Two pairs of rare white storks migrating from Russia to avoid chilly weather were found bearing nestling in their nests built on an electric pole near the estuary of the Yellow River delta, in east China's warmer Shandong Province.

Experts from the National Nature Reserve of the Yellow River Delta Thursday said it was the first time they found Russian wild storks, or Ciconia boyciana, breed offspring in the region where the storks normally dwell in the winter before flying back home in Russia to reproduce.

The five baby storks from two nests would soon be fledging and ready to fly, the experts said, thanks to the warm weather, favorable place to lay nests and the abundant food from the nearby wetland.

Only 3,000 white storks are left in the world, mostly residing in Russia and northeastern China. About 100 Russian white storks fly to the nature reserve at Yellow River Delta every November to spend the winter before heading back the following March, according to a worker of the Yellow River nature reserve administration.

But they said storks have started to dwell longer for the summer in the reserve since 2003. This year, about 50 of the storks were reported to be staying somewhere around the estuary of Yellow River, China's second largest river which empties into the Yellow River from Shandong Province.  

(Xinhua News Agency June 24, 2005)