Arrival of the stork
The brick chimney standing among the derelict buildings by the station is once again occupied by a stork. A familiar sight in many parts of Spain, the white stork is a familiar feature of the Bobadilla to Algeciras railway (Mr Henderson’s Railway), their nests occupying every tall pillar, chimney and pylon along the route. When they take to the air, with their huge wingspan, they are reminiscent of a scene from Jurassic Park. But here in Fuente de Piedra we have just one pair and they have been returning to the same chimney for several years. I saw them last in May when they appeared to still have young on the nest. They were absent throughout the summer and early autumn. Storks usually migrate to Africa and sometimes even as far as India at the end of the breeding season and return in the spring, but many are now remaining in Spain throughout the year to feast off landfill. Males return first to check-out the nest, with the females arriving about a month later. As we spotted him in his lonely vigil in mid-December, the female should have arrived by now and their bill clattering should once again be resounding through the station area.