Herons grey and white

I've mentioned the grey herons living in Jeziorki before, and noted the appearance this season of a black stork. But a white heron (or great egret) I've never seen in my life. Below: first off, the regular grey heron, of whom there are a couple of pairs nesting in Jeziorki. They are shy and tend to take off when they spot a human across on the other side of the pond. Note its neck in the third photo, fully retracted. Click to enlarge.

The great egret (below) has quite different plumage. It's less well camouflaged. Yet look at the neck - like a grey heron, the great egret bends it in flight into an 'S' shape. Great egrets are rare outside of south-east Poland, the north-westernmost extent of their breeding range, which extends from the Balkans, via Turkey, Ukraine, Iran and Mongolia, right across northern China to the Pacific. So very good to see one here!

Below: bonus pic - our two swans and their six cygnets are doing well. The young ones won't learn to fly until the late autumn.

In the meantime, the storks are heading off south, leaving their Polish nests and breeding grounds. Below: photo taken two months ago, storks' nest, near Lublin. Birds like herons and storks that have their nests above the ground learn to fly sooner than those, like swans, who nest at ground level. But then swans can live up to 20 years, herons and storks a mere five.

This time four years ago:
A return to Dobra

This time six years ago:
Kebab factory discovered under Dworzec Centralny

This time seven years ago:
The tail-end of communism - photos you would not believe today!

This time nine years ago:
By bike to Czachówek again

Preening stork

I caught this stork preening itself on its nest in the village of Pieczyska. The nest, close to the church, was low enough to get a good view standing on the pavement. I saw four other large stork's nests this weekend, but they only afforded a glimpse of the stork's head and neck.

I observed this stork for several minutes; it looks like an elderly individual by the chips on its beak and a generally scruffy mien. It looked like it was itching all over, scratching its head and neck

This did not look like a happy or comfortable stork.

As usual, Wikipedia proves invaluable. I discover at home that the European white stork "has few natural predators, but may harbour several types of parasite; the plumage is home to chewing lice and feather mites, while the large nests maintain a diverse range of mesostigmatic mites."

In the Middle Ages, people thought that storks were conceited as they seemed to be forever preening. Yet this is now known to be a reaction to parasitical infestation.

All the stork's nests I saw this weekend were on man-made platforms, built in villages to keep the storks from building their own nests on electricity pylons or other bits of critical infrastructure - a stork's nest can weigh up to two tonnes.

Poland has the world's largest stork population; around a quarter of all white European storks live here.

UPDATE: MONDAY 6 JUNE 2016 Returning home from W-wa Dawidy station via the ponds on ul. Dumki, I caught sight of a black stork. First time I'd ever seen one. Not related to the heron - it flies with an outstretched neck, nor to the crane. Black, with some white under the wings.

This time three years ago:
Preserving meadowland - UK and Poland 

This time four years ago:

Poland's transport infrastructure progress

This time five years ago:
Cara al Sol - a short story

This time six years ago:
Pumping out the floodwater

This time seven years ago:
To Góra Kalwaria and beyond

This time eight years ago:
Developments in Warsaw's exurbs

Stalking the stork

Storks (or rather white storks - ciconia ciconia) are characteristically Polish birds - 25% of the world's population is concentrated in Poland. I associate storks with the countryside - so imagine my delight when, returning home from work on Monday night, I saw one in the field between the W-wa Jeziorki station and the bus stop. After popping off a few shots from a distance, I then, slowly, carefully, approached the fellow from the main road to get a closer pic (remember the two rules of photography. 1) Get close to the subject. 2) Get closer still).

So here's the next photo... I did not want to approach too close in case the stork flew off. And I was not equipped with my lens of choice in such situations, the 80-400mm Nikkor zoom (optically very good but slow to autofocus, although here it would not have been an issue).

The light was a problem - strong contrast between low, evening sunshine streaming in from the west (right) - some judicial adjustment was required in Photoshop to get a decent result.

Interestingly, Marcin Daniecki who lives in the vicinity, managed to get a shot of what seems to be the same fellow three days earlier (left). Will this stork is becoming a Jeziorki regular? I hope so! This heron that I snapped earlier this month perched on the stump of a concrete post in the wetlands at the end of ul Trombity seems to have become a fixture, I've seen him several times in the same place. Sadly, the swans that visited in past years didn't come back this year.

To a delightful weekend in the country

Off to Podlasie for the long weekend - business and pleasure. The business - three days to get the translated proofs of The Silent Dark Ones ready for the typesetter. The pleasure - between the work, the chance to walk in the country and catch some sublime atmospheres (klimat).

My hosts, Ziggy and Zosia, have a beautiful country residence 25km north of Białystok in the village of Mamrotowo. The surrounding countryside is my idea of rural perfection. It's different here to Sweet Home Mazowsze - gentle undulations, silence, larger fields, winding byways, pine forests - real solitude; a sense of eternity untroubled by the goings-on of the outside world.


Here in Mamrotowo, bird life is abundant and interesting. Just down the road from the house is the biggest storks' nest I've seen, in effect, a two-storey construction. Zosia tells me that when the storks flew in, on 29 March (same day as our swans in Jeziorki), they set to adding an extra layer to the existing nest built on an telephone pole. This could be because the storks were worries of an extended winter, or that a different pair had settled in the nest and wanted to add their own personal touch to it. The nest is so big, the storks can hardly be seen over the top of it.

Above the fields, the storks will seek thermal currents that will enable them to soar to high altitudes. Storks can feel the thermals under their wings as humans can feel the slope of a hill under their feet.

This young stork circled ever higher until in the end he was out of sight.

Work meant that the walks were short; the best one was at sunset on Saturday. Below: I caught this wayside chapel (there's a cross or chapel every 50 metres or so around these parts) as the sun went down behind the trees.


This time last year:
Eurasian collared dove
Inside the Museum Museum
Cycles in the Las Kabacki forest
Farewell to the Rampa line
This time two years ago:
Into the mountains for May Day
Flags are out for Poland's national day
World's longest weekend (well, last year it was)