Cegonhas!

That's Portuguese for Storks! And as much as we Americans hear about them in the very misleading tale of "How Babies Are Made" when we are children, I don't think any of us have actually ever seen one in person! That is, until I came to Portugal and was out driving through the southern regions of Ribatejo and Alentejo and spotted these giant nests on the huge power lines! I asked Miguel, "What dumb bird decided to build a nest on these??" And he replied "Those would be the Cegonhas Andrea, or you may know them as Storks." Wow....glad they really don't deliver babies if they like to live on power lines!! But he explained that the nests that I see around there now are actually made on non-electrical perches that the government decided to add on after they kept having the Storks dying while trying to make their nests on there. So apparently before that, they would find tons of barbecued Storks on the side of the road.....geezus those birds sound pretty retarded!


But of course they don't know any better, you see because storks like to make their nests on really high perches to protect their young from predators. They do find sometimes find other less dangerous places to nest but unfortunately the power lines are usually the highest they can find here. So the government also built some of their own high perch towers for them, along with adding them to the power lines so if they did still end up coming there, they would hopefully reduce the risk of them electrocuting themselves! Poor guys hahahaha, thankfully though you can enjoy seeing these magnificent looking birds safe in their nests now all throughout the area :)