White Stork visits Barnsley

White Stork, Silkstone - Colin Bower

A White Stork visited Barnsley for a short while this Monday (21^st November). It was first seen at Hoyland late morning where quick thinking resident Elise Shepherd grabbed a couple of record shots of it on her iPhone when it dropped in for a while at the back of her home. Elise promptly got in touch with the RSPB at Old Moor to pass on the news and although it flew off, it was relocated some 30 minutes later in Silkstone where Colin Bower managed to get a couple of excellent photos. Colin described the bird as approachable and if you look very closely you might see that it is sporting a narrow ring just above the foot on the right leg. This probably means that the bird is from one of several free-flying collections in the UK and on the near continent rather than a genuine vagrant. Nonetheless, White Storks are always superb birds to see. Later in the day what was surely the same bird dropped in at Totley, Sheffield and was photographed strutting about in the school grounds on 22^nd. Sightings from Nottinghamshire later in the week probably relate to the same bird too and a quick surf of the internet shows that this same bird was in Lincolnshire in October before moving to Market Weighton in East Yorkshire.