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Ciconia ciconia
These are just a few of the hundreds of storks I saw. Heartbreaking to see them amongst so much rubbish.
Most birds coming from the north cross over the Bosporus, circle around the Mediterranean Sea and through the Middle East where they fly through eastern Sinai and cross the Red Sea near El Tor. Sharm el Sheikh is actually outside of the normal migration route, but many birds – especially the old, tired, sick, or injured ones – are lured to the city by the hotels’ green areas…and the garbage. These birds were spotted at the open sewage pools in the desert.
I added another spotting that shows more of the birds and the area: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/138...
Spotted on Sep 10, 2018
Submitted on Sep 11, 2018
10 Comments
Congratulations Bernadette for the SOTD. Beautiful birds, sad situation. Thanks for bringing their plight to our attention.
Bernadette we hope you're well! As much as we'd prefer to see these storks in a pristine environment we're glad to have these images on Project Noah so that we can highlight this year's special theme for #WorldMigratoryBirdDay:
"Today is #WorldMigratoryBirdDay! Now taking place twice a year, on the second Saturday in May and in October, World Migratory Bird Day aims at unifying efforts worldwide in raising awareness on critical issues regarding the protection of migratory birds. This year’s World Migratory Bird Day is dedicated to highlighting the problem of pollution with the theme, ‘Protect Birds: Be the Solution to Plastic Pollution.’ One of the major threats for migratory birds is the change in habitat along their migration route. These white storks (Ciconia ciconia) were photographed in Sharm El Sheikh (South Sinai, Egypt) during their autumn migration, surrounded by plastic rubbish. Project Noah member Bernadette Simpson told us: "Sharm el Sheikh is a bit off their normal route, but due to the increasing human population and number of hotels, there is a lot of green areas as well as rubbish that attracts them to the city".
Local or global, individual or collective – make your actions count in the push to #BeatPlasticPollution!
Learn more here: https://buff.ly/2J8XG8Q
Bernadette Simpson has created a mission dedicated to the documentation of plastic pollution on Project Noah: https://buff.ly/2JxT8bD
For more white storks images: https://buff.ly/2PXeTCQ
#WMBD19 "
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Thank you, Leuba. I would usually avoid taking photos with all that trash, I don't like sad pictures, but I thought it was important for my Plastic Pollution mission.
Sad story. Large cities are the ruination of so many lives, aren't they ? Your photos are beautiful Bernadette.
Thank you all for your comments. And for the nomination.
Yes, Maria, the last one is dead, either from ingesting rubbish or it was sick or injured when it arrived. There were several dead storks in the area.
Good spotting. Depressing situation.
Nice series but is the last one dead?
Your spotting has been nominated for the Spotting of the Week. The winner will be chosen by the Project Noah Rangers based on a combination of factors including: uniqueness of the shot, status of the organism (for example, rare or endangered), quality of the information provided in the habitat and description sections. There is a subjective element, of course; the spotting with the highest number of Ranger votes is chosen. Congratulations on being nominated!
Thanks for this interesting series Bernadette and for continuing to document plastic pollution.
Beautiful. So sad about the trash.