Free Last Stork Summer by Mary Brigid Surber Page B

of the seas. Storks rely on soaring during migration. Storks glide on convection thermals from high altitudes of 480 to 1600 meters.
    Turkey remained neutral until February of 1945 when it declared war against Germany.
    For the most part, the storks continue their yearly migrations unimpeded by war.

Chapter 10
Gratitude
    Both parents bring food to the nest until the young fledge is eight to nine weeks of age .
    The word deserve can mean to triumph, merit or succeed. You may have an opportunity to triumph at something, receive merit for an accomplishment, or succeed at acquiring what you deserve. The Nazis tried to justify taking a country they didn’t deserve. Being triumphant doesn’t necessarily mean you deserve what you’ve taken. I felt the Nazis didn’t deserve our country. They could not take our country’s soul by destroying its body. I knew the storks understood that instinctively because of what they gave Poland, not by what they took. Our holidays, culture, traditions and festivals were built around these birds. Our seasons were noted by their migration patterns. Our farms flourished because they helped keep the agricultural ecosystems in check by eating grasshoppers, insects and mice. A long relationship, built on certainty and trust, existed between the birds and the people.
    * * *
    The soldiers told me I deserved this job, but there was no trust or certainty. I searched my memory for the expression on the young guard’s face. There must be some clue about the special job they had in store for me; something I would be good at. Over the years I’d tried to learn what the soldiers’ different expressions meant. Like books in a library, some of the guards were easier to read than others. I’d learned that if a soldier sounded strict and stern, yet his eyes revealed sadness or softness, I would probably besafe. That phrasing, “deserve,” rolled around in my head as I tried to attach it to something I could understand.
    I couldn’t read this man’s face though, and the older one wouldn’t make eye contact with me, which was never a good sign. His face was like stone, cold and hard, unaffected. A shiver went down my spine and I told myself to breathe – then I heard the familiar swishing sound of the storks’ large wings.
    I paused and looked up just as one flew over and quickly disappeared from view, hidden by the rows and rows of barracks. It was so beautiful in the morning light of early spring. Its white feathers looked far whiter than I ever remembered them, and the early morning sunlight made its shadowed parts appear purple. The dark wing tips looked beautiful against the white feathers. I knew where it was headed, to the barns and churches just beyond the camp, to the same nest that it had used year after year.
    Our culture was so enchanted by our beloved
bociek
that we had folk sayings about them.
    “If storks arrive on St. Joseph’s Day, the snows will soon melt away. If they arrive on Annunciation Day, a stork will be in its nest to stay, and if they arrive on St. Wojciech’s Day, the stork an egg will lay.”
    We even had a saying for when the stork leaves Poland and heads back to Africa. “On St. Bartholomew’s Day, the stork prepares to be on its way.”
    The male stork is the first to arrive. His job is to fix and repair the nest and make sure it will hold up for the new family that will be arriving soon. The nests are constructed of branches and sticks and lined with grasses, twigs, and anything the stork can find to line it with. The male also needs to locate the food sources in the area. Storks are carnivores. They dine on frogs, fish, insects, small rodents, lizards, and worms. The female arrives a few days later. The female usually lays three to five eggs, and both parents help keep the eggs warm for a month until theyhatch.
    Every town in Poland celebrates the arrival of the storks. Even though I was walking forward into a situation that was unfamiliar, I knew I would be