Stork parkour in Alcala de Henares
On Friday, 1st of June, Zuza continued the fieldwork in Spain. This time, she was collecting data from breeding, urban white stork population in Alcala de Henares.
Alcala is the picterisque, historic town of Cervantes (author of Don Quijote), where about 130 storks pairs breed on the old roofs. Of course, only a small part
is accesible. To reach nests and nestlings a good movement coordination and fitness is highly demanded J We reached the nests, in truly parkour style!
White storks which breeds in the town, mostly forage on nearby rubbish dump,what is easy to notice by e.g. the food leftovers in nests – parts of meat, chicken, squids. What is interesting, most of the nest conatined anthropogenic nest materials, e.g. HDMI cabels, tenis balls, pieces of foil or paper.
Zuzanna was cooperating with a Colectivo Ciconia Alcala ,a group of friends who from 29 years, voluntarily work with storks: Juan, Carlos & Pablo. They have big passion for our favorite study species. The group keep ringing nestlings every year, reading the rings, building ”prenests” or platforms. Moreover, they cooperate with city council, to find a consensus between local society and big, wild birds. One of the world-known oldest, ringed stork breeds in Alcala. For last 29 years, she keeps coming back to her nests on the ruin of old church, just on the main square of the town.
Enjoy the photos, hope you won’t get vertigo!
