home

Listen to recordings

Birds > Gruiformes > Corncrake Crex crex

info

The fact that I managed to photograph the corncrake is, yet again, a pure coincidence. In fact I was looking for colonies of the Eurasian penduline tit. Walking along a ditch, where penduline tits were supposed to occur, suddenly, somewhere in the high grass, I heard a strange krek-krek sound. At the beginning both I and my father-in-law wondered what this sound could be, as such a noise, even for our experience of communing with nature, seemed rare and uncommon. I sat down a dozen-plus meters from the high grass, unfolded the camouflage mesh, and waited. After several dozen minutes, still very careful and alert, a beautiful corncrake emerged from the grass. The image of its throat, illuminated by the rising sun, really stuck in my memory. The corncrake, after it accepted the surroundings, literally posed for photos, presenting itself subsequently from the side, from behind, or proudly stretched out from the front, continuing its song. A fascinating thing about the corncrake is the fact that the bird that spends winters in Africa, after its arrival to Poland, hardly ever leaves “its” high grass, which makes it very difficult to observe in flight. Adam Mickiewicz in „Sir Thaddeus” wrote about this bird: „There a corncrake cried from the meadow, looking for it there is no use, as it soars in the grass like a pike in the Nemunas”. Physically, it is a medium-sized bird, with a weight of about 150 g, a body length of around 30 cm and a wingspan of up to 0.5 m. I can assure you that its very slow and cautious emerging from the grass, combined with its cry, provides amazing experiences.
Last minute news - 05/2014
For the whole morning I had been chasing the Thrush Nightingale and nothing came of it. Then I was looking for the Common Whitethroat  and the effect was similar, but in the distance you could hear the familiar sound of the Corncrake. I hoped to succeed in photographing this bird, because it was my second meeting with this beautiful, but very secretive bird. A little patience and a larger "trophy" this morning than I expected. The Corncrake called literally a few meters nearby, so the recorded sound again was no problem. Unfortunately, a road was near and the recording is slightly distorted by sounds of civilization. But you know, the pictures are a priority and I focused on the observation of the meadow. The Corncrake repeatedly ran by the way, once rose into the air – I took several interesting pictures, so different from the ones found in the existing gallery of this species. Just a few images, but the images, and their own sound recording presented a bird, radically alter the existing photographic portfolio of the Corncrake. There is no need, the Corncrake goes to the news ...
Last minute news-06/2014
This is the third version of the gallery of the Corncrake, my third meeting with this species. Again I’ve made some radical changes in this gallery. Lying on the road crossing a meadow for a few hours in the morning, we succeed in making some interesting shots. At the beginning, the lighting conditions were difficult. Dense fog accompanied the sunrise. It was so dense that we lost the autofocus. But after an hour it was much better, especially when you could see the morning dew, lying on the grass in the sun. I almost succeeded in photographing two Corncrake in one frame at a the same time. That would be an achievement. Unfortunately, it would have taken a fraction of a second. There is something uncommon in this bird species and, if there is an opportunity and free time, I will go back again to the meadow, where the corncrake’s voice can be heard from many meters and sitting on it, you can plot the route of migration of the corncrake after his district.