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Common Crane Expand text

In terms of size, cranes are probably our biggest and unquestionably the highest birds. Its body length is about 1.4 meters, with a wingspan of less than 2.5 meters, and the weight of up to 6 kilograms. Most of the presented photos were taken in unusual scenery, when I was photographing cranes during their courtship on ice. Unfortunately, I was photographing them from a fairly large distance through the trees and bushes. I didn’t use autofocus so the photos look quite specific. However, I often come back to these photos because of the fact that I managed to capture the mating behavior of these birds. Cranes in fact belong to a species which comes back to Poland soon after the winter. It is often said that if you hear the cranes mating call in the morning or the sound of cranes during their flights, it means that winter is over. In following years, my returns to this place never ended up with taking similar photos. I managed to take other photos of cranes thanks to their relatively large size and relatively common occurrence in Poland. They can often be spotted on edges of lakes or secluded farmlands. Their morning songs can’t be confused with other bird sounds.
Stop-press – March 2013 (beginning of March)
Here you go – one tip from a kind person (thank you Marcin) and the gallery has changed radically. There's a lot to thank for. Watching the male crane dance for his partner to woo her is, I assure you, a remarkable spectacle. His jumps, bows, flies, everything to get the attention and be accepted. And she...she feeds, hardly noticing the effort. However, I am not specially surprised, temperature is below 0°C, quite heavy, piercing wind gives you a hard time (it gives me) and does not get her in the mood for anything else than keeping her belly full. It is a shame, you could not portray it properly. Lack of light was obvious, and its colour was right only after they flew away. For insiders, with ISO1600, with 5.6 shutter the time is merely 1/50, then 1/200. So, part of the pictures, especially first ones (numbers 6.085-6.106), are not sharp, but I have put them in anyhow, as they give the impression of the whole shoot and are a souvenir of my first time watching the fascinating mating behaviour of the cranes.
Last minute news -9/2013
May be I have not taken any impressive pictures of deer during rutting season but I managed to take many other quite good interesting photos and record sounds. I kept trying to take photos of deer several times. Once in the broad wetland with high grass. This was the place where I could record crane clangor when they were flying over the rutting ground…
Last minute news – 04/2014- Sweden
I have no clue what is the reason why photographing birds outside Poland is much easier than in our country. It might have something to do with population density and birds’ reaction to this. I had had numerous attempts to photograph common cranes in Poland and without being on the look-out the effects were poor, to put it mildly. And here, in Sweden, I was driving an asphalt road and somewhere between hides, not very far from the road I saw a group of cranes. I stopped the car, turned off the engine, placed the lens on the hood and took a few pictures of cranes from a distance of 30-40 meters. The common cranes remained unfazed. As the appetite grows with eating, I decided to stoop down and come a little closer. In the beginning their reaction was the same. Common cranes continue to feed in the field, but the distance between us is as close as 20-30 meters. I was alone in the field, without any camouflage mesh, clearly visible. Subsequent pictures are taken. My insatiable desire to come closer ended up in the cranes’ take-off. I had never been so close to cranes without camouflage before.
Many interesting pictures were taken and this gallery has changed radically. See for yourselves…
Last minute news – 04/2015
Regrettably it came flying at the dawn, when lighting conditions did not allow me to take better photos. A grey heron, which came flying two hours later, was captured in a more intriguing manner. It is hard to deny the majesty of these birds. Therefore the gallery of the common crane will be subject to constant changes, although it is not easy due to the birds’ skittishness. The crane came flying for a while paying close attention to the hide and singing its morning song every now and then. Their voice is loud and strong, but from a distance of 20-30 meters it is just piercing. Maybe with time it will get used to the lens and allow me to capture it in the light of the rising sun…
Last minute news-04/2016
It was probably my closest encounter with cranes. Of course, I could not do without the lookouts. I was waiting 8 hours for cranes to be fortunate to see them flew up three times. The birds were coming so close that they often did not fit in the frame. It is a pity that the mating dance that the male performed before the female in the morning, took place far to the left side of my hide, where the view was obscured by dry, yellow grass. I assure you that such a breathtaking show compensates all the effort associated with long hours of waiting in hides and waking up at 3 am. The curious thing was that the crane male was interested in buzzards that were feeding on a bait I put before my lookouts. I was taking photos of two buzzards eating food when they suddenly took their wings off and disappeared out of my frame. I thought this would mean the emergence of a white-tailed eagle in place of the buzzards. Unluckily, only the legs of the crane could be seen for a while in the lens frame. Fortunately, the crane moved away and the birds came back in front of the lens after half an hour. This session resulted in a new, better sound recording of cranes, therefore it has been replaced with the previous, as well as the whole photo-gallery has been reconstructed. Well, there are two reasons why the crane’s gallery hit the news.
Last minute news-12/2019-Ethiopia
These were just emotions, as after over two weeks of photographing exotic birds in Ethiopia, suddenly I saw cranes. Cranes were flying against the mountains. Amazing view, just a moment of admiration and there would be no photos of their flight. Fortunately, I took a few pictures. This should be noted in the information and added some photos to the gallery from this meeting.
Last minute news-03/2021
For years I had been planning to improve the pictures in the crane gallery on my website, but somehow there was no opportunity. Observation of these birds will probably never get boring and will never cease to delight. Mighty, dignified, they prey in the fields. There were a lot of cranes around Poznań this winter. Dumping a few dozens kilograms of corn in front of the hideout unfortunately didn’t end with success or. with an opportunity to take pictures of cranes. The birds suddenly disappeared after the severe frosts subsided. I guess they just wintered in the country and flew north. On the other hand, deer, jays and mallard ducks have eaten. Marcin came with help. He had an interesting place where you will most likely be able to photograph the cranes.The only difficulty is frost. Entering a small tent hideout isn't comfortable in such conditions. On that day in the morning it was a few degrees below zero, and so it was in hideout. In such conditions, crane’s mating behavior can be observed in the morning. Sitting in the hideout, the beautiful clangor z could be heard in complete darkness. After an hour of waiting, sunrise began. You couldn’t only hear them, but also see tchem. During this morning three close-ups of birds were observed. It is a pity that against the background of the forest it was not possible to capture steam water. It is interesting that in cranes the female comes out with the initiative of getting closer.Most often it is the males who outdo each other in these efforts, and here, during the morning preying, female crane suddenly slightly tilts its wings, but it does not spread to the full width, and this is a signal for the male. Of course, the male does not refuse. In cranes, unlike in clawed ones, the male is slightly larger than the female and the very close-up requires great skill and effort from the birds. I hope that it was possible to show it and properly in the pictures. In my opinion, the best pictures of cranes were taken so far, and the gallery has been rebuilt. It goes to the news. Finally! Marcin (http: //fotolens.pl/), thanks for an invitation because observing the cranes so closely for a few hours must be remembered. It brings amazing emotions for a long time ...
Last minute news-09/2022
I finally added some photos of cranes from their overnight stay. The cranes, like the curlews, but about a dozen minutes later, left the reservoir after spending the night in the shallow water and on a small island. That's the first bad news. The second bad news is that the distance to them was too far. On top of that, the light morning fog didn't make the task any easier either. This, of course, reflected on the quality of the photos. But these photos need to be added anyway. They are different from the previous ones and better depict this species their behavior, habits. Observation of a flock of cranes numbering about a hundred birds in the morning their departures from the overnight stay in small groups, their constant morning clangor is a beautiful spectacle repeated every morning that had to be included in the gallery of this species on my website.
Last minute news-06-2024-Finland