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Do you have any stuff I could read about that? The way it was presented seemed to just imply falconers mews and their quarry

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I have been in discussion with Sam Turvey at ZSL and there is interest in re-examining the stork bones where they can be found as his team have been doing for pelican. As usual it’s a matter of funding and time. Watch this space.

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Could you clarify the ‘zoo’ specimen? Searjentson noted that it was found within falconers mews alongside Crane and (obviously kept) Gyrfalcon.

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Not impossible but applying Occam’s Razor it would more likely to apply to somewhere you could find something regularly.

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I think the sea crossing element is perhaps a bit overstated. They do increase breeding range gradually from the edges rather than in big leaps, so it may have just meant any recolonisation attempts in the medieval era and after were thwarted by persecution before a critical mass could ever grow.

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Rather like this one - the fossil and place name record of storks, as well as current and proposed release sites, overlaid with the provisional SDM made by Rhys Lemoine.

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Additionally, pers comms with Ian Newton we were made aware of biases with cranes - as well as being a species which was more widespread than a southern summer visitor, the flightless period during moults every 2 years would’ve made them incredibly easy to catch in large numbers.

Don’t think Black Storks were native (at least not since Neolithic woodland clearances if it was) but number of WS records is frequent for a vagrant and is similar to assemblage record in Europe - see 4-piece series below petemrcooper.substack.com/p/to-stork-o...

White Storks are being released into Britain, but the government recently said they aren't native. Is this really the case, and can further releases be justified?

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And finally in big news, I’m delighted to announce I’ll be starting a new role as Species Recovery Manager at the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts at the end of this month. Onwards and upwards!

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This piece also included some provisional yet brilliant Species Distribution Models from Dr Rhys Lemoine on the likely historical and present day ranges for stork in Britain. Particularly fond of this graphic where I overlayed archaeological remains, place names and release sites.

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And following this, a guest post from Harvey Tweats on a possible explanation as to why storks didn’t seem to make it into British folklore - it’s very much tied to Romans and Saxons. petemrcooper.substack.com/p/what-did-t...

What did the Romans ever do for Storks?

A guest post by Harvey Tweats following the deep-dive into the past status of White Storks in Britain with hypotheses as to why they left little cultural mark.

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BlueSky doesn’t have the numbers or life of old Twitter, partly why I’m so quiet. But I’ll round-up the sorts of thing that would’ve gone down well there. On my substack, you can read all 3 parts of my deep-dive into the native status of white storks here petemrcooper.substack.com/p/to-stork-o...

White Storks are being released into Britain, but the government recently said they aren't native. Is this really the case, and can further releases be justified?

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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

A follow up to my deep dive on the history of storks in Britain - Harvey Tweats provides a guest post looking into why it may have gone extinct in Britain but not Europe, and whether there is another explanation for its absence in folklore. petemrcooper.substack.com/p/what-did-t...

What did the Romans ever do for Storks?

A guest post by Harvey Tweats following the deep-dive into the past status of White Storks in Britain with hypotheses as to why they left little cultural mark.

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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

After attending a lovely event for @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social’s new book last week, it made sense to start reading it in the landscape that inspired it while staying with friends in Sidbury. Feat the cliffs of Branscombe with Gylly the lab

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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Swamp Lynx sounds like a band that had a quick-burn run in the late 80s/early 90s and has later had a cult revival among 6music dads and alternative Gen-Zs

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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

And it contains a relict population of Wild Boar?

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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

I think it’s a pretty poor article to be honest. Makes no attempt to reconcile with the evidence and makes some pretty flimsy arguments that wouldn’t fly with anti-stork folk and NE.

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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Have you had any detectorists at any of the sites?

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As Britain would be northern edge of range they are likely to have been less common - also only one arch record from Denmark and none from southern Sweden where we know of historic breeding.

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All the stork bones in Europe are from dwellings as well - a result of archeaolgical bias. I need to go over where cranes were found but we should be careful with putting too much comparison on them.

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There’s a human consumption bias but odd that breeding species we know were eaten like Bittern, Bustard and Spoonbill appear slightly to far less frequently.

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We would however expect to see more visitor species in the archaeological record. All in the blog, these can appear in 1s-2s but there are 20-10x many stork.

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I’m not sure they were a passage migrant unless they were breeding/wintering in Iceland! I would love something more formal which is why I call for a detailed assessment of the evidence by an academic 3rd-party more objective than me, including reassessing bones to check they’re actually storks

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I’m assuming this is meant to be in response to my substack - misnaming possible but where they are mentioned in literature, cranes and herons are nearly always mentioned separately so I don’t think this was as big an issue as folks make out.

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Reposted by Pete Cooper

I thought I’d settle down to write something uncontroversial - so I wrote about stork releases. With Natural England recently declaring white storks non-native, can their releases be justified? A tale in 3 parts. petemrcooper.substack.com/p/to-stork-o...

White Storks are being released into Britain, but the government recently said they aren't native. Is this really the case, and can further releases be justified?

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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

And generally some cultures of distrust being created - showing once again how ultimately people and politics become the driving force in conservation circles.

Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

I’m hoping this piece in part does show that while it’s not on the level of cranes, there is actually evidence - I think the parroted misconception was that there was no evidence. The whole situation has also not being helped by poor justifications in some quarters on the wilding side -

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Not all European bird species will necessarily have reached Britain when it became an island - the habitat of colonisation pathways prior to becoming an island is crucial, and some species are dissuaded by crossing marine barriers.

White Storks are being released into Britain, but the government recently said they aren't native. Is this really the case, and can further releases be justified?

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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

The temperatures taken in my Glow-worm rearing shed yesterday. Ambient conditions are better for breeding native invertebrates, but thankfully its shaded position keeps the shed at least 2-3 degrees cooler than outside. All are doing well.

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Reminds me of this photo from the 60s I found on a heritage page from my hometown, just prior to the construction of the estate I grew up on. Apparently the Broadlands head keeper came up with this sign because it sounded exotically deadly enough to keep people out in a time before checking google!

Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Either way you’ve given me a great idea for a new folk horror story