Rare white stork spotted at Hastings nature reserve

White stork in Hastings SUS-200318-140314001 | Other 3rd Party

St Leonards resident and keen photographer Sid Saunders was delighted to have spotted a rare white stork in the Combe Valley at Hastings this week.

Sid, who capture this great shot, said: “It made my day as it is the first time I have seen a white stork.”

The White Stork Project was launched by a group of private landowners and nature conservation organisations, working together to help the white stork return home to South East England for the first time in several hundred years.

These large birds, symbolic of rebirth, are native to the British Isles and evidence suggests that they were once widely distributed.

Whilst 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. A contributory factor may be that it was persecuted in the English Civil War for being associated with rebellion.

The white stork is a migratory bird species, and there have been many sightings in the UK over recent years, but conservationists identified that the species would need a helping hand to re-establish a breeding population in Britain.

The White Stork Project is working to restore a population of at least 50 breeding pairs in southern England by 2030 through a phased release programme over the next five years.

At least 250 white storks will be released at several sites in Sussex and surrounding counties.

Initial releases aimed at establishing local breeding populations, as seen for the first time at Knepp this year, have already been undertaken and will be supplemented in late summer each year by the release of captive-bred juvenile storks reared at Cotswold Wildlife Park.

A spokesperson for the project said: “In a time of increasing disengagement with nature in the UK, bringing back white storks could be a means by which we can reignite our affection for the natural world and it could act as an emblem for environmental restoration.

White storks are particularly associated with the county of Sussex. The Saxon name for the village of Storrington, near Worthing, was originally “Estorchestone”, meaning “the village of the storks”.

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