It is the beginning of March and white storks have already been on their way back to their nests for over a month. The birds are now over the Red Sea.
Oliwier Myka sent us pictures of white storks flying through Israel.
Good luck on this long journey!
Approximately 530,000 storks follow the eastern route, the so-called Via Pontica. This is the second largest bird migration route in Europe. The largest is the western one, leading through Gibraltar. Storks are still a very numerous species, among migrating birds only buzzards are more numerous.
In Podlasie we had reports of non-migrating storks that wintered in Poland. This year, because of the very mild winter, these birds won the lottery.
The bird in the pictures was spotted on March 9 near Gródek (Podlaskie Voivodeship, 40 km east of Białystok). The stork was flying - gliding - at high altitude, so it is probably also a "migratory" bird, only his distance from the wintering site was much shorter.
