I’m reasonably confident these are white storks, and I believe their presence on the platform also answers questions my cousin Maria (hi, Maria!) asked about similar platforms which appeared in photographs from other posts late last year. I can’t state with certainty that all such platforms are intended for or solely used by storks, but I expect they’re intended for and used more by storks than any other type of bird. You and I wondered if it was maybe ospreys, and I’m afraid I’ve not yet gotten a book that’ll tell me which birds ply the forests and waterways of this corner of Europe so I’m not even sure if ospreys are found here – haven’t seen any myself, yet, but I’ve not really been looking yet. I am confident storks do, and this is the first pair I’ve seen. They really do clack their bills and communicate with each other a lot! If the left-hand photo below, you can sort of make out this platform in the middle near the top of the photo.
Celebrating and creating habitat for another important but small wonder :-). You may have noticed a bee or two in recent spring flowers photos…perhaps this is where they hung out during the winter!
I think I’m going to have some fun, now, alternating photos of a frozen winter landscape with the newly-opening spring blooms and buds – haven’t lived in a place where spring is so dramatically different for quite some time :-).
Look closely and you’ll see a bit of ice on this frozen rose, from a dawn walk in the Vondelpark Rose garden at the end of December. I’d been saving these up to post during the greyest moments of February, then when I flew back from two weeks in Nigeria recently, I noticed all the daffodils and narcissus have started blooming. So we’ll have more flower photos popping up soon!
(so much world, so little time....) 