The ornithologists from the Center for Nature Protection "Poda" near the Black Sea city of Burgas have noticed Saturday morning the first white storks in the area.

The news was announced by Dimcho Dimchev, Manager of the Center, which belongs to the Bulgarian Bird Protection Society.

Despite the strong winds in the area, the storks have been able to gain altitude and fly away. These are the first migratory bird visitors for 2009, marking the end of winter and the beginning of spring. The peak periods for the storks to arrive in Bulgaria are the end of March and the beginning of April, according to Dimchev.

The white storks spend the winter season in South Africa and in the spring fly over 15,000 kilometers to their breeding locations in Europe. The last count of white storks in Bulgaria has been conducted in 2004/ 2005 and the Bulgarian Bird Protection Society found 4,818 breeding couples.

75% of the entire European white stork population or about 250,000 storks fly over "Poda" each year along with 100% of the population of the pink pelican and hundreds of thousands of other migratory bird species.

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