Another Yearly Ritual

After unrelenting grey for the last couple of days, we had sunshine and blue skies today.  It was suitably springlike and so we headed off down to Schierstein to see what there was  to see.

Schierstein has a stork reserve (you'll need your German for that) and we had hoped that some of them would be around.
 
The first nest we saw was empty but we saw one along the Rhein.  Unfortunately that one was just too high up to get a decent shot, so we kept walking.

At the reserve there were loads of them.  And we could hear them doing that weird thing where they clap their bills.   If we get a good weekend next week then I'd quite like to head back down there with the big camera and the tripod.

Back in the middle of Schierstein, there's this nest on the top of a tall chimney and it's always good to see it back in use.  If you go large with this, tell me if you think the stork is just recovering from a really heavy night.  Or maybe it had just finished its migratory flight, whatever, it looks pretty rough.

We're off out to dinner tonight, down in Eltville (that link is in Google Translate Englisch).  That'll be good end to a pretty decent day so far.