Driving east after having visited Herdade do Laranjo e S Pedro we saw many storks. They nested on electrical and telegraph pylons and poles, and nearly every pole had its nest at the top with a resident stork “on board”.
The white stork is famous for its long-distance migration – at least it used to be. They came from all over Europe and migrated to sub-Saharan Africa towards the winter, then coming back again to Europe in spring to breed.
But at some point in the 1980s, the storks changed their minds! The climate in Europe was getting milder and eventually the storks in Portugal just gave up on the whole migration thing! And storks from all over Europe that used to migrate to Africa have instead flocked to Portugal. In the last 20 years the population has grown from around 1,000 to 14,000 in 2014.
It isn’t only the climate that has become better for the storks, there is also more food available from landfills. Whatever the reason, the population is increasing and the telegraph poles and electric pylons are getting more and more occupied by the year-around-resident storks.
