Showing posts with label stork. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stork. Show all posts

13 July 2009

Stork Family update


Back in April I posted a photo of of our resident nesting stork in Pinerolo and was commenting on how this feathered family has seen fit to make their home there on an old smoke stack from an abandoned factory in Pinerolo for the past few years. Recently on our return home from the market the other day, I was delighted to catch a glimpse of the whole family. I'm not so sure how delighted the other folks in the cars next to us at the traffic light were to see us make a quick swerve over to the side of the road, so I could snap a couple pics of the growing family, but that's another story.

It won't be long before this young un flies the coop and the nest will be empty for another year. Actually, it is quite a long family nesting time compared to the little family that nests above our electrical box on our balcony every year. Within two weeks of hatching the little ones they have all flown the coop and the nest is devoid of any living thing. I'm always taken by surprise at how quickly it all takes place. Must be a metaphor in there somewhere about the speed of families growing up and leaving the nest, some quickly and some not quick enough. I just find it all fascinating.

29 April 2009

Return to the wilds of Pinerolo



One of my annual joys is to see the return of the stork to this chimney in Pinerolo. I noticed it a few years back and am always heartened every spring to see them return. This appears to my untrained eye to be a European White stork. According to what I read, they return every year to a former nest in March and April and raise their young for about 8 weeks. I took this picture a couple of weeks ago but was unable to get one of them feeding their young. In fact, it took we quite a while to get one where I could distinctly see that it was a stork as she seemed to be watching me and not sure hat I was doing, so she was less that cooperative. Eventually, she relented and let me get a decent shot of her. Fabrizio told me that this old abandoned factory was to have been torn down, but because of the nesting storks, they were unable to. I'm sure that didn't make someone happy, but I must say I am glad as it it such a lovely sight. The abandoned factory isn't so bad and still has a bit of charm, that is a nice old bit of town that hasn't completely been gentrified. I like it as is and apparently this family does as well.
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