Videos and photos of people rescuing the much-loved symbol of spring from the grim weather have spread across social media.
Although spring officially arrived in Bulgaria on Tuesday evening, it has not kicked in so far with sunshine and blossoming trees, but with heavy snowstorms and freezing rain.
This has been especially true for northeastern Bulgaria, where the late winter hit the hardest.
The adverse weather has caught returning storks, symbol of spring in Bulgaria, off guard – but many locals from villages and towns across the country came to the rescue over the weekend.
With temperatures hitting minus-4 degrees centigrade, the birds seemed in distress, hiding next to road ditches or in the snowy fields in the countryside, instead of roosting on branches, as they would normally do.
On Sunday, drivers started sharing photos on Facebook about the plight of the birds, warning fellow drivers to move carefully on the roads where some birds are trying to take shelter.
Over the next few days, local people across the country started rescuing the birds, as pictures of storks in houses and next to stoves, in barns and in garages emerged.
This has produced a mass positive reaction on social media, with one video – that of Sevgin Ridvan from the village of Naum close to Shumen in northeastern Bulgaria – getting shared over 30,000 times.
For more read the full of article at The Balkaninsight
