The Storks That Nest on Sea Stacks

Short day, and the reason to slow down for it is standing on top of the sea stacks just south of Cabo Sardão.

White storks nest on buildings. Everywhere in Iberia, on every church tower and pylon and chimney. Here — and, as far as anyone can establish, only here — they nest on rock pillars in the Atlantic, with surf breaking underneath them and the nest a metre from a hundred-foot drop.

Nobody has a satisfying explanation. The colony is old, the ledges are safe from ground predators, and the storks appear to have simply decided.

We sat above them for an hour and didn't do much else with the day, which is what the short stages are for.