Garbage picking, Jasper Doest, The Netherlands, 2012

Garbage picking
Jasper Doest, The Netherlands
2012

“Clambering about this ghastly landfill site in southern Spain made me aware of just how much trash we generate daily,” Doest said. The dumps are affecting the storks’ natural behavior. Instead of feeding on frogs, insects, young birds, rodents and worms, they are attracted to this ready source of rotting food, ingesting potentially lethal rubber bands and plastics, and feeding them to their chicks. Garbage dumps have become increasingly important to some populations of white storks, providing food during both the breeding season and winter. The replacement of dumps with incinerators, combined with rising loss of their natural habitat, may cause a future decline in numbers.

Technical specification: Nikon D3 + 70-200mm f2.8 lens; 1/1000 sec at f11; ISO 400