It is 21 May 1822, and a German nobleman, Christian Ludwig von Bothmer, is staring at a white stork that he has just shot from the sky over the village of Klütz in Mecklenburg. Protruding from the neck of the long-legged bird is an 80cmlong arrow with an iron head; it has entered by the shoulder and exited near the head. The arrow is unlike anything von Bothmer has seen before, but he hopes his taxidermist can work around it, and he sends the bird to be stuffed.
At this point, the German count has no idea that on this spring day he has accidentally contributed to solving one of the biggest mysteries of science: the question of where the storks and other birds go to spend the winter after they leave the Northern Hemisphere.
Today we know that many species of bird migrate to a warmer winter habitat in the autumn, before returning with the coming of spring. But in the
