storks making an attempt at building a nest but it kept on slipping down until it was finally abandoned. The metal supports came down a few years later, when they attracted unwelcome lightning one night.
Incidentally, I can't say I have a lot of sympathy for storks: Driving along the road to San Roque, some time back, I almost killed myself and my passengers when a great white mass of birds**t hit my windscreen...
My grandmother, who was wiser than I will ever be, used to insist that bird droppings were lucky - the larger the better. As she lived and worked for much of her life in close proximity to London's Docklands and the Thames I can only believe she knew what she was talking about.
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