Post-Lent photo catch-up

Easter is over, my Lenten cycle of posts is complete. Time to share some of my better photos from last month. Below: sun low in the afternoon sky, Jakubowizna. Beyond the last row of trees in this plantation, a fence, and beyond that, an orchard.

Below: looking west along ulica Wspólna ('Common Street'), illuminated by a setting sun.
 

Below: the track from Machcin II towards Rososz. This stretch is either deep sand or deep mud, drivers tend to avoid this bit and detour down a passable, though also unasphalted, section of road further east.

Below: cranes in flight. The local crane colony didn't fly south for the winter, but remained here, despite the long weeks of snow cover. Photo taken 30 March over Chynów.

Below: moonrise over Jakubowizna. looking up the lane towards my dziaka.

Left: looking down the lane from the end of my drive towards Chynów. A beautiful sun descends towards the horizon. Taken at the long end of my 70-300mm Nikkor telephoto zoom, making the sun seem unnaturally large.

Below: an evening Koleje Mazowieckie service to Warsaw approaches Chynów from Krężel. Photo taken from the level crossing to the north of Chynów station a few seconds before the barriers came down. The clocks have just gone forward, the sun has just set (19:10).

Below: semi-fast Koleje Mazowieckie service heading to Radom, between Chynów and Warka – this train does not stop at Krężel, Michalczew or Gośniewice along the way. 

Below: crushed-velvet dusk; the corner of ul. Miodowa ('Honey Street') and ul. Główna ('Main Street'), Chynów.

Below: the road sweeps into Jakubowizna, on the north side of the railway line.

Tomorrow: plenty of cat news from Jakubowizna!

This time seven years ago:

Działka update

This time eight years ago:
Łódź is a film set

This time nine years ago
Contemplative imagery, Ealing and Warsaw

This time 14 years ago:
Baffled: my first visit to Jeziorki's Lidl 

This time 15 years ago:
In vino veritas?

This time 16 two years ago:
Are we getting more intelligent?

This time 17 three years ago:
Lenten recipe: tuna, chickpea and pesto salad

This time 18 years ago:
Coal train sidings, Konstancin-Jeziorna

This time 19 years ago:
Jeziorki from the air

 

Deer-stalking in the fresh snow

Much less cold last night, with a minimum of -5°C rather than -23°C, but with fresh snow. A light fall continued into the early afternoon. Fresh snow means walking is harder, not having any human footsteps to follow. But I can see animal tracks. Cats and dogs at first, but as I get further away from Jakubowizna pet paws are replaced in the snow by the prints of deer, hare and wild boar.

Carrying on northward towards Grobice, I catch numerous deer darting across the track, out of the wood and into the orchards. Maybe in total eight to ten individuals. Top: two young males, second from top, two older males.

I follow the herd west through the orchards, across another farm track and into the forest beyond. Turning south, between the fallen trees and brush, I can see a couple of individuals moving away from me... I continue stalking the herd, 70-300mm Nikkor zoom affixed...

The herd loops towards Jakubowizna, swinging back east at the end of the forest. I reestablish contact.

Below: two juvenile females cross the firebreak from plantation forest towards the wood on the other side. It's stopped snowing now.

Below: a juvenile male leaps follows on behind. 

I cross the road to follow the path dividing Machcin II from Gaj Żelechowski that heads to Chynów. I have caught hares in my lens a few times here, but today, no sign of them, other than paw prints. Below: more snow starts to fall. Roofs of houses in Gaj Żelechowski across the field.

Below: back home, it looks like the Micra won't be moving anytime soon. Long-range weather forecast shows a slight (+1°C to +2°C) thaw from tomorrow to Saturday before the snows and frosts return until the foreseeable future (18 Feb).

UPDATE 6 February 2026: three more photos (taken in sequence) showing the dash of three deer (two females and one male) across open land between two orchards.

This time two years ago:
Am I a bore? Are you a bore? What is a bore?

This time three years ago:
Town and country in the snow

This time eight years ago:
"Forget about doing 10,000 paces a day!"
[Science now says the more the better.]

This time nine years ago:
Ukraine – fight or flight?

This time 11 years ago:
Room with a railway view

This time 14 years ago:
More than an Iluzjon

This time 15 years ago:
Oldschool photochallenge

This time 16 years ago:
Warsaw's wonderful nooks and crannies

This time 18 years ago:
Viaduct to the airport at ul. Poleczki almost ready

Another hunters' pulpit

What a find, what a stroke of fortune! This time a year ago yesterday, I wrote about hunters' pulpits (the wooden platforms from which state-licenced hunters can take pot-shots at local wildlife). Today, by complete accident, I came across one I've not seen before, while walking along the edge of the forest between Dąbrowa Duża and Rososz. Climbing up the wooden stairs, I found that it was unlocked, so I entered. Inside, a (literally) moth-eaten hunter's jacket, a half-empty bottle of mineral water, some chocolate wrappers, and a wooden chair with a cushion. I sat down and surveyed the scene. Instantly, I was in luck BINGO! My Nikkor 70-300mm lens on, shutter set to 1/160th of a second, I zoom right out...

Below: the deer gets closer, before turning away. I set the shutter to 1/320th of a second to freeze the action a bit better. Look at the veins on the back and shoulders!

Below: a second or two earlier, what looks like a pair of juvenile males, the one in the background older than the one in front, racing out of a field of rapeseed and charging onto a freshly ploughed field.

Below: how they looked when I first caught sight of them. Moving slowly. As with yesterday's hare, I happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Left: the pulpit – quite high as pulpits go. This one is in good condition (the wooden posts can rot underground, causing the structures to topple if neglected.)  The hunting season is over; shooting deer after the end of February is prohibited.

Below: the view from the top, looking from left to right, to the north-east, east and south-east.

Managed to get my walk in before the weather turned. All good – 14.5k paces today. It occurred to me as I approached the woods beyond Dąbrowa Duża that the place where I wanted to go today for an hour-long walk is an hour's walk from home. And an hour's walk back.

This time six years ago:
Nowa Wola and Zamienie – Warsaw's unplanned exurbs

This time seven years ago:
Long-term memory, awareness and identity

This time eight years ago:
Language and politics

This time 13 years ago:
Bus crash on Puławska

This time 15 years ago:
The parable of the Iron-Filings Factory

This time 18 years ago:
Got to get ourselves back to the Garden

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.

Home to cook a large pot of warming stew.

This time three years ago:
Snow turns to slush

This time four years ago:
London in its legal finery

This time five years ago:
Winter walk through the Las Kabacki

This time seven years ago:

1967: The Year The World Started Turning To Colour

This time ten years ago:
Rain on a freezing day (-7C)

This time 11 years ago:
Jeziorki in the snow

This time 13 years ago:
Winter's slight return

This time 14 years ago:
Unacceptable

This time 15 years ago:
Pieniny in winter

This time 15 years ago:
Wetlands in a wet winter

Woodpecker comes a-knocking

I heard an insistent tapping outside my kitchen window last week. Grabbing my camera, I ran outside and caught sight of a woodpecker flying away from the side wall of my house. The bird settled on the electricity pylon that runs through my garden. I identified it as a male great spotted woodpecker (dzięcioł duży) - dendrocopus major. 

Below: I'm looking at it, and it looks back at me - guiltily. Look closely at its beak - it's covered with grey Styrofoam beads, which also fleck its plumage.

Below: the male of the species has a small red patch at the back of its head. Interesting fact about woodpeckers - they have a 'tongue-bone' that runs from their tongue (used to extract grubs and insects from trees) right around the back of their skull, to cushion the brain from the impact of repeated hammering on trees - or indeed stuccoed Styrofoam insulation.

Below - the hole made under the eaves. Question - should I leave it for woodpeckers to nest in, or should I fill it in with squirts of expanding spray foam (isocyanate and polyol resin)? Is it better to live together in symbiosis with Mr and Mrs Woodpecker and their brood - or let them know that this aggression will not stand? Note the mess left by the Styrofoam, held onto the wall by static electricity. Rain will wash it off, but I need to sweep it up to stop it polluting the soil. It takes this stuff 500 years to biodegrade. Pairing begins in December, eggs are laid from late April to June, the fledglings depart three weeks after hatching, and the woodpeckers tend not to return to the same nests a second time.

Below: further inspection of my property shows another hole, slightly larger, made near the top of the garage wall. Again - fill or leave? (behind the 20cm of Styrofoam there's a brick wall, which cannot be compromised by beaks nor damp.) Dendrocopus major is a protected species in Poland.

Below: the autumnal migrations begin. Snapped yesterday, 14 October, a flock of geese - heading west over Grobice.

Below: taken on 8 October, at a higher altitude and with shorter lens, a formation of cranes, making their characteristic klangor. Also flying west, rather than south, as one would expect.

This time six years ago:
To sleep perchance to dream

This time ten years ago:
Liverpool's waterfront 

Pilgrimage at day's end

Prompted by Michał Karski's recent comments, quoting Annabel Streets' book 52 Ways to Walk: "So what makes a pilgrimage different from a walk? Firstly, a pilgrimage requires a destination with meaning. In the past this was typically a holy place, but today it might be an ancient tree, the house of an admired painter or architect, somewhere that holds special memories for us, or the site of a rare orchid. Secondly, a pilgrimage requires an intention. This can be as simple as plotting out our day's work, or emptying our mind before bed."

My destination today was to catch a magical scene, one that briefly flashed past my eyes from the Kraków-Warka train exactly a week ago. The sun setting over the Pilica river, a low mist settling over the water meadows to its south. Then, I was unable to catch the shot; the train was going too fast. My intention today? Get the photo I missed, and seek metaphysical experience. 

Today's weather was perfect for said pilgrimage (train from Chynów to Warka Miasto, the connection ideally timed to catch the sun going down).

Below: photo taken from the footway alongside the new rail bridge. I was lucky to catch a lone canoe making its way downstream.

Below: across the Pilica, on the south side, from the railway embankment a view of the river meadow in about a metre of mist, under a painted sky.

Below: from the same spot, change of lens (to super-wide 10-20mm), the rail bridge to the right.

Below: the sun is down, the magic hasn't yet passed... looking towards Hotel Sielanka nad Pilicą, which specialises in equestrian and other outdoor activities.

Below: moonrise with rail bridge(s) over the Pilica, completed in 2021.

Below: change of lens again to telephoto... from the north side of the Pilica, the misty meadows look like this...

By the time I reached Warka Miasto, it was too dark to snap. With half an hour in hand before my train back to Chynów, I decided to walk from Warka Miasto to Warka station, just over 20 minutes on foot between the two stations. Total of 12,000 paces for this rail-assisted walk. Train tickets there and back cost 11.44 złotys (just over two quid). For all this gorgeousness. Gratitude!

This time last year:
First steps in cider-making

[Sadly no apples this year!]

This time two years ago
The glories of a sunny day in early autumn

This time seven years ago:

On conservatism

This time nine years ago:
Between equinox and equilux

This time 11 years ago:
Heritage or high-rise?

This time 12 years ago:
Shopping notes

This time 13 years ago:
My grandfather

This time 15 years ago:
Surreal twilight, ul.Karczunkowska

This time 16 years ago:
From Warsaw to Seville, via Munich and Madrid

Spring magic

The past few days have been colder than last weekend - which was warm and gorgeous. The annual parade of spring wonder draws me out of the house - three walks today to catch the sun and gaze upon the miracle of rebirth.

Below: the forest between Jakubowizna and Machcin II, thinned out by the state loggers. High up in the treetops, raucous crows circle in the air protecting their nests from buzzards.

Below: composition in green, white and yellow under blue. I can see the inspiration for Koleje Mazowieckie's livery.

Below: apple blossom still biding its time - before long, the apple trees will blaze pink and the yellow dandelions will have gone to seed, turning into large, white dandelion clocks.

Below: time for an evening stroll. Looking towards the road, the first four apple trees surrounded by forget-me-nots. My stockade-style fence - made from pruned branches and twigs - is taking shape and gaining height. Cheaper and more eco-friendly than cement. 'Biskupin', remark my neighbours.

Below: photo taken from the site of the old level crossing on ulica Miodowa, an evening all-stations Koleje Mazowieckie service from Warsaw to Radom is passing...

Below: ...a minute later, it's stopping at Chynów station, seen through the long end of my 70-300mm Nikkor zoom. Green, white and yellow, like the spring landscape through which it passes.

Below: the sun now sets just before 8pm. Three months ago, it was setting at quarter past four in the afternoon. Looking north from Jakubowizna towards Wola Pieczyska on the horizon.

This time four years ago:
Building work almost done on the działka

This time five year:
Karczunkowska's closed again

This time six years ago:
Little suitcase in the attic

This time seven years ago:
What I read each week.

This time nine years ago:
Defending Poland, contributing to NATO

This time 11 years ago:
Balloon over Warsaw 

This time 13 years ago:
Happiness, Polish-style

This time 14 years ago:
And watch the river flow...