About…. 20 years ago?… I was hanging laundry on my roof on my birthday (January 7th) and suddenly a flock of at least 30 storks sped past overhead as far as the Santa Cruz church and – I swear – then took a sharp turn to the left. LIKE THEY KNEW EXACTLY WHERE THEY WERE GOING. And that image has never left my mind’s eye. Then yesterday, again hanging up laundry, I saw a smaller bunch of storks high up in the sky. Man! They are just so damn graceful and beautiful. And knowing that they are returning from spending the winter in Africa in order to take up residence in their forever nests with their forever partners… well, it doesn’t get more romantic than that.

Then today on my river walk I saw another whack of storks soaring elegantly above me… and you can see them too. They just filled my heart with joy.

This makes me so sad. For as long as I’ve lived here (and probably much longer) there has been a stork nest on top of that chimney. And then suddenly there wasn’t. I have no idea why they would rip out a decades-old nest, especially as the building – the Atarazanas – isn’t actually in use. Does anybody know why this happened? It was always such a joy to see the majestic stork couple up there.  😦