Storks

We read about storks in Camino books. But still, the first time we spotted a huge European white stork sitting high on a church steeple we stopped in our tracks and stared. 

We’ve seen at least 40 storks since then, always on the most prominent points in small villages – usually at the top of a church steeple but often on an abandoned industrial smokestack. 

They’re unperturbed by the village activity below them. The nesting pairs take turns, one tending the young in the nest while the other searches for a family meal.  

Today we saw four stork families, one on each side of a church steeple.  

Forty times we’ve come across a family of storks and 40 times we’ve stopped in our tracks to observe them with wonder. Storks are an unexpected Camino treat.