In Spain, storks’ trash diet driven by climate change

JENNIFER O’MAHONY and DAVID MONTERO SIERRA

COLMENAR VIEJO, Spain (AP) — Europe’s storks used to fly south to Africa’s Sahel region to spend the winter, stopping off in Spain along the way. But with higher temperatures caused by climate change and abundant food available at open-air waste disposal sites, most adult storks no longer make the long and exhausting journey. At Madrid’s Colmenar Viejo landfill, around 100 trucks a day dump household waste into a crater that is then covered with sand by diggers. Hundreds of white storks have built nests up to six feet long on roofs and in the bell tower of the nearby church. The higher temperatures are likely to keep rising, meaning more and more birds will be drawn to Madrid in winter.