Travels with Forty Roses: Storks

This time of year, in Canada, we frequently hear migrating geese and in the sky, see huge V’s of geese heading south. When we were children this signified something special and the honking call of migrating geese always brought on thoughts of the time change and of early evening darkness, good hot suppers and eventual winter. This week in Auxerre the call of migrating storks was a trifle more exotic. They have not lost their collective reputations as have our Canadian Geese. The storks were dark ribbons in the blue sky, some flocks shaping into strings of untidy V’s. One can hear them before seeing them, as they fly high. The sound was at first mystifying and I could not place what is was or where it was coming from. But out of the distant blue came this flight of birds which were finally distinguishable as storks. A phalanx or mustering or a flight of storks is apparently the correct terminology for referencing a flock of these birds. They muttered and murmured in their flight and I watched many musterings form into spirals and climb higher. European storks are a long distance migratory bird and move to winter in Africa, from Sub Saharan Africa to as far south as South Africa or the Indian subcontinent. The birds I saw were moving almost directly west with very little south, which seemed curious to me. Research shows that because the air thermals they depend upon for soaring do not form over water they avoid crossing directly over the Mediterranean, but go west to the Strait of Gibraltar or east to the Levant – the far eastern Mediterranean. When they are directly over top one can see the white feathers of the bird with the black tail feathers but the long legs appear black at such a height versus red. They fly at heights of 1200 to 1500 M but have been recorded as high at 3300 m. This was their week, and they were here and now gone.

The myth of storks bringing babies to parents is alive and well and a treasured cultural aspect of European folklore. This is a very ancient legend that may have had something to do with the fact storks have always closely associated with humans, encouraged to live atop houses and outbuildings to bring good luck, but more practically to eat insect pests. The very ancient baby myth was reinforced by a story called The Storks written in the 19^th century by Hans Christian Andersen. According to ancient lore babies were found in caves or marshes and carried in baskets held in their beaks, given to the mother or dropped down the chimney. Households wishing to notify the storks they wanted children placed sweets on the window sills. Little birthmarks on babies’ forehead or heads are referred to as stork bites and considered good fortune. Often going through a village or town we will see highly decorated houses and front lawns advertising the storks visit. Blue ribboned baskets or pink, along with stork images on the rooftop or at the front door making the delivery, are the general motifs.

Because my little camera is not good with distance I have caught some in flight but have taken other photos from bird internet sites to show you what they look like.

Besides stork life and myths, we are deep into our language lessons with Professor Vanessa piling on the audio and written work. C’est difficile!

This coming week we travel to Toulouse for our Mairie visa interview and at the same time will visit some good friends…It will be a treat to be back in Haute Garonne if only for a few days.