.png)
My name is Witek, and I live in Poland, in Silesia. Besides spending time in nature, I'm involved in sculpture, painting, and photography. I often go cycling, which helps me discover new and interesting natural places. Lately, I've been experimenting more with photography. Currently, I focus mainly on long exposure photography and use settings and situations that some photographers might consider unconventional. I primarily search for shots near ponds and meadows, which I can easily reach by bike. Occasionally, I manage to visit more unique natural locations.
Service Name
During my bird observations, apart from the autumn or spring migrations, I often miss a greater quantity and diversity of birds. In those moments, I can always rely on the reliable mallards, which are the most common ducks in Poland. They are not afraid of people and behave very curiously. Similar to swans, they have started to inhabit human habitats, allowing them to forage on food thrown to them in winter. Interestingly, during mating displays, males undergo a change in their plumage, and feathers around their head and neck take on an emerald color. However, their drive to pass on genes can lead to a few "enthusiastic" males attempting to submerge a female during mating. There has also been observed a situation of homosexual necrophilia on a male mallard by another male.
The grey heron is very well adapted to hunting fish; it has a long, curved neck ending in a head with a sharp, long beak, creating a harpoon-like weapon. It is capable of skillfully spearing a fish through with its beak while hunting and can even swallow fish much larger than its head whole. The sound it produces is a hoarse, piercing, high-pitched squawk, usually when alarmed. In winter, they also hunt in cultivated fields and meadows, catching anything they can eat.
Seagulls are among the more intelligent birds; they have adapted to living among humans and often steal their food. Sometimes, they can even confront a person in a sizable group. In the pictures, you can see a seagull from the Larus family (in their juvenile plumage, they are challenging to identify) and terns, which are the easiest gulls to observe inland.
This year in May, I had the opportunity to visit the Biebrza Marshes, where I could witness the spring migrations of bitterns for the first time in my life. The sight of large flocks migrating in one direction is truly enchanting, accompanied by the loud rustle of their wings. The most characteristic feature of bitterns is their plumage and courtship dances. They fly through Poland in April and May. During this time, photographers from all over Poland come to Biebrza to capture their mating displays. It's an extraordinary spectacle; males wear "nuptial plumage" in shades of rust, black, and white, performing their courtship dances. Observing such a display, you'll notice that the most robust, well-colored males, often dark in hue, have much greater chances of passing on their genes. Even less attractive males gain an opportunity when a female positions herself in front of a "higher-ranking" male ready for copulation. A significant threat to the bitterns is the drainage of marshes and peat bogs. In 2021, after 20 years, the nesting of bitterns in Poland was documented on the outskirts of the Knyszyn Primeval Forest, taking place in an enclosure specially prepared by the Polish Society for Bird Protection (PTOP).
Mute swans are the heaviest birds in Poland, so when I am by the lake and get too close, especially to a pair with young ones, they start to attack, hissing and honking in a diabolical manner, trying to scare me away. They are large enough that they need a "runway" to take off from the water. They are also very protective and tend to colonize water bodies in the immediate vicinity of humans. They possess strength capable of breaking an adult's bones, but they don't attack without reason; such occurrences are extremely rare.
Usually, when you see a bird larger than a thrush flying in the sky and it looks like an uncommon species, 95% of the time, it turns out to be a buzzard. One might even mistake it for a white-tailed eagle, whose wingspan is about three times larger. Buzzards are the largest hawks in Poland.
During my first visit to the Biebrza Marshes, I had the opportunity to observe hundreds of cranes because I happened to be there at a moment when they gathered on the wet meadows in the evening as a stopover before migration. They produce an incredible sound called a "klangor," which echoes for kilometers across the plains. The crane is the largest bird in Poland, with a weight ranging from 3 to 6 kg and a wingspan of about 2 meters. They nest in marshes.
During winter in Poland, huge flocks of geese roam the skies. At this time, a common sight is their formations gliding through the air. These groups can consist of dozens of these sizable birds, mostly graylag geese, occasionally white-fronted geese, and rarely bean, tundra, and small geese. During wintering, their lifestyle revolves around foraging in cultivated fields and unfrozen water bodies. In these places, you can hear their very loud and distinctive calls. In the picture, graylag geese are visible on the frozen surface of a lake.