As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Thursday 3 April 2014

Thrigby Hall nesting storks may end 600-year wait


A pair of white storks nesting in Norfolk could be the first in the UK to breed from a traditional nest for nearly 600 years.

The birds are nesting on a chimney at Thrigby Hall Wildlife Gardens near Great Yarmouth and are involved in mating rituals, experts say.

The white stork breeds in continental Europe, migrating to Africa in winter.

The last record of storks breeding in Britain was at St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh, in 1416.
Ken Sims, director of the wildlife gardens said: "We gave the storks a helping hand by building a structure for their nest on the hall's front chimney.

"But they turned their back on our handiwork and have built their own nest on one of the rear stacks."

He said he thought the female stork was on the point of laying and they had been watching them mate.

"The beaks are used like clappers and they throw their heads back," he said.

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