Storks (1 Viewer)

[T0ny]

BANGKOK (Reuters) - A Thai village is in a flap over thousands of migrating storks and the stench from the birds' droppings, which has forced villagers to wear face masks and block doors and windows to keep out the suffocating smell.


Officials in Ban Tan, a village about 60 km (37.5 miles) north of Bangkok, say they have no idea how to protect the village from the birds, which have built nests on rooftops and in trees after flying south for the winter.


"The smell is so bad we are worrying about the affect it will have on the children's health," Weerachart Malai, headmaster of the village school, told Reuters.


The storks are a protected species so cannot be harmed, but they are making life intolerable in the village.


Small numbers of storks visit the village every time it is winter but this year they arrived in huge numbers, possibly because of recent climate changes or new patterns of farming, local officials say.

Tony

 

[Donna]

How interesting...I've never thought of birds as "smelly", but I guess if you get enough of them together it happens.

I seem to recall a few years ago that the residents in a development not far from here were complaining about the number of birds...I can't recall what they were though. They were nesting in the area. I think they were having a problem with the noise...sure wish that "old timers" disease wouldn't hit quite so frequently! Seems I can never remember all of anything....little snippets come through and the rest is lost. Guess you'd better forget I even said anything!

Anyway, I wonder what they will do about this situation.

DonnaA

 

[T0ny]

The funniest 'bird-complaint' I heard was on one of the 'Retirement' shows the Beeb put on, years ago, interviewing people who had retired to their dream cottage (just what I've done), and one couple, who'd moved to Newquay in Cornwall, were really indignant that the local council 'let those seagulls (Herring Gulls, Larus argentatus) make all that noise !' You'd think they'd realise, moving to the coast, there'd be gulls around, but apparently it had never occurred to them.

Tony

 

[1birdylady]

Yes they smell. That's how I found a Snowy Egrets nest this summer on Deer Island. Ammonia smell. I looked up when I smelled it and saw all the dropping on the leaves and sure enough there was a nest with the baby sticking its head out. I got a couple of fair shot through the limbs and leaves. DonnaB