With warmer winters, Danish storks arrive early

Warmer winters in northern Europe has led to changes in stork migration, according to Danish storkwatchers at storkene.dk.

Jess Frederiksen, chairperson, says that "The same storks are coming earlier and earlier each year. This is because they can now be here in January and February, when it used to be too cold. The storks have learned that there's no longer any need to wait to get going."

He also pointed out that the stork migrations are shorter, because many are no longer flying all the way to Africa for the winter. Instead, he said, "Many of the storks that are coming now come from Spain, southern France and Germany. That is quite a short flight for a stork."

As with other endeavors, the early bird has a leg, or wing, up on the others: those who arrive first find the best nesting spaces and can get on with breeding sooner.