A Happy Stork Couple Photograph by Sarah Loft

A Happy Stork Couple

by Sarah Loft

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Title

A Happy Stork Couple

Artist

Sarah Loft

Medium

Photograph - Digitally Painted Photograph

Description

These beautiful birds are long time residents of a huge nest on an abandoned industrial chimney in Schierstein (near Wiesbaden), Germany.

Per Wikipedia: Schierstein is a southwestern borough of Wiesbaden, capital of state of Hesse, Germany. First mentioned in historical records in 860, Schierstein was incorporated into Wiesbaden in 1926. Today the borough has about 10,000 residents. Situated on the Rhine River, Schierstein is known as the "Gateway to the Rheingau."

On Kuferstrasse, a well-known pair of white storks nests on an abandoned chimney. About 50 stork pairs breed in a nature conservation area on the grounds of the Rhine water treatment plant on the west side of Schierstein, between the borough and Walluf. The storks have been reintroduced by the Schiersteiner Storchengemeinschaft (Schierstein Stork Association) beginning in 1972. Since the reintroduction of the white stork in Schierstein, over 600 young storks have been born in Schierstein. Many of them now breed in other places in Germany and abroad.

Per Widipedia: Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long, stout bills. They belong to the family Ciconiidae. They are the only family in the order Ciconiiformes, which was once much larger and held a number of families.

Storks dwell in many regions and tend to live in drier habitats than the closely related herons, spoonbills and ibises; they also lack the powder down that those groups use to clean off fish slime. Storks have no syrinx and are mute, giving no call; bill-clattering is an important mode of communication at the nest. Many species are migratory. Most storks eat frogs, fish, insects, earthworms, small birds and small mammals. There are nineteen living species of storks in six genera.

Various terms are used to refer to groups of storks, two frequently used ones being a muster of storks and a phalanx of storks.

Storks tend to use soaring, gliding flight, which conserves energy. Soaring requires thermal air currents. Ottomar Anschutz's famous 1884 album of photographs of storks inspired the design of Otto Lilienthal's experimental gliders of the late nineteenth century. Storks are heavy, with wide wingspans: the marabou stork, with a wingspan of 3.2 metres (10.5 feet) and weight up to 8 kg (18 lbs), joins the Andean condor in having the widest wingspan of all living land birds.

Their nests are often very large and may be used for many years. Some nests have been known to grow to over two metres (six feet) in diameter and about three metres (ten feet) in depth. Storks were once thought to be monogamous, but this is only partially true. They may change mates after migrations, and may migrate without a mate.

Storks' size, serial monogamy, and faithfulness to an established nesting site contribute to their prominence in mythology and culture.

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