Snappy stork terrorises German village

POTSDAM, Germany: A love-crazed male stork is causing frayed nerves in the village of Glambeck in the eastern German state of Brandenburg as he lashes out with his beak at cars and windows.
"When the male stork keeps knocking on my bedroom window at half past five in the morning, it's not so nice," village director Hilde Peltzer-Blase said at the weekend, confirming a report in the Maerkische Algemeine newspaper.
Dark car roofs also seem to irritate the angry bird, which leaves thick scratches in the paintwork, forcing car-owners to keep their vehicles in garages rather than out in the open.
The reason for the grumpy beak attacks is male rivalry: since the 6-year-old stork arrived in the village in May, he has been attacking a breeding pair of storks and all other putative rivals he sees in reflective surfaces.
"He is obviously very driven by his hormones," said Nadine Bauer, stork expert at the German animal rescue organisation Nabu. Normally a male stork will give up on a nest once he has lost the fight and move on.
"But there are storks of differing characters," Bauer said.
But the stork's snappiness might have resulted in success: the rightful male bird did not return to his mate on Friday, allowing the rival to sneak into the nest.
"We really hope that the situation calms if he now takes his paternal role seriously," village head Peltzer-Blase said. — dpa