I’ve recently had a Gap year in South East Poland. Armed with my cameras, several sweaters and duvet coat I mapped out a ‘triangle’ of beautiful countryside just outside the City of Lublin. Poland is well renowned for bird watching and I spent the four seasons wandering the footpaths, studying and photographing the wildlife between the three rural villages of Kreznica Jara, Prawedniki and Zemborzyce Koscielne. To choose just one favourite image I captured would be impossible though during January the temperatures averaged minus 15 degrees and brilliant sunshine made for superb photography. Without a doubt the Black Woodpeckers were the most photogenic and easiest to locate. Their piercing calls hung on the chilling breeze from dawn to dusk and when bashing away, the noise in the vicinity resembled a kalashnikov!
A large area of marshland including a reedbed besides Zemborzyce Koscielne attracted a pair of Marsh Harriers which I had the pleasure of watching throughout the Spring, during which many species turned up, some to breed and others just passing through on migration. The male Marsh Harrier (Harry), I guess was quite a young bird due to one attempted landing on a frail branch which gave way and he executed a less than neat backward somersault, missing the ground by a few inches and flapping off to terrorise the local jackdow population. His partner turned up a fortnight after him and he set about displaying his full breeding plumage with a range of flying skills.