Could white storks return to London? Public's views sought on ‘talismanic' bird

South Wales Guardian

3 days ago

Long-vanished white storks have been reintroduced in southern England, leading to an 'explosion' in sightings across Greater London in recent years.
Now conservationists are looking at whether the metre-tall birds, which are known to thrive in urban settings on the continent, could do the same in London.
Community-focused urban rewilding organisation Citizen Zoo is conducting an appraisal on making London a 'white stork-friendly city', including habitat mapping, reaching out to boroughs across the capital to gauge their response and surveying the public about the birds.
White storks could once be seen flying in Britain's skies and building their huge nests on roofs and buildings as well as in trees, but disappeared centuries ago as a breeding bird due to hunting and habitat loss.
Since 2016, the white stork project in Sussex has sought to create new colonies of rehabilitated injured storks – which can act as a 'magnet' for wild birds that visit from the continent – at Knepp and Wadhurst Park, with the first successful breeding in 2020.
In the four decades before the start of the project there were just 27 records of white storks across Greater London.
But between 2016 and 2023 there have been 472 sightings in the capital, with the numbers increasing year-on-year, conservationists said.
Citizen Zoo has worked with communities to bring beavers back to Ealing, reintroduce water voles in Surrey and restore wetlands in the capital, in efforts to bring city dwellers closer to nature, deliver wellbeing benefits and make London more resilient to climate change, and is now looking at white storks.
The storks have wider ecological benefits for their habitat, creating huge nests which are homes and food sources for an array of species from insects to birds.
But it is their ability to inspire people about nature that has been a key part of reintroduction efforts in the UK.
Elliot Newton, co-founder and director of rewilding at Citizen Zoo, told the PA news agency: 'These are a really talismanic, iconic species that really do draw and attract attention.
'You look up into the skies and see a white stork, it's quite obvious.'
And he said: 'We realised in recent years we've seen an explosion in white stork recordings across Greater London.
'And if you look across European landscapes, this is a bird that can actually thrive in urban landscapes, on chimneys, on pylons, and are associated with thriving in urban settings.
'What we want to see is how can we make London a more white stork-friendly environment, and embrace it for its ability to inspire people about the nature we can and should have close to where we live.'
He added: 'As humans we can dictate what our urban environments look like, we are the actual architects of these spaces.
'It's completely within our will as a species to choose the environments that we build around us and we can make that conscious choice to integrate more nature into our cities, and that will bring a whole wealth of benefits.'
The survey is being led by the University of Brighton's Rachel White, with two phases that mirror a national survey she conducted as part of the white stork project in Sussex.
The first phase of the study has involved surveying a representative sample of 1,000 Londoners, and a second phase is asking residents and frequent visitors to give their view on white storks and their place in the capital.
Dr White said: 'It is really important to be monitoring stakeholders' opinions and attitudes towards any reintroductions, because that's one of the main reasons that reintroduction projects fail – they haven't got the buy-in from the key stakeholders.
'It is really important to not assume, or to not just go ahead with projects, because you see the conservation value in it.'
She said projects need to ensure a majority of people are onboard with a reintroduction, that the rationale has been clearly communicated and people have been given the opportunity to have their say.
The national survey found overall people were very positive towards the species, even if they had never seen storks before, although there was a lack of knowledge about things such as the stork's diet, and even what they looked like.
But a 'relatively small' number of people – often those who were ecologists, conservationists or birders – were not in favour of the reintroduction, largely because it was not a threatened species and they thought it should not be a priority for action, she added.
The London survey will feed into the wider assessment by Citizen Zoo of the political and public enthusiasm and habitat availability for storks, and potential next steps such as creating more habitat to encourage natural colonisation or even a release similar to that in Sussex.
However, Mr Newton added that 'nature has a fantastic tendency to surprise us', with the possibility storks could establish themselves in the capital of their own accord.
To take part in the survey, people can visit: https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/brighton/thoughts-on-london-storks