Stork massacre near Burgas, Bulgaria

Currently, a lot is said about killing birds in Middle-East. From time to time we can see in media shot storks, eagles, pelicans or other charismatic species dead in, e.g. Lebanon. Of course, it is real, sad true and we must try to work on this issue. However, still in Europe, or even inside European Union many birds are being killed, not only the game species. But we need to take a look at serious danger and try to look at the facts.

This year we equipped 54 white storks juveniles with GPS-GSM transmitters. Until now 23 are dead. However, only one died in the Middle East - Saudi Arabia, probably shot down. But surprisingly, none of our storks flew through Lebanon. The remaining 22 did not even leave Europe. Most of them died due to electrocution on the medium voltage powerlines; only four died due to natural causes (killed by the raptor). We went to the places where our storks died (Poland, Romania and Bulgaria), and we discovered a terrible place. Close to Burgas, in Bulgaria is a rubbish dump where many storks stay during autumn migration. They roost on the electricity pylons, and many of them are being electrocuted. Feral dogs eat dead storks, and the remains create a terrifying view. One of our storks died right there. We found it (transmitter and a plastic ring) on the top of seven dead storks. We checked randomly ten pylons around the rubbish dump, and we found 130 dead white storks (from 0 to 20 under the single pylon). Around the rubbish dump were ca 100 pylons, so ca 1300 storks might have been died.

Hence, the real threat for migrating birds is still here, in Europe. Maybe we should try first by making the beginning of migration safe.