“White Stork” is a symbol of Belarus
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| Photo credit: http://all-origami.ru/ |
Almost each country has got its own symbols connected with nature such as a particular flower-symbol, a tree-symbol, an animal-symbol, and, of course, a bird-symbol. Birds are considered to be examples of a vivid and bright imagination of nature.
In our today’s Blogger lens we would like to tell you about the bird symbol of the Republic of Belarus and some interesting facts about this unique bird.
The White Stork is considered to be a symbol of Belarus. The white stork is the most famous one from the family of storks. It is a graceful white bird with black wing tips, with a long thin red beak, a long neck, and with long reddish legs. This bird can not leave indifferent anyone who has ever seen it especially not a hundred miles away.
The White Stork is considered to be a symbol of Belarus. The white stork is the most famous one from the family of storks. It is a graceful white bird with black wing tips, with a long thin red beak, a long neck, and with long reddish legs. This bird can not leave indifferent anyone who has ever seen it especially not a hundred miles away.
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| Photo credit: Vladmir Nazarov - http://fromdarkside.livejournal.com/ |
White storks like settling near people with pleasure. However, the most important factors in their choice are an ecologically clean area and abundance of food in it. It is obvious that white storks really take care of their health and the health of their progeny.
In Belarus you can meet white storks so often as if they are normal crows or sparrows. In each Belarusian village there are a lot of trees or concrete posts, house roofs or water towers with a big nest on top of them. Sometimes people are eager to help birds by making a special area for nesting on a treetop or a pole.
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| Photo credit: Vladmir Nazarov - http://fromdarkside.livejournal.com/ |
Also you can meet white storks near rivers or in some moorland pacing busily and lifting their long reddish legs high as if they are some supervisors who are checking something. But in reality they simply are in search of frogs, snakes or insects to eat and feed their babies with.
Sometimes dozens of birds you can meet in Belarusian fields along roads during harvesting.
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| Photo credit: Vladmir Nazarov - http://fromdarkside.livejournal.com/ |
White storks can’t sing at all. Their singing is like a beak snapping. Even nestlings try to imitate their parents’ songs. In Belarusian villages and on outskirts white storks’ singing-snapping resounds from their big nests every morning and evening. Local people even don’t need any alarm clock as white storks will make them awaken with the sunrise.
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| Photo credit: Vladmir Nazarov - http://fromdarkside.livejournal.com/ |
But don’t think that you can meet this graceful bird in Belarus all the year round. If you think so then you are for sure mistaken. White storks always fly to winter to warm overseas countries, mainly to the continent of Africa. Usually young birds fly to warm overseas countries at the end of August while adult birds do it a bit later at the end of September. However, already in March all of them return back home to their Motherland - Belarus. After a very tiresome journey having covered thousands and thousands kilometers male white storks can find their last year’s nests without any difficulty. Some days later their females join them which are their faithful companions during their whole life. Immediately after their meeting they start to repair nests and after that they express their love for each other mating and laying eggs which males and females incubate alternately.
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| Photo credit: Vladmir Nazarov - http://fromdarkside.livejournal.com/ |
By the way, white storks’ couple can use one and the same nest for many years up to 20 years. They say that the size of a birds’ house usually depends on its age, the older a nest is the bigger its diameter is.
White storks' signing-snapping filmed in Belarus
Video credit: kara74100
The Stork Residence! - Or was it? - The Storks of the town of Rogachev!
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| Photo credit:http://photogoroda.com/ |
In Belarus there is such a small town in Gomel region that is called Rogachev. It has become famous because of the interesting story that took place there. This story is connected with white storks. The memorial dedicated to liberators of the town during the Patriotic War which you can see in the photo above was without three flying storks with sharp beaks on top of it some years back, it was only like a marble pole on which real white storks created their nest one day. Everything would be fine except the only thing that this memorial is in the town centre of Rogachev and a memorial plague with all the names of fallen soldiers was always under a so-called storks’ "gun".
Once the mayor of Ragochev had seen it and immediately ordered to destroy the nest of white storks while they were away. Special workers came, climbed there and removed the nest. However, the next morning a new nest showed off on the same place. A week later workers noticed it being very surprised they removed it again. But again hard-working white storks brought lots of tree branches and created a new nest, as they had to live somewhere.
As a famous saying says “Fast footwork is the key to success in life”. The same scene happened around 6 times in the town of Rogachev. Local people started already joking that it was not a good thing to disturb white storks and it was necessary to leave the bird couple alone because they had not destroyed anything. However the right solution was found. They decided to put a pole with a big wheel on top of it around ten meters from the memorial and transferred the nest on it. As for the marble memorial pole, they made three flying bronze white storks with sharp beaks on it. And in this way they made everyone very satisfied.
A picturesque sight of Belovezhskaya Pushcha in Belarus
Once the mayor of Ragochev had seen it and immediately ordered to destroy the nest of white storks while they were away. Special workers came, climbed there and removed the nest. However, the next morning a new nest showed off on the same place. A week later workers noticed it being very surprised they removed it again. But again hard-working white storks brought lots of tree branches and created a new nest, as they had to live somewhere.
As a famous saying says “Fast footwork is the key to success in life”. The same scene happened around 6 times in the town of Rogachev. Local people started already joking that it was not a good thing to disturb white storks and it was necessary to leave the bird couple alone because they had not destroyed anything. However the right solution was found. They decided to put a pole with a big wheel on top of it around ten meters from the memorial and transferred the nest on it. As for the marble memorial pole, they made three flying bronze white storks with sharp beaks on it. And in this way they made everyone very satisfied.
A picturesque sight of Belovezhskaya Pushcha in Belarus
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| Photo credit: http://bp21.org.by/ |
A so-called picturesque sight of Belovezhskaya Pushcha, one of the most ancient reserves of Europe, UNESCO’s heritage is considered to be a big colony of white storks. If to be precise, this colony of birds is located in the village of Babinec, in Brest region. There is a tall old tree there where there are around 8 white storks’ nests built on it.
Some ancient legends and superstitions connected with storks Since the begging of time the white stork has been esteemed highly among eastern Slavs. If an owl was associated with wisdom, a magpie - with loquacity, a sparrow – with pugnacity and thievery, while a white stork was considered to be a symbol of longevity, marriage faithfulness, and prosperity.
Some ancient legends and superstitions connected with storks Since the begging of time the white stork has been esteemed highly among eastern Slavs. If an owl was associated with wisdom, a magpie - with loquacity, a sparrow – with pugnacity and thievery, while a white stork was considered to be a symbol of longevity, marriage faithfulness, and prosperity.
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| Photo credit: http://www.legendami.ru/ |
There is also a wide-spread legend that white storksbring kids to people. In old times they used to attach a cart wheel to the roof of their house or on a treetop it was like a skeleton for a future nest and they hoped if white storks would chose their house roof or tree and settle there that that a long-awaited child would be born in that family.
People also used to believe if white storks would settle on the roof of their house that it would be always protected from any disaster such as fire or a thunderbolt. So if you want to explain your small curious child from where you got him or her you can use the mentioned explanation and say that a white stork brought them."
Express Delivery"
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| Photo credit: http://www.hrm.ua/ |
or the White Stork is the real symbol of marriage faithfulness
This is a couple of white storks from some mountain village in Croatia whose love doesn’t know any distance. Already for 17 years, to a day, a faithful male Klipeto has returned back to his female Malena whose wing is seriously broken and it has to winter in the village without leaving it and flying to warm overseas countries, as it can’t do it. One day a school teacher, the local person of this Croatian village sheltered the poor bird on the roof of his house. According to the story of local people, the male white stork Klepeto has become famous in the whole world because of its faithfulness to its beloved female. This year Klipeto has covered around 14 thousand km in order to be together with Malena till next autumn
Video credit: The news every day
By the way…In the Republic of Belarus, since 1947 they have been produced legendary bicycles “Aist” what means “Stork” in English. These bicycles have become very famous because of their simple design, ease of repair and maintenance. Accordingly, the factory where they are produced is called “Aist” too.
In the city of Minsk there is also a fast train Express called “White Stork”. Its rout is Minsk-Kiev, goes from the Belarusian capital to the Ukrainian.
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| Photo credit: http://www.mediaport.ua/ |
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| Photo credit: http://www.belaruscoins.de/ |
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| Photo credit: http://www.dom-monet.ru/ |
In the Republic of Belarus they also produce a variety of souvenirs with the image of a white stork such as clay, straw or wooden white storks' figures, souvenir plates with their image, clocks, magnets, souvenir boxes.
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| Photo credit: http://belashtorg.by/ |
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