Greylag geese find a home in Jeziorki

A few days ago I was intrigued by the sight of four greylag geese (Anser anser, gęś gęgawa) flying low over our estate, honking loudly as they did so. Today, I saw a pair flying over further north along ulica Trombity - the light was good, I had my 300mm zoom lens on my Nikon D3500, so I managed to catch a decent snap.

Reaching the pond at the end of ul. Trombity, I spotted a large number - larger than I'd ever seen in Poland. In the shot below, you can see seven - there were three to the right of this frame, two to the left 12 in total, six pairs. A massive number for a bird that numbers around 8,000 breeding pairs in Poland.

 

Numbers are rising across Europe, which is good news. Greylag females lay up to 20 eggs, so let's hope there will many goslings on our ponds this spring! Below: here's a pair on the water, captured by our neighbour Tomek (thanks!)

Below: I snapped this pair with the superzoom on my Nikon Coolpix P900 in April 2017. They came, had a look around, and flew off.

Goose-stepping like the East Germany army, a trio of domestic geese (Anser domesticus) guard their territory (around the corner from ulica Buszycka) well.

They can be quite aggressive! There were five of them here last August. Interestingly Anser anser and Anser domesticus can interbreed; their goslings share characteristics of both species. The grey male (to the left of both pics) looks like he's the result of interbreeding.

Back to the pond. Left: a male common pochard (głowienka zwyczajna), one of several pochards I have seen this year. There were none last year: the water levels on the ponds were far lower than this year or 2019. My first sighting of this species in Jeziorki was in 2017, a veritable annus mirabilis for waterfowl around here. I have yet to see any grebes here this year, either the great crested grebe (perkoz dwuczuby) or the black-necked grebe (perkoz zausznik). Regular ducks (mallards), coots and black-faced gulls are here, but then they are perennial denizens of our waters.

The swans are back too - last year the same pair that have been coming here to breed every season since 2008 returned, but there were no cygnets to be seen - whether the habitat wasn't right (low water) or they're just getting old, I don't know. They are currently engaged in nest-building on the far side of the middle pond, much further from the footpath than last year. 

Ringed swans have a yellow plastic tag on their right leg leg and a metal one on the left leg. This individual looks like he has the metal tag H774 (so yellow tag 2KC1). If it is, then it's the old cob who's no stranger to these parts, a 13th season.

Bonus shot: spring is late this year; the apple blossom is slowly beginning to appear; Felusia, (Felis cattus) has popped up the apple tree to take a closer look at the miracle of nature as it unfolds. I expect Jabłkowizna to be in peak bloom around 30 April - 3 May. 

This time last year:

Aviation over lockdown Jeziorki

This time two years ago:
Easter in Ealing

This time five years ago:
WiFi works on Polish train shock

This time six years ago:
My dream camera, just around the corner
[No, the Nikon Z6/Z7 don't make the grade]

This time eight year ago:
Longer, lighter lens

This time nine years ago:
New engine on the coal train 

This time ten years ago
High time to leave the car at home

This time 11 years ago:
The answer to urban commuting

This time 14 years ago:
Far away across the fields

Frosty goodness

Another night of frost, with temperature falling to -4.7C at 5am (previous night's low was a mere -1.9C). Dictates of the working day suggested an earlier walk, setting off at 10:20, back in good time for a webinar starting at midday. Outside, a cloudless sky, temperature back above zero, a day with the right attributes for reaching out to the Sublime.

The ice had spread right across the ponds, what had survived yesterday's sunshine froze thicker, though still a long way from being able to support a human's weight.

The sudden cold snap caught the bird life unaware. Below: juvenile black-headed gulls in their first-winter plumage. For the first time in their lives, a solid layer of ice has come between them and their food in the water. Gulls, however, are opportunistic eaters and will eat seeds, worms and other land-based insects.

It's worse for the swans. They normally migrate before the ponds ice over. Once that happens, escape is impossible. If you've seen a swan taking off, you'll know it needs a long take-off run on open water to get airborne. This was possible yesterday, but not today. I saw this pair of young adult swans coping badly with the ice. Unlike ducks, whose feet have the ability to constrict blood flow at the ankles, allowing them to survive harsh North European winters, swans find walking on ice uncomfortable. The were waddling on the surface, at times it was cracking, at times supporting their weight.

Below: band of cold: you can see the metal ring on the female's left foot is causing her grief - she was continually and unsuccessfully trying to remove it - it must be extremely cold and uncomfortable.

Below: and here's old 2KC1 (note yellow ring on leg), Jeziorki's perennial visitor, minimising the discomfort by 50%.

Below: rotting vegetation at the bottom of the pond is sending up methane bubbles; here's one captured in ice, looking like amber in reverse.

Onward, away from the pond, across the track (the culvert beneath it is dry enough an high enough to go through if one stoops sufficiently; in the mud at the bottom I can see wild boar hoof prints!). On the Dawidy side of the tracks, I snap a pair of fallen birch trees.

And a quick look at the S7 extension works. A pair of excavators are removing soil from this heap and putting into tipper trucks. In the distance the new bridge, it's western end (right) awaiting the ramp that will be built up from this soil.

I return home along ul. Buszycka; the architecture and evergreens give the street a Mediterranean air when set against a background of a perfectly cloudless blue sky.

Got home for the webinar; by the time it was over, the sky had clouded over. Snow forecast for Saturday evening!

This time last year:

The (now legendary) Dream of Biarritz

This time three years ago:
Roadblock and railfreight

This time four years ago:
Sunny morning, Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens

This time five years ago:
Brentham Garden Suburb

This time six years ago:
Ahead of the opening of the second line of the Warsaw Metro 

This time seven years ago:
Keep an eye on Ukraine...

This time eight years ago:
Płock by day, Płock by night 

This time nine years ago:
Warning ahead of railway timetable change

This time 13 years ago:
Some thoughts on recycling

Out in the mid-September heat

Today's the 15th of September, and the temperature at half past four this afternoon was 28C. Heatwave territory! Time for an early laptop lid-down (well, I was answering emails at 10pm last night) and a late-afternoon walk around Jeziorki. 

The sun set today at 18:50, the one day of the year when it does so. Because of the asymmetrical horological shenanigans (clocks go back one month and a few days after the autumn equinox, but go forward only a few days after the spring equinox), there are no sunsets in Warsaw between 18:03 and 19:03 in the spring. Nor are there any between 17:21 and 16:19 in the evening in the autumn.

Every sunny day's a bonus and must be exploited - biologically, to soak up that Vitamin D, and psychologically, to build up a reserve of good samopoczucie before the Hammer of Darkness descends, as it will, in early November (this year accompanied by a second wave of Covid).

Below: O, happy outdoor life in Jeziorki, under azure skies... summer is still very much here. Time to make the most of it!

Left: Bella perennis, the common European daisy, or stokrotka in Polish. Still in flower, a good plant for the garden, "offering valuable ground cover, where low growth and some colour is desired with minimal maintenance, while helping to crowd out noxious weeds." [source Wikipedia]. Incidentally, the word 'daisy' comes from 'day's eye', the yellow centre of the flower resembling the sun.

Below: more yellow from goldenrod (nawłoć) still flowering, while the tansy (wrotycz) is turning brown, burnt by the sun. In the distance, the small estate of houses on ul. Kórnicka is nearing the stage of habitability. In the foreground, butterflies.

Below: and the sun still burns away the pond's water; Jeziorki's famed feature is disappearing before its inhabitants' eyes. I can but hope for some decent snow cover this year, and frosts.

Jeziorki's swans didn't breed this year - maybe they're past it, maybe they were unable to find a spot to build their nest. They are sipping the surface curiously. The water is not only extremely shallow, it's mostly covered by algae bloom at the northern end. Today, other than the swans, I saw only a few ducks, not even coots or gulls. The grebes didn't visit this year.

Below: double-decker trains are back, though only from Piaseczno. This is Koleje Mazowieckie's 16:48 Piaseczno-Siedlce service, seen here between W-wa Jeziorki and W-wa Dawidy.

Bonus photo below, another passenger train headed into Warsaw, but taken two days earlier, the 19:17 from Chynów, on its way to Sułkowice, shortly after sunset. I love this photo!

This time last year:
Poland's ugliest building?

This time six years ago:
Weekend cookery - prawns in couscous

This time eight years ago:
Draining Jeziorki

This time nine years ago:
Early autumn moods

This time ten years ago:
The Battle of Britain, 70 years on

This time 11 years ago:
Thoughts about TV, Polish and British

This time 12 years ago:
Time to abandon driving to work!

This time 13 years ago:
Crappy roads take their toll

Local round-up

A vanilla-flavoured post to capture the everyday progress of life in Jeziorki under an increasingly humid sky. The heatwave has passed but is due again, the air heavy with threat of downpour.


First, a catch-up on the snail's pace work on the Karczunkowska viaduct; into the second half of July and progress since the last deadline (end of May) is limited to the crash barriers and ballustrades at the top of the bridge. Still very much to do. Thirteen pedestrian crossings needed.

Below: to the west of the railway tracks, there's still no asphalt for the unfortunate residents of Karczunkowska. Three days ago, this was a mudbath.

Below: cars are not yet crossing the bridge, and yet its walls are already sprouting plantlife.

Below: from the top of the viaduct, new views of the every-changing skyline of Warsaw. I can count 14 cranes in this one photograph.

Below: storm cloud at sunset, ul. Trombity.

Below: Polish government Boeing 737 coming in to land over our garden.

A good year for the swans on our ponds, not so good for the grebes; our annually-visiting swans, male 2KC1 and his mate delivered eight cygnets in May of which seven are still alive; four seen below swimming with their parents. The reeds are getting ever-higher and choking the southern end of the ponds.

The remaining three are on their own at the other end of the northern pond, about 250m away. Two of the trio are seen below (the other sibling's out of shot to the right). Have they been abandoned by their parents, or have they struck out on their own?

Below: Jeziorki house at night, ul. Trombity.

This time last year:
New Nikons on the way!

This time seven years ago:
Work continues on S2, going under the railway lines

This time eight years ago:
Stand Easy! - a short story

This time 11 years ago:
God Save The Queen - I mean it, Ma'am

This time 12 years ago:
Legoland, Dawidy Poduchowne

Birds return to the ponds

Mid February, the ponds are still partially covered with a thin veneer of ice, but the birds are back. Not all of them - no coots nor grebes or pochards (the diving birds that can disappear underwater), but the ducks, gulls and our loyal pair of swans (below). A zoom-in on the cob's leg-ring shows the identification number 2KC1 - he's back again.

It will be a while until nest building gets under way; the early arrivals are marking their territory for the season. Below: a mallard walks across the ice. Ducks' feet are adapted to the cold, blood circulation to the feet being slowed right down.

Below: a pair of mallards (krzyżówki) on (just about) open water. Top temperature today was 9C.

Below: the gulls are back in force, although the ones I saw today were mainly juveniles, probably born here and back to mature and mate.

Sunset, at 16:48, a whole hour and 25 minutes later than the year's earliest sunsets. The snow has gone, unlikely to return for anything but the briefest of visits now. Spring still feels a long way off.

Looking back at February 2009, there was much more snow cover than so far this month.

This time last year:
Bending the forces of physics with your will

This time three years ago:
Giving it up for Lent

This time five years ago:
North-east of Warsaw West revisited

This time six years ago:
Looking for answers

This time seven years ago:
Fresh powder in Warsaw's parks

This time nine years ago:
Another Lent starts

This time 11 years ago:
Okęcie dusk

Great crested grebes and swans hatched

Last week it was the black-necked grebes, this week it's the turn of the great crested grebes to show off their newly-hatched young. Much to my surprise. Firstly - much early than last year (one pairs' eggs hatched around 10 June, the other pairs' hatched on 1 July). Secondly - a large brood - five chicks (last year it was four and three respectively).

Below: mother and chicks - not sitting on mum's back - but then carrying five is a big task. As soon as they're ready, they're off and in the water, parents close at hand to feed and protect them.

Below: both parents and three little ones, the rest following on out of shot.

Below: mother gathers them all in...

Below: father surfaces with a morsel for one of the five... these are testing times for evolutionary biology. Can the female find a mate fit enough to keep coming up with the food needed to keep the entire brood alive? Which of the chicks will fight hard enough to get more than its fair share of the food being provided.

Below: further on towards the north end of the ponds, I catch my first sight of this year's clutch of cygnets, a day or two old, following their mother out of the rushes, in which lies the nest where they were hatched.

Below: a better view of the flotilla. Seven today - seven last year. But of last year's seven, only four survived. Which ones won't survive this year? Let's hope they all do well.

Below: dad identifies himself as 2KC1, back again. This couple have been coming here each year since they were juveniles. He doesn't feed the young (unlike the flesh-eating grebes, where the young aren't yet smart enough to catch small fish or larvae, the cygnets eat vegetation, and have litte trouble feeding themselves as soon as they are hatched). Nor does he swim in close formation to the brood; he's happy sunning himself, watching his family from a distance.

This time last year:
The year of the grebe
[the black-necked grebe chicks hatched a week earlier this year]

This time two years ago:
Jeziorki birds in the late May sunshine

This time three years ago:
Making sense of Andrzej Duda's win

This time four years ago:
Call it what it is: Okęcie

This time five years ago:
Three stations in need of repair

This time six years ago
Late evening, Śródmieście

This time seven years ago:
Ranking a better life

This time nine years ago:
Paysages de Varsovie

This time ten years ago:
Spring walk, twilight time

Diverse birdlife returns to Jeziorki

A spring explodes all around, so the rarer birds fly in to join the ducks and coots that life on our ponds here in Jeziorki. This winter saw a shorter period of ice cover than last year; there were only a few weeks without any birds.

Below: this is male mute swan 2KC1, a long-term regular round here (this is him with his family last October)

Below: an adult black-headed gull. In Polish, mewa śmieszka. A long-term resident at the ponds, the gulls were back in March, they are gregarious and noisy.

Below: a pair of black-headed gulls nesting in the reeds on the west side of the ponds, across from the wooden piers.

Below: a male common pochard (Polish: głowienka zwyczajna), a diving duck. It's quite something to see something so duck-like suddenly disappear entirely under water. Female common pochards are as different as ducks and drakes are among mallards.

Finally - the grebes. Rarest of the waterfowl that has made Jeziorki its home. Below: black-necked grebe (perkoz zausznik). The Polish name suits it better - so what that it has a black neck? It's what they have behind the ears that is most characteristic!

And now my favourite - so good to see them back - the great crested grebe (perkoz dwuczuby). Last year there were two pairs, today I saw one pair; I hope more fly in.

Taken a few days earlier, a stork in a field along the north end of ul. Trombity. It stood there for a while before lazily taking ofp and flying across the railway tracks.

This time last year:
Gold train film shoot - day one

This time five years ago:
Jarosław Gowin quits his post as justice minister

This time nine years ago:
The cycle-to-work season starts