It is a success story of happy coexistence: outnumbered by storks,
residents of the Polish hamlet of Zywkowo welcome the birds on
their roofs in exchange for good luck and, if you believe legend,
newborns.
Kept afloat by EU and non-profit funding, the northern hamlet -- a
stone's throw from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad -- depends on
storks for the tourism it needs to survive.
"In the 1960s, we had 120 residents and 20 storks. Today it is the
opposite," says retired farmer Wladyslaw Andrejew.
While too poor to keep the younger generation from leaving, this
part of the country is paradise on earth for the large, red-legged
birds.
More than 15,000 White Stork couples flock to the lake-rich
northern region of Masuria every summer, according to local
officials.
Poland as a whole sees an average of 50,000 storks a year, or 20
percent of the world's population.
Since he was little, 64-year-old Andrejew has been passionate about
storks, building and fixing massive nests for his animal pals on
roofs, in trees and on poles around the farm.
He has counted them, gawked at them, fed them and protected them.
In 2004, a record year, he counted 27 stork couples on his farm,
plus 38 babies.
"Storks are like nature in general: you have to put your heart into
it. Then they'll bring good luck," he says.
"We've always lived under the protective wing of the stork and have
never known misery."
Every April he impatiently awaits the sound of the storks' noisy
bill-clattering -- akin to machine gun fire -- as they fly in from
Africa.
"In winter, when the storks are gone, the silence is awful,"
Andrejew says.
"Come spring, the back of our necks wrinkle as we lift our heads
towards the sky to scan for the first arrivals. In autumn, we cry
to see them go."
When he retired, Andrejew sold his farm to the bird protection
society PTOP, a non-profit organisation based in the northeastern
city of Bialystok.
Using the farm as a local base has allowed PTOP to launch a series
of projects aimed at welcoming storks into the area.
"We harvest hay, dig ponds, put up new platforms for their nests,
fix the old platforms, insulate the electric lines for the birds'
safety," says farm manager Adam Lopuszynski.
"We bought these aerial lifts firemen use, which help us reach and
repair the big nests up high."
A stork's nest generally weighs around 500 kilogrammes (1,100
pounds) but can reach up to quadruple that, or two tonnes.
PTOP acquired a total of 75 hectares (185 acres) of land around
Zywkowo and planted a mishmash of crops as that's what the bird
prefers.
"Storks set up camp wherever there's a mosaic of plots of land,"
Lopuszynski says.
"We want to show that if we take care of nature, we can live side
by side with the stork," adds the former sociologist turned
bird-watcher.
Zywkowo's three-year stork protection programme, which was cofunded
by the European Union and ends this year, cost around 1.5 million
euros ($2 million), according to PTOP official Sebastian
Menderski.
"We do everything with the stork in mind. It's all for the bird,"
he says.
"The area's future depends on the stork. If all the young people
leave, our hamlet will disappear," adds mayor Stefan Hryszko.
"Thanks to the stork, there's investment, there are jobs and
there's construction. That will keep us around."
Plus, "it's the storks who bring newborns!" jokes Andrejew, father
of five, citing an ancient legend still used in advertising,
storybooks and popular imagery today.
"Some even say it's enough for a woman to look at a stork to get
pregnant."
