We left Kazanlak, the rose town, to continue our exploration of Bulgaria, and stopped at the most unprepossessing village so far – except for one attraction. Belozem is a European Stork Village, apparently one of fifteen villages in fifteen countries, recognised for adopting farming practices and conserving large areas of wetland to protect storks.
We understood that there were about forty nesting pairs of storks, with twenty on the village school.
We were somewhat dismayed by the dismal-looking stork information centre which was well and truly shut.
We were also a bit dismayed by the stork statue.
So not to be deterred, we used Google maps to find the local school (somehow, we didn’t think anyone spoke English in this rather gloomy town). And there they were!
Fantastic – persistence pays off! One of the reasons I love your travel blogs.
Persistence one of M’s Stirling qualities! Nikhil and I both a bit more ho hum, storks, really, unlikely to be on the school etc….
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Well done, marks for perseverance! We’ve been with you all the way.
How nice to hear from you! And yes, persistence / perseverance definitely paid off!
Marvellous birds, we saw loads in Morocco, many nesting on electricity pylons and minarets
Sadly, not nearly enough minarets in Bulgaria ( it’s a long Ottoman related tale). We particularly admired the stork platforms on the roofs – I mean, how welcoming is that?!
And gawking. What story-book creatures they are. Performance artists. Private life on full display. The Simeon Stylites of birds. And pragmatists – quick to appropriate our structures.
And persuade us to build things that will help! I like the way you can just make out their heads sometimes rising out of the nests – and the dozens of sparrows camped out underneath, twittering in appreciation..
I am very surprised that you didn’t know that a stork brought me to my mum a long time ago xxx
Ah – so glad you reminded me! That must be how I came to live with you! XXX
Magnificent birds! Hilarious sculpture – there’s tell-tale crack rounds its neck: perhaps the head came away at some point and somebody has glued it on the wrong way…
Or maybe it’s a vivid sculpture of a mating stork? No, you’re right, it’s been glued back….
The head has been glued on – but that’s a mating stance for a stork, I think. Just saw one stork nest on top of an abandoned industrial chimney in Amsterdam.
It is a stork mating stance but sadly – or maybe not – we’ll never know the intentions of the municipal – or stork specific – authorities in Belozem…. Was Amsterdam good?