White Stork. Baltais stārķis. Ciconia ciconia. Weißstorch. Vit stork. Valge-toonekurg. Белый аист.

• Another very common bird in Latvia. A big one. It eats frogs, snakes and other things. I know the sentence before is useless, but I wouldn’t mention that If I wouldn’t have seen how it eats a snake (didn’t believe before I saw). It ate that snake like a spaghetti, just as we – people do – no stress, calm eating. There is a belief about the white stork in Latvia – there are rumors that babies aren’t born, but they are just brought to their parents by this bird. I really don’t know – can’t remember so far back. Maybe they are true. :D Ok, now to the funny part, I usually don’t take beliefs seriously, but maybe I should. I know a guy and his girlfriend who told me this story. They were driving home (Saldus) from Liepaja. That’s about 100 km - so not long, not short. They spotted a stork which was flying over their car and weirdly staring at them. After some driving there was another one, who did the same thing. They remembered the belief with the baby bringing and storks, chuckled about that and drove home. Nine months passed. Guess what! Yes, I’m going to be an uncle.
• Starting tip: when there is grass-cutting time in Latvia, just search for a large field which is going to be taken down. They will come. That’s about it – they are so common, I even haven’t tried to do “the weird bird thingy” on them.