Sounds of nature

The Eurasian Owl is an owl the size of a crow, like any owl with sharp claws. It hunts at night, usually from an ambush. Mainly catches small rodents: mice, voles, rats, shrews, moles, does not despise birds, bats, amphibians and reptiles, squirrels, young rabbits. A hungry owl catches grasshoppers and large beetles, a small fish, it will not despise carrion. During the day, the tawny owl can be spotted on a branch next to its hollow. Nearby, under a tree on the surface of the ground, you can find characteristic pellets - several centimeters long "rolls" formed of undigested food remains: teeth, bones, feathers, scales of victims or insects, which the owl spits out because they are too large to pass through its system digestive tract and were removed with the faeces. The tawny owl's voice is characteristic - a hoot. As some tawny owls live in the vicinity of old cemeteries (with old hollow trees), the night hooting of these owls is not the best association and in many people fear.

fot.  Adrian Czech

The Wagtail is a small, cheerful and noisy bird that arrives in the early breeze from the Mediterranean and even the savannas of Africa. It is distinguished by relatively long legs and a characteristic black swaying tail with white edges. During the mating season, the gray colors of males are usually enriched by the yellow underside of the body, gray-green wings and olive back. About 1.5 million of these birds live in Poland. Sąp under protection. They build their nests in a hole in the ground among grasses. You should look for wagtails above the fields and meadows, where they compete with larks for food, hunting insects. On the banks of rivers, wagtails often perch on stones and catch water insects and even small fish.

fot.  Adrian Czech

The Eurasian magpie is the most beautiful Polish raven (the size of a pigeon) with a bright, black and white plumage with distinct, especially on a sunny day, shimmers of green, violet and navy blue. The magpie nest, looking like a messy pile of sticks, is easy to spot in the treetops. In older birds, a "roof" is built over the nest. Young birds do not build it - only after a few breeding seasons, watching more experienced pairs, they learn to imitate this construction. Magpies eat sheep, seeds, insects, small animals, eggs from other birds, chicks, scraps taken from garbage cans, carrion. The birds are monogamous - they remain faithful to the partner chosen in youth, they live in permanent "marriages" until death. Magpies are attributed with many negative qualities, such as an intrusive interest in something, hence the saying: "You stare at the bone like a magpie", or a passion for trinkets resulting in a tendency to ... steal jewelry. The title of the opera "Magpie the thief", and even the work of our Nobel laureate - Olga Tokarczuk - perpetuate this myth that is harmful to magpies. But it is true that magpies are extremely sharp and curious birds - apart from mammals, they are the only ones who have positively passed the so-called a mirror test in which they confirmed that they can recognize their own reflection. Their screeching voice warns other birds of impending danger, e.g. from humans or foxes.

fot.  Adrian Czech

The lark, a symbol of early spring, has been arriving in Poland earlier and earlier in recent years due to climate change. It happens that already in the first days of February. The first specimens can provide themselves with good areas for amorous meetings early on arriving. However, this can be a risky game, as the sudden return of winter may deprive the gamer of its vitality. The lark is a small passerine bird with a nondescript color (both male and female are gray), which delights with singing. The lark trills are one of the most elaborate. Over sunny meadows, flying males compete in complex melodies with changing moods and themes. When the female broods the laid eggs, the male of the larkcagots is to new love conquests and with his singing seduces other females - a typical polygamist - the bird Don Juan. It is interesting that the lark sings both when exhaling and inhaling, which is rare. The females take care of the chicks alone. In order to increase the chances of their survival, they never land at the nest site, which could be easily spotted by a predator, and a few meters away and - with food in their beak - they go on foot to the chicks.

fot.  Adrian Czech

Great tit is sometimes called ordinary, although it is an exceptional bird. A bird of quite small size (the tit is smaller than the sparrow) draws attention with its characteristic coloration - yellow or yellow-green belly, black head with a white spot on the cheek, bluish wings and tail. It can be heard all year round, although the characteristic "chic, chic," definitely the loudest announcement and the mating time is definitely the loudest. In our latitude, tits breed two broods a year consisting of 4 to 16 eggs. Both parents take care of such a flock of hungry chicks, supplying the young ones almost non-stop with small invertebrates, mainly butterfly larvae (caterpillars), pupae and adult insects. The tits eat as much as they weigh, i.e. about 20 grams each day. It is believed that the tit family and its offspring eat as much as 75 kg of insects and their larvae per year, that is about 3,000,000 heads. They are the best keepers of crops in the garden. In autumn, they do not avoid grains, seeds and fruit, and the closer to winter, the easier it is to persuade them to get snails and carrion (and in the lard feeders). Titmouse is smart. They learn from each other by imitating useful behaviors. In city parks, they can learn to eat at the hands of humans by observing other tit. In London in the 1940s, where milk bottles were left in front of the door every morning and the contents were secured with a disc of aluminum foil, local tits learned how to open the bottle cap with the spout in order to drink the greasy cream accumulated on the surface of the milk. As the months passed, the "thieving trade" spread further and further beyond the borders of London.

fot.  Adrian Czech

More than one lady has decorated her headgear with a heron feather. A very stylish feather that grows as a single ornament on the back of an adult heron. The heron is a very elegant bird. Large (up to 190 cm wingspan), with an ashen-gray body color with black stripes on the head, "arms" and wings, it has long legs and a very long, yellow beak (12 cm). Sometimes he stands on one leg with his head tucked "under his arm". When she is hungry, she can wait for hours, motionless by the water, for a careless fish. One accurate strike of the beak allows you to catch carp, barbel, perch, small zander catfish. When the prey is too big and cannot be swallowed, the heron leaves it and starts the hunt all over again. Anglers are not very fond of herons, and many consider them a pest. The law imposed only partial protection on herons and the Regional Directorates for Environmental Protection issue permits to kill these birds, e.g. in areas of commercial fish farming. Herons also hunt hares, rats, mice and other birds. When many herons set their nests on neighboring trees, we speak of a breeding colony, i.e. a heron. It is dangerous to swim by it, because frightened herons, when they take off to fly, nervously and instinctively excrete excrement. Herons arrive to the San in March and return to Asia or Africa in September.

fot.  Adrian Czech

The motley large woodpecker has black, white and red plumage, but it is only large compared to other woodpeckers, because as a bird it is not impressive. It grows up to 25 cm in length with a wingspan of 40 cm and weighs up to 100 grams. It plays a significant role in nature. It is a key species for other animals that would not have nesting holes without its activity. Old "flats" forged by woodpeckers are sometimes eagerly used by other organisms in the following years - mainly small songbirds, but also squirrels and bats. Great woodpeckers look for old trees, because these are most often attacked by the larvae of insects that woodpeckers feed on. It is also easier to forge hollows in them. When greasy insect larvae are missing, woodpeckers prey ants, beetles, eggs and chicks of other birds, sometimes young squirrels. They do not despise carrion. In order to forge efficiently, "standing" on a vertical tree trunk, a woodpecker is supported by a stiff tail, and its legs are effectively anchored in the bark with sharp claws. The bird has four fingers on each leg - two fingers in opposite directions. Located in a solid skull, the stabbing tool - the beak of a woodpecker - is as sharp as a chisel. The muscles of the neck give the force of the blow. The woodpecker's brain must withstand 12,000 blows a day at a speed of 7 m / sec. The lack of daily concussion is ensured by a special spongy and shock-absorbing structure of the skull. During the forging process, wood or decaying dust is produced. Its inhalation into the lungs is prevented by special feathers in the nostrils. The long sticky tongue used to extract the insect larvae is specially curled at the back of the head.

fot.  Adrian Czech

Common buzzard is a medium-sized bird of prey with a wingspan of up to 150 cm and weighing up to 1.3 kg. Although all buzzards are quite similar - brown or brown-gray in color - ornithologists note the unusual number of variations and types of graphic patterns in this color, saying that buzzards are a very colorful bird. Its main food is rodents, but also amphibians, reptiles, birds, large insects, sometimes domestic poultry. He hunts in ambush sitting on a lonely tree or pole. Sometimes it wanders over the meadow or almost hovers in the air, looking for prey. He has very good eyesight. Myszołowy people from Podkarpacie do not stay in the country for the winter, but fly away to the south of Europe. Then the buzzards from the north come to the winter San. Sometimes a group of migrants flying together is up to 30 individuals. This bird likes to make nests in ecotonic zones - this is what ecologists call overlapping environments, for example, a border between a forest and open meadows or a border between a forest and a river valley. Being in two environments is a double benefit of their exploitation. Buzzards are said to like to return to the places where they were born. Hunters have not the best opinion about these birds, because in their opinion buzzards kill more and more rare hares. This is a false judgment, because like all predators, buzzards play a valuable role for nature, selecting old, sick or less fit individuals.

fot.  Adrian Czech

The raven is a large and quite massive bird the size of a buzzard with a black, slightly purple-greenish-blue, shimmering plumage. He is the largest of the Polish passerines. The body length of a raven can be up to 70 cm with a weight of up to 2 kg. In February, ravens mate. Males perform complex acrobatically aerial stunts, making characteristic noises. When a pair is matched, they are inseparable until death. For years, concerting "couples" use their own and characteristic melodies. The massive, one-meter-high ravens nest in tall, stout conifers. Sometimes the nest is inherited from other ravens, and the young hatch very early, even in March. This may be due to the omnivorousness of ravens with a preference for scavengers. At the end of winter, many of the weaker animals die, so there is no shortage of food for young ravens. During World War I, the San Valley saw large herds of ravens coming to the post-battle "corpse feast" more than once. The raven was persecuted by hunters who, under the pretext of protecting the hares, almost exterminated it. Now it is a bird under strict protection. Ravens are said to be long-lived - definitely for birds. The oldest raven lived 44 years. They are intelligent birds with the largest (in proportion to the body of a bird) brain. Researchers of ravens' behavior report that these birds make friendships, can communicate with each other, express their emotions, and even tell other ravens about events in their lives. An unusual meeting with a white crow at the San river is extraordinary. Ornithological literature reports that in nature, white (i.e. albino) ravens are born from time to time, but the chicks, being extremely different, are eaten in the nest.

fot.  Adrian Czech

Bunting is a small, 30-gram bird the size of a sparrow. The characteristic yellow-lemon color with gray lines is more intense during the mating season. It is one of the most popular Polish birds, common in meadows, wooded pastures, coastal thickets and forest edges. It mainly feeds on grass seeds (grains), weed seeds, larvae and adult insects or spiders. It winters in large flocks.

fot.  Adrian Czech

The marsh harrier is a large migratory bird of prey with a wingspan of up to 130 cm. It is associated with the environment of river valleys, oxbow lakes, wetlands with rushes, swamps or overgrown river meadows. It is the only predator that builds nests in reeds and water thickets, among the sawmill, reeds, water cattails and other rush plants. Living "on the water", it feeds mainly on the surrounding meadows, hunting mice, voles, rats, shrews, choosing the eggs of other birds, catching small birds, large insects, sometimes muskrats, frogs, lizards or grass grasses. Fish or carcass are rarely his food. Marsh harriers come to us from southern Europe and northern Africa in March. In spring, they perform spectacular mating flights over the reeds. The courtship of males to females is truly acrobatic, and the ending is tame the females with food passed on to them by the male in flight. In the air, there is often a fight for the area between the old owners of the territory and the newcomer from outside, because the Mudman is a warrior bird. Naturalists say that when a predator sneaks into the nest with chicks, young birds lie on their backs and bravely defend themselves with their claws.

fot.  Adrian Czech