The Storks Around Lagos

Oh how we have enjoyed looking for storks and their nests on the chimney stacks!

Legend has it that in the old days in Portugal, it was considered very bad luck to kill a stork. The punishment, so the story goes, is that an offender had his hand chopped off. Now that really is bad luck.

I read that for many years the stork has been a protected species worldwide. In Portugal they are almost revered. Unfortunately, these beautiful creatures migrate from southern Europe to the Near East and Africa where, despite still being protected under law, many countries do not enforce the law, or they have very light penalties, that do little to deter hunters. A lot of illegal killing of storks and other protected species still takes place when these birds migrate.

Portuguese farmers appreciate and protect storks because the birds eat small mammals, lizards, snakes and large insects, thus saving the farmers having to use expensive pesticides on their crops. This in turn protects the bees that pollinate the crops for better harvests, as well as providing valuable honey and by-products produced from bees wax. Storks often build their nests close to marshlands or wetlands, where they can eat frogs and fish too.

We have noticed that storks build their huge nests up high, perched on tall chimneys, telegraph poles, electricity poles and even church steeples. They return to their nests each year and we have seen places where there are a series of nests on neighbouring poles. We were told that the offspring choose to build their nests close to their birth nest. Fernando told us that it’s against the law in Portugal to demolish or disturb a stork’s nest. If a stork builds a nest on your roof, it’s a sign of good luck!

Storks apparently divvy up their parenting duties equally. At this time of the year, storks are building their nests using sticks and sadly, garbage like plastics. The female lays her eggs in March or April and they take approximately 5 weeks to hatch. Once the chicks have hatched, both the male and female take turns in looking food for their new family and they share the responsibility of raising them safely. The stork has no vocal chords and, therefore, its sole means of communication is clacking its beak. The noise of the “chatting” is heard for quite some distance, especially in the mating season and while raising their young.

There’s a story of a pair nesting on the tall chimney on the road from Faro to São Brás that never produced a baby. One day the male disappeared and the female went into a decline, to the point where she was taken to a bird sanctuary to help her recover. When she was deemed well enough, she was released back to her nest, to find the male had returned. Not long afterwards they had their first offspring and lived happily ever after.

Many of the storks in this area migrate to Africa for the winter months and Fernando said that the skies above Sagres are filled with thousands of storks gliding on thermals until they suddenly take off, in one big group, to warmer areas. Watching these big birds with their huge wing spans soaring in the skies above is a fantastic sight.

We have seen more storks but are collecting better photos to add to this footprint in the near future.Read more