White Storks in Poland

Linking to Skywatch Friday

and Willy Nilly Friday 5

1. I never knew that white storks raise their chicks in Poland during spring and summer and then fly to Africa for the winter but avoid flying over the Mediterranean to get there. They eat mice, vermin, and insects from the farm fields so Poland actually makes wire nests above the utility poles for storks to build their nests. They also eat frogs and fish from shallow water. The female has a clutch of four eggs and both parents take turns incubating the eggs which hatch in about 33 days. 

 2. This road and barn is at Krasnoborki, a village just west of Krasnybor, Poland. It was a perfect day for picture taking. My Staranowicz family came from this tiny village. If you look closely, you can see a small white family shrine in front of the barn with a cross.

 3. If you read my previous blog, this photo shows the inside of the Church at Krasnybor. I think that the chandelier, which has been modernized with lights, are Elk antlers. I had very few ancestors who lived in Krasnybor but they came from all the surrounding villages to be married here (Sztabin, Janowek, Cisow, Kunicha, Jaminy, Ewy, Jaziewo, and Kopiec).

 4. I was surprised at how small the chapel was; these were two seater benches on the side. Just to think that my ancestors were baptized, married and probably had their funerals in this very church going back to the early 1700s. I can just picture buggies and wagons full of people on their way to the wedding being held at Krasnybor.

 5. Each tiny village that we came to had a sign with the village name and as we left the village, sometimes only a block or two, another sign appeared with a diagonal line crossed through the village name telling us we had left that village.

This was the sunset on the lake in Augustow, Poland where I stayed during my visit to northeast Poland. 

I just had to take a photo of this picturesque home that we passed by on our way west back to Sztabin on that sunny day.