Knepp - First visit to see the Storks
We had been watching Springwatch on TV and were interested by the short pieces about the Storks that were resident at Knepp. We decided that it would be an interesting trip to go and see the birds but also have a look at the estate in general as they are in a process of rewilding i.e. taking what was the previously managed to state back to the wild.
We think that we had seen one of the birds from them at Coombe Valley which we had photographed earlier in the year, it was interesting to see the birds in their original state, they had been bred within the Knepp Estate and subsequently allowed to fly free.
There was a nesting pair of birds who had three chicks. The chicks were nearing the point of fledging and were being coaxed out of the nest by the adult birds. One of the adult birds spread the fish that it had been collecting on the ground approximately 50 m away from the nest hoping that the youngsters would leave the nest to get the food. In the limited time that we were there this did not happen but we have subsequently researched this as a behaviour shown by birds and it happens in other species not just with the Storks.
