Storks

Storks nesting on a rooftop in Puente La Reina

I'm reading The Note-Books of Captain Coignet. Chapter 3 finds him traveling. He crosses the border from France into Spain near the west coast:

We started for Bayonne; the distance was great; we suffered from the heat, but at last we reached the bridge of Irun, Our comrades found a stork's nest and took the two young ones. The authorities came to the colonel to reclaim them; the alcalde requested him to restore them, because these birds were necessary in that climate for the destruction of serpents and lizards; he said that the galleys was the penalty for those who killed storks in that country. Consequently they are seen there everywhere; the plains are covered with them, and they walk about in the streets of the towns. Old wheels are put up for them on the top of high posts, and they make their nests in the gable-ends of the buildings.

Reminds me of a story I read when I was a kid. I can almost see the pictures in my mind's eye. I thought it was set in Holland though, not in Spain. Rooting around I find that Hans Christian Anderson wrote a story about storks. I wonder if that could have been it. Problem is the story doesn't mention wagon wheels and I remember that bit very distinctly.

Puente La Reina (site of photo above) is about 50 miles south of Irun.