Lockdown has had a pretty remarkable impact on the natural world. As humans have bunkered down, hedgerows have bloomed, small animals have thrived and the atmosphere has cleared.
And in West Sussex, the first stork chicks have hatched in the UK in over 600 years.
This isn’t a fluke or a result of humankind being barricaded indoors (although this is a perfectly timed distraction), however. In a bid to bring these birds back to our shores, The White Stork Project has been releasing over 100 storks at three sites in southeast England.
And this week, all that hard work paid off! The chicks are the first to be born here since a pair nested on the roof of St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh in 1416.
So why does it matter?
Well, aside from the fact that being able to reintroduce species to our ecosystem is cool in itself, white storks have been touted as potential symbols of environmental health (although reports that Spanish storks have been feasting on junk food left at landfill sites may suggest that they’re also adaptable to our bad habits).
Governments around Europe have been spending millions on restoring wetlands and storks have been rejoining other big birds in these environments without any real human intervention.
And then there’s the fact that as a species, their existance can help to protect and reintroduce other animals back into the British landscape.
‘White storks are thought to make excellent “umbrella species” – species whose habitat needs match up with lots of other wildlife, so protecting storks can help countless other species,’ Dr Alexander C. Lees and Oliver Metcalf, from Manchester Metropolitan University, write for The Conversation.
Even more excitingly, white storks have a long history of settling alongside humans – meaning that we could soon see these impressive birds in towns and villages around the country.
‘This new generation of native British storks could be a conduit for greater public engagement with nature, bringing wider awareness of the issues facing a broad range of British wildlife,’ the Manchester Met academics write.
‘After all, it’s hard to ignore a stork nest on your chimney pot.’
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/05/16/want-good-nature-news-stork-chicks-are-hatching-uk-first-time-600-years-12711969/
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