A Stork, a Fisherman and Their Unlikely Bond Enchant Turkey

13 years in the past, a poor fisherman in a small Turkish village was retrieving his internet from a lake when he heard a noise behind him and turned to discover a majestic being standing on the bow of his rowboat.

Gleaming white feathers coated its head, neck and chest, yielding to black plumes on its wings. It stood atop skinny orange legs that almost matched the colour of its lengthy, pointy beak.

The fisherman, Adem Yilmaz, acknowledged it as one of many white storks that had lengthy summered within the village, he recalled, however he had by no means seen one so shut, a lot much less hosted one on his boat.

Questioning if it was hungry, he tossed it a fish, which the fowl devoured. He tossed one other. And one other.

So started an unlikely story of man and fowl that has captivated Turkey because the passing years — and a deft social media marketing campaign by an area nature photographer — have unfold the pair’s story as a modern-day fable of cross-species friendship.

The stork, nicknamed Yaren, or “companion,” in Turkish, not solely returned to Mr. Yilmaz’s boat repeatedly that first 12 months, the fisherman stated, however after migrating south for the winter, returned the subsequent spring to the identical village, the identical nest — and the identical boat.

Final month, after Yaren appeared within the village for the thirteenth 12 months in a row, the native information media gleefully coated his arrival just like the springtime sighting of a Turkish Punxsutawney Phil.

The pair’s story has introduced surprising fame, though no severe fortune, to Mr. Yilmaz, 70, and Yaren, estimated to be 17. They’ve co-starred in a kids’s guide and an award-winning documentary. A kids’s journey film that includes a cameo by Mr. Yilmaz (and a digital rendering of the stork) is anticipated to debut in cinemas throughout Turkey this 12 months.

Stork lovers all over the place can watch Yaren and his accomplice, Nazli, or “coquette” in Turkish, as they preen, contort their necks, clack their beaks, renovate their nest and infrequently mate, because of a 24-hour webcam arrange by the native authorities.

“This isn’t a story. It is a true story,” Ali Ozkan, the mayor of Karacabey, whose district consists of the village, stated in an interview. “It’s a true story with the flavour of a story.”

The fowl’s celeb has bolstered municipal efforts to extend native tourism with strolling paths and low outlets close to the district’s lakes and wetlands, he stated. The world has developed a stork “grasp plan” to look after the birds.

He initially confronted some criticism from constituents who questioned why a mayor was getting concerned with storks, he stated. However now, residents name in after they discover broken nests, and a pal from one other metropolis just lately phoned him to complain that he couldn’t see Yaren on the webcam.

The story has put Mr. Yilmaz’s village of Eskikaraagac — inhabitants 235 — on the map, drawing teams of scholars and vacationers who stroll its slim streets to see the storks and take boat rides on neighboring Lake Uluabat. Many guests hunt down Yaren’s nest, which sits on a platform atop an electrical pole close to Mr. Yilmaz’s home, and act star-struck after they encounter the fisherman himself, peppering him with questions and posing for pictures.

One current morning, Mr. Yilmaz stood within the yard of his small, two-story home holding a bath of fish he had caught. Of their nest overhead, Yaren and Nazli dozed, groomed themselves and stuffed the air with the percussive clacking of their beaks.

“Yaren!” Mr. Yilmaz referred to as.

Each birds glided right down to the yard, and Mr. Yilmaz lofted fish into their beaks.

“They’re full,” Mr. Yilmaz introduced after the birds had downed about two dozen fish. “After 13 years, I can inform.”

Storks have lengthy nested within the village, arriving within the spring and mating earlier than migrating within the late summer time towards Africa.

Village elders recall when there appeared to be a stork nest on each roof and residents struggled to stop the birds from swiping laundry from outside strains. However most individuals appreciated the birds, whose arrival proper after pink flowers bloomed on the almond bushes was a harbinger of spring.

Ridvan Cetin, the village’s elected authority, stated a rely within the Nineteen Eighties discovered 41 energetic nests, which means 82 storks, not together with chicks.

This 12 months, the village has solely 4 energetic nests, together with Yaren’s.

“Now they’re only a few,” Mr. Cetin stated sadly.

Nobody within the village may recall a bond much like that between Mr. Yilmaz and Yaren.

“I’ve by no means seen something prefer it,” Mr. Cetin stated.

For Mr. Yilmaz, a quiet man with leathery fingers and a form, rutted face, Yaren was a serendipitous addition to what he had hoped can be a late, restful chapter in an in any other case troublesome life.

He grew up poor. His father pulled him out of college to work within the fields and fish, regardless of how chilly the climate.

“My life was between the sphere and the lake,” he stated.

His mom died when he was 13. His father remarried when he was 17 to a lady Mr. Yilmaz didn’t like. So, with solely an elementary faculty training, he fled to Bursa, the closest large metropolis, and labored in a manufacturing facility that made yogurt and different milk merchandise.

At 19, he married one other villager he had recognized since childhood. They misplaced their first baby, a daughter, weeks after her delivery. He labored in numerous milk factories as he and his spouse raised three different kids, two boys and a woman.

In 2011, along with his kids grown and residing elsewhere along with his 5 grandchildren, he stopped working, returned to the village and moved again into his childhood house, subsequent to the lake the place he had fished as a toddler.

“It was my dream from the day I began working to go to my village and fish,” he stated.

Quickly after, the stork landed on his boat.

Every time Yaren left, Mr. Yilmaz questioned whether or not he would return. However after a couple of years, he stopped worrying.

“I used to be positive that so long as I used to be alive, this fowl was going to return,” he stated.

Early on, nobody a lot cared that Mr. Yilmaz had made buddies with a stork. Different villagers teased him or stated he was losing his time — and his fish.

That modified in 12 months 5, when Alper Tuydes, a hunter turned wildlife photographer who works for the native authorities, started sharing pictures of the pair on social media. The story unfold, getting a raise every spring with Yaren’s arrival.

The connection of man and fowl corresponds with recognized stork behaviors, stated Omer Donduren, a Turkish ornithologist.

Though storks keep away from direct contact with folks, they usually roost close to them, on roofs, in chimneys or atop electrical energy poles.

The birds have a tendency towards monogamy and show loyalty to their nests, parting methods with their companions emigrate, however rendezvousing in the identical nest within the spring to breed.

That would clarify why Yaren has roosted close to Mr. Yilmaz’s home 12 months after 12 months, Mr. Donduren stated.

Storks, which might stay for greater than 20 years within the wild and greater than 30 in captivity, even have robust recollections, enabling them to recollect migration routes from as far north as Poland and Germany to locations many 1000’s of miles south, so far as South Africa. It’s unclear the place Yaren spends his time after he leaves the village, however a tracker affixed to considered one of his offspring adopted the fowl over Syria, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, Sudan, Chad and the Central African Republic earlier than it stopped working.

Over time, Yaren’s experiences with Mr. Yilmaz have most likely turn out to be a part of his reminiscence, he stated.

“Nature doesn’t have a lot house for feelings,” Mr. Donduren stated. “For the stork, it’s a matter of simple meals. It thinks, There’s a simple supply of meals right here. This man appears secure. He doesn’t harm me.”

Mr. Yilmaz’s rationalization is far less complicated.

“It’s simply to like an animal,” he stated. “They’re God’s creatures.”

One current morning, Mr. Yilmaz rowed into the lake and pulled up his internet, dropping small fish into the boat.

“Yaren!” he referred to as.

The stork took flight, did a loop to surveil the boat and perched on a lamppost close to the financial institution.

“Yaren!” Mr. Yilmaz referred to as once more.

The fowl took flight once more, lastly alighting on the boat, the place Mr. Yilmaz tossed him fish after fish.

After some time, the stork lifted off, glided across the village and returned to his nest.

“That’s it,” Mr. Yilmaz stated with a glad smile. “He’s full.”