EUROPE : Stork Tally to Deliver Score Card on Environment : Poles and others await census of the migratory birds as gauge of ecology. Avian has special place in Continent’s heart.

The farmers in this faraway village in northern Poland live in unkempt homes, many without running water or even a coat of paint. Their rickety barns look like tired old men, leaning and groaning in the afternoon wind.

But the poor people of Lejdy have something of untold value that even the most posh European towns and villages cannot claim: About 60 white storks, by last count, call this place home, more than live in all of Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands.

With autumn approaching, the annual migration of the storks to Africa is about to get under way. In hundreds of villages like this one spanning the Continent, the big birds--among the most loved creatures in Europe--are assembling in fields and grassy meadows in anticipation of the 8,000-mile trek. Flock upon flock will join the flight, until they number in the thousands.

This year, the exodus carries special meaning, because it signals the end of a two-year effort to tally the stork population from Portugal to Uzbekistan. The international census, the fifth since 1934, is expected to involve 40 countries, making it one of the most comprehensive bird-watching undertakings ever.

Environmentalists and scientists throughout Europe are eagerly awaiting the results, which will be compiled by a German conservation group over the next few months.

“It serves as a wonderful indicator of how the environment is doing everywhere,” said Mariola Sokolska, 35, of Pro Natura, a Polish environmental organization overseeing the count here. “The stork thrives in areas that are clean and rich with life. If the stork can’t make it somewhere, then we know other animals and plants are in trouble as well.”

For decades, the news in most of Europe has not been good for the stork. Intense farming in Western Europe, attributed by many environmentalists to the agricultural policies of the European Union, has robbed the bird of its lush wetlands habitat in countries such as France, Germany and Denmark.

The last census, in 1984, showed declining stork populations almost everywhere in the European Union. Interim tallies over the past decade have signaled improvement over the depressed levels documented in 1984 in only a few countries.

A noteworthy exception has been Spain, a European Union member whose stork population has more than doubled since the census 11 years ago. Environmentalists attribute the turnaround to the end of a protracted drought in western Africa, where the Spanish storks spend their winters, and the introduction of irrigated farming in Spain. In most of Europe, marshes have been drained to expand farmland; in Spain, dry, uncultivated land is being flooded anew.

“It is one of the few cases where agricultural policies have improved the conditions for survival of a species,” said Holger Schulz, director of the Institute for Grassland Conservation and Research in Bergenhusen, Germany, which is compiling the census data.

*

The storks’ struggle has had deep meaning for many Europeans. No bird is more loved or steeped in greater mythology. Folk tales tell of its influence over everything from fertility to the weather. Some legends say the birds are transformed men and women with human souls, capable of reassuming their human shapes.

“I love to watch them,” said Lejdy farmer Antoni Kwilinski, 48, as a pair of birds clacked on his roof. “They become part of your life.” Ornithologists attribute much of the storks’ allure to their many human-like qualities. The birds mate for life, prefer the same nest each spring, greet each other with pirouettes and noisy salutations, and show filial love and devotion.

They also seek out human companionship, usually building their massive nests--sometimes weighing more than a ton--on rooftops, utility poles and chimneys. In Lejdy, some buckling farm buildings are laden with as many as four of the giant baskets.

“It is not just a bird, it is a symbol,” said Schulz, whose institute features the stork in its logo. “There is a belief that a white stork resting on a house preserves the happiness of the people there.”

Tracking the fortunes of the three-foot-tall birds is deemed so important in Poland that Sokolska and her assistant, Gregorz Polutrenko, have spent 10 weeks on bicycles combing the countryside to count them.

The two have camped along the roadside, shared meals with curious villagers and promoted their dream of establishing a stork center in Poland, all while pedaling 40 miles a day.

“We want to take advantage of the widespread love of storks to help protect habitat also vital to lesser-known birds and animals,” said Polutrenko, 29.

In general, storks have managed better on the far side of the former Iron Curtain, largely because backward farming practices in non-European Union countries have preserved the natural landscape. Storks there find wetlands lush with frogs, snakes, mice and other food.

Ornithologist Bogdan Kasperczyk says that, “for now, the situation in Poland is better than ever, because the bankruptcy of state-owned farms has allowed the fields to grow wild.”

*

There is no country in Europe with more storks than Poland, whose estimated 30,500 pairs account for about a third of all the adult storks on the Continent. The country benefits from its hospitable countryside but also from its geographic location between two migration paths.

Storks in Eastern Europe follow a southeasterly route to their wintering grounds in Africa, skirting large bodies of water whenever possible. They follow the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, passing over Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Egypt. Those in Western Europe cross the Strait of Gibraltar en route to their winter homes in western Africa.

The clash between nature and civilization has become a serious problem in some Polish towns, where electrocution is the leading cause of death for the birds. Pro Natura has launched a program to move nests from the tops of dangerous utility poles. About 50 large platforms were mounted this year above utility wires, and an estimated 6,000 more are needed.

In Lejdy, there is no money to erect platforms or to reinforce sinking rooftops. Nearly every house, barn and outbuilding in the village of 12 families carries at least one nest, and most of the structures have been threatened by the weight.

But barely a harsh word is spoken about the birds.

“I have four children and 10 grandchildren, and on a farm, that means something,” said Janina Kozier, 67, proudly surveying her seven nests. “Of course, the storks helped!”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Winter and Summer Homes

As migration paths for Europe’s storks indicate, the birds do not cross large bodies of water. They skirt the Mediterranean on their annual flights to and from Africa.

The most common myth about storks is that they deliver babies to mothers and fathers. Other European folklore about the birds includes:

If a stork builds a nest on a house, it is safe from fire.

If a stork leaves its nest and builds a new one in the trees, it is a sign of war of pestilence.

If you kill a stork, you will have bad luck.

If a stork arrives clean, it will be a warm and sunny year.

If a stork arrives dirty, it will be a dismal and wet year.

Sources: Institute for Grassland Conservation and Research