W-wa Jeziorki: Winter's wildness

The winter continues to hold on, with temperatures hovering around zero during the day, and falling to around -3C at night. Following last week's exploration of the iced-over wetlands north of Sułkowice, I decide to explore those to the east of Dąbrowa Duża. So after a hearty breakfast (bowl of porridge, tuna sandwiches), I set off.

Below: a pair of young female elk. Six years in Jakubowizna, and I've only ever seen four of these elusive creatures – and here are two of the four in this one photo. [Another one in this post.] Seeing them approaching, them seeing me approaching – we stopped. I slowly changed lens to 70-300mm zoom, and took this portrait. We stood like this for a minute or two. I consider moving from the path into the wood to my right, so as not to impede their progress.

But as soon I made a slow step, the elk took fright, turn round and run off (below) – not back into the forest, but left along the path between the orchards, towards Grobice.

Continuing along my walk, I meet a neighbour exercising her dogs. She tells me about the two elk she's just seen – evidently the same pair; but she also said she saw a young antlered male yesterday evening. Maybe the lack of food is prompting them to forage nearer human settlements…

Below: tracks in the snow left from one of the elks, right, a wild boar.

I press onto my destination - the 'haunted marshes' (nawiedzone moczydła) between Dąbrowa Duża and Rososz, knowing they'd still be frozen over solid. Like the wetlands between Ławki and Gabryelin explored last week, this particular swamp is neither lake nor meadow, humps of vegetation, tufts of grasses, reeds at the edges. In spring and summer, this is where cranes come to breed – noisily. Below: I navigate following animal tracks in the snow.

Below: the road between Machcin and Jakubowizna. Newly re-asphalted over the summer, it will be interesting to see what damage the frosts and thaws will have wrought over the winter.

Below: deep in the woods, I put my foot in it – I couldn't see the entrance to this animal lair, covered in snow; I tripped and fell. Fortunately I was prepared, gloves on, hands out of pockets, the soft snow cushioned the fall. No damage, other than a snow-covered lens filter. [You can just see the print of my right boot to the left of the hole, which also gives scale. Who lives here – foxes? Hares? Badgers?]

Below: I emerge from the woods and cross this clearing, which in spring and summer often hosts a noisy gaggle of cranes. To the left, a hunters' pulpit, from which wildlife is shot at. Note the car tracks – they get close, but there are no footprints from car to ladder. The pulpit has a door, but it's not locked; there are three window-apertures which can be opened from within.

Below: on the (un-asphalted) road between Machcin II and Adamów Rososki, the snow drifting at the clearing's edge, even with a modest overnight fall.