Rooftop nest home to storks in Sivas for 35 years

SİVAS

Storks have flown back to their nest with the arrival of spring, after their nest was moved last year from the roof of a middle school to the roof of an elementary school in the central Anatolian province of Sivas. Due to safety reasons, the 35-year-old nest was carefully moved to its new spot with a crane.

The stork nest has been on the roof of Şehit Faruk Aydoğdu Middle School since it was established in 1983. However, last year when pieces falling from the stork nest posed a danger for students, Sivas governor Davut Gül ordered the nest to be moved to another place.

The nest was moved with a crane last year by teams from the Special Provincial Directorate and placed on a specially prepared platform on the roof of Şehit Erdal Çetin Elementary School, which shares a garden with the middle school.

School officials, students and locals had worried the storks would not come to the nest since it had been moved, so they became very happy when the storks came to the nest last week. 

The storks have become a mascot of the neighborhood and the school. Every spring, they come to the nest to lay their eggs and migrate to warmer regions with three or four chicks when the weather gets colder.

The students and teachers check on the storks every morning. The birds have become very important for locals and students, who fear the storks will one day leave their nest.

Speaking to state-run Anadolu Agency, Şehit Erdal Çetin Elementary School principal Ömer Doğan said the school was built in 1983 and ever since then, the roof had been home for the storks.

“The storks have come again this year and have become used to their nest’s new place. We wait for their arrival every year in the spring,” he said.

Doğan said the students had also been waiting for the storks with great excitement.

“They are our seasonal guests. Especially in the mornings when we come [to school], we look at the roof to see if they are there. Our students do not bother the storks. When they come to the garden, they do not harm them and they try not to frighten them. This situation makes us happy to have a stork nest on the roof of this school in the city center, when there is so much concrete around us,” he said.

Neighborhood head Mustafa Güler said he had been living in the same neighborhood for 40 years.

“The history of the storks is a very old one. First, there had been an old school here and they would come to its roof. Later, the school was renovated and the storks kept coming to this roof. We wait for the storks every year as a sign of spring and every year they come in March. We would not be able to get used to their absence,” said Güler.