free to soar – releasing white storks from wild hamatethy in cornwall

On the 13th August 2026 we released twenty one captive bred White Storks at Wild Hamatethy in Cornwall, United Kingdom!

This is the first time storks have been released in Cornwall in hundreds of years. The storks were bred at Wild Hamatethy by Yan Swiderski and Robert Scott, supported by the Screech Owl Sanctuary and Wildlife Park and Cornwall Wildlife Trust. Yan co-founded the Cornwall Stork Project with Chris Jones, formulating an ambitious plan to reintroduce these birds to Cornwall and the South-West, now expanding it to the Cornwall Beaver Project and Cornwall the Bigger Picture.

Please help us to monitor the storks progress by reporting sightings of them on the Cornwall Stork Project website. The storks are ringed with black bands on their legs with white writing starting with K for Kernow and a number.

The release was featured in the news:

The Guardian, ‘They do look majestic’: tears and pride as first white storks set free in Cornwall by Steven Morris

BBC News ‘Storks released in Cornwall rewilding plan’

Radio Cornwall on BBC Sounds by Julie Skentelbery ‘Have you seen the white storks?’

AOL Canada

BBC Spotlight on Friday 13th August at 6:30pm.