Storks are considered a symbol in Poland, which until recently was their largest European nesting ground, with around 20 to 25 percent of the world’s stork population coming here.
The birds’ large nests are a distinctive feature of the Polish landscape. Storks are well known in stories told across the nation for bringing babies into the world, but many say that having a stork’s home on your roof brings good luck, for example because lightning never strikes a stork’s nest.
Storks are migratory birds that leave Europe in the autumn, spend the winter in Africa, and in March start on their way back to their nests up north.
According to a team of Polish scientists who follow 130 of the birds--fitted with small satellite transmitters, which make it possible to continuously monitor the storks and obtain information about their migration routes--so far only some 9 percent of the storks have set off from Africa. Some have only just crossed the Bosphorus Strait, while others still have not taken off for the six-week-long flight.
“Perhaps the birds have a sufficient amount of food and wish to fatten up before the exhausting journey,” says ornithologist Piotr Tryjanowski from the University of Life Sciences in Poznań, western Poland.
"Or maybe the storks are delaying the take-off because they predict unfavourable weather conditions in Poland," he adds.
However, the first modest numbers of the birds have already been observed in Poland. In line with tradition, the appearance of storks in the country signals the arrival of spring.
"It is not yet a massive number, but just the beginning," says Mieczysław Żuraw from the Wild Animal Rehabilitation Center in Tomaszów Bolesławiecki in Poland's southwestern Lower Silesia region.
He adds that in recent years there has been a drop in the number of white storks coming for the summer to Poland, primarily due to human activities like the draining of wetlands, which limits the space for the birds to prey on.
With wingspans up to six feet, the majestic red-legged birds soar over farm fields and glide down to search for insects, frogs, fish and rodents, but the number of storks in Poland has been decreasing in recent decades, as land acquisition for agriculture deprives the birds of foraging space.
In 2015, Poland lost its title as Europe’s largest European nesting ground for storks to Spain.
The majority of Polish storks live in the lake lands in the northern region of Warmia and Mazuria or in the agricultural northeastern Podlasie region.
Żywkowo, a village in Warmia and Mazuria known as the stork capital, is inhabited by some 120 storks, almost four times as many as people, and each house hosts several nests.
Estimates are that some 50,000 storks will come to Poland this year.
Because of changes to the landscape, the stork population has been shifting eastward. What's more, ornithologists have observed that the first to arrive in Poland were not the white storks but the black ones, which usually arrived in their nests much later than their cousins. They locate their nests in forests, in tall tree branches, and in the mountains--on the rocks.
The arrival of the storks in their nests and the life there are closely followed by enthusiasts across Poland via special cameras installed in the nests.
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Click on the audio player above to listen to a report by Radio Poland's Agnieszka Bielawska.