STORKS in the region have delivered babies of their own kind.

In German mythology storks bring human babies in the spring and early summer but the white birds at Redcar's Kirkleatham Owl Centre have produced four chicks which are now three weeks old and will make their public debut this Bank Holiday Weekend.

The Centre's adult White Storks have lived at the centre for a number of years but this is the first time they have successfully hatched chicks,.

Three of the babies are being hand-reared by Owl Centre volunteers while the oldest chick is being looked after by its very protective parents.

“Our adult storks laid eggs last year which sadly didn’t hatch but this year they were successful,” said centre director, Craig Wesson. “We are very proud of these little chicks as we put a lot of work into getting conditions just right, so that our storks felt content enough to start breeding.

“The male Stork is extremely protective of his young chick, so protective in fact he wont let us in the aviary.”

The chicks have quadrupled in size since they hatched and they have to grow fast as they leave the nest at eight weeks old, by which time they are as big as the huge adults.

The association of storks bringing couples a newborn baby is believed to have started in Germany several hundred years ago.

Babies born in March and April were likely conceived in June of the previous year and Midsummer’s Eve, which takes place on June 21 and was a pagan holiday of marriage and fertility. Consequently many babies would be born around the time that the storks could be seen flying north in spring giving birth to the “stork brought the baby” myth.