Tuesday, April 5, 2016

ANNUAL VISIT OF THE STORKS



 STORK, I welcome thy return.
Thou stork, I welcome thy return.
Thy coming is the sign of spring,
And thou dost joy and gladness bring.

 Stork, upon our roof descend.
Thou stork, upon our roof descend.
Upon our ash-tree build thy nest,
Our dear one, and our honoured guest.

Excerpt from an Old folk song



They are back! Resting on their way from Africa to their northern summer residencies.
This is the view from our balcony in the early evening. Every year for some weeks in spring we have this marvelous display right in front of us. At about six o.clock the excitement starts. There is movement in the sky, first high up, sliding dots, round and round...

Then touch down on the trees for the nights rest. Early in the morning they take off. At the end of the day the next batch arrives.



We are always waiting for these beautiful birds to arrive when the sun sets, greeting them happily, listening to their soft just-before-sleep chatter.

Photographs Uri Eshkar.

10 comments:

Dawn of LaTouchables said...

I love them too, Yael, and they have already arrived here in Southern Germany. We have hundreds in our neighbourhood. Uri's photos are magnificent!

Bob Bushell said...

Beautiful images and the way they chattering, thanks Yael.

Susan Lenz said...

Love the storks! My family is from a farming village in Hungary. Storks spend the summer in the area, building giant nests on top of many telephone poles. Great to see them en route. Thanks for the comment on my blog about "The Canopy". I never counted the doilies and lace. The high number might have shocked even me! The expanse is 10 feet by 18 feet. It took nearly three weeks to stitch it. That might not sound like much time but I was at an art residency and spent fourteen to eighteen hours a day, sitting on a cement floor, and working like crazy. I only had a month to work. What kept me going was knowing that the anonymous ladies who made all those crocheted doilies and lace spent much, much longer on my raw materials than I was spending stitching them altogether. The result was well worth the effort! Thanks again! Susan

Dies und Das vom Neckarstrand said...

Das sind fotos vom Feinsten.
danke fürs Zeigen.
Einen schönen Restabend wünscht Dir
Irmi

christiene said...

Yael, this wonderful visit, and so close to see.
This is pure joy of spring, with the ewes heifer
I've never seen so much together.
beautiful pictures.
Love Greetings from the Netherlands.
Christiene.

Tomoko said...

I enjoyed those images of storks soaring and landing step by step. I can almost hear they chattering,Yael!
Happy spring for you and your storks!

stardust said...

Dear Yael - I’m so envious of you that you have such a great view of storks at your balcony. I love all the photos, especially the first image where birds look reflecting light and swimming freely in the sky and the second one which really looks like Japanese painting. Enjoy your springtime brought by storks.

Yoko

Tammie Lee said...

nice that they have a soft chatter before sleep.
they are wonderful to see, i can see why you enjoy them.

Giga said...

I have not seen storks in such a large amount of sitting on a tree. Beautiful view. Regards.

wandamarie.blogspot.com said...

Oh such LOVELY CRAZINESS!!!