I tried my last hand on skiing this season; it was an exercise
in rubber cement navigation. This is the kind of slush that makes you ‘catch an
edge’ (when one ski gets stuck in the snow while the other continues), and
break a bone (or two).
Finally smiling; happy that the season is over (she hates everything winter, cold and skiing) |
Just as we decided to call it a day, thousands and thousands
and thousands of storks
glided overhead. Now if that's not an indication that spring is in the air, I do not know what is. They have started their spring migration. They use the uplift
of air to glide over the land, while they’re migrating from Africa to Europe.
Storks spend the winters in Africa, and are now on their way back to spend
spring and summer in Europe.
White storks
rely on the uplift of air thermals to
soar and glide the long distances of their annual migrations between Europe and
Sub-Saharan Africa. For many, the
shortest route would take them over the Mediterranean
Sea; however, since air thermals do not form over water, they
generally detour over land to avoid the trans-Mediterranean flights that would
require prolonged energetic wing flapping. It has been estimated that flapping
flight metabolizes 23 times more body fat than soaring flight per distance
travelled.. Thus, flocks
spiral upwards on rising warm air until they emerge at the top, up to
1,200–1,500 m . (Source)
I am doing this with a little pocket camera, okay, so the quality is mediocre |
I assume that’s a sure sign of spring. In Holland, when a
stork nests in town, it makes it into the newspaper’ storks are pretty unusual
where I’m from. It’s pretty impressive to see hundreds of thousands of these
majestic birds fly overhead. Unfortunately, each year many hundreds die while
flying over Lebanon, because they’re being shot by total
morons, for no apparent reason, as this is not even an edible bird. You can
sign
a petition here. Not sure what good it will do, but hope it will raise
awareness.
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