30/05/2019
Conservationists
have announced that a pair of White
Storks is incubating three eggs at the Knepp Estate in West
Sussex.
A
pioneering partnership of private landowners and nature conservation
organisations is working together to help the species return to south-east England
for the first time in several hundred years as part of the White Stork Project,
and has been releasing birds at three sites. As well as Knepp, free-flying
White Storks have been reintroduced at Wadhurst Park, East Sussex, and
Wintershall Estate, Surrey.
The
project team was thrilled to find that a pair of storks is attempting to nest
in an ancient oak tree at the Knepp Estate this spring. If the chicks
successfully fledge, the nest at Knepp will be the first successful one in
southern England since at least the end of the English Civil War in 1651.
The large
birds, symbolic of rebirth, are native to the British Isles and evidence
suggests that they were once widely distributed. While it is unclear why this
spectacular and sociable bird failed to survive in Britain, it is likely that a
combination of habitat loss, over-hunting and targeted persecution all
contributed to their decline. Another factor may be that it was persecuted in
the Civil War for being associated with rebellion.
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