Ciguñas

Cigueñas are storks. This is a picture I took earlier this summer in Castromocho, a small village in Castilla y León in Spain. There are dozens of storks in every village nesting mainly on the church roofs and towers. In this village no less than 80 storks had nested on the church until they had to be removed because the roof was caving in. Some of these found their new home here on the silos in the abandoned flour factory outside the village. Storks are protected in Spain and much loved, partly because they function as a sort of pest control as they eat small rodents; and partly maybe because of the myth that they bring the babies...?