Fox, cranes, and lapwing in Poland

This video from Poland is called Biebrza National Park – Summer 2017.

Poland, 21 May.

As I mentioned, we arrived in Goniadz village, on the edge of Biebrza national park, late in the afternoon.

Sounds of golden oriole, chiffchaff, serin, greenfinch.

Barn swallows drinking from the river while flying just above it.

On a coniferous shrub, a male and a female linnet.

This video is from Stibbe in the Netherlands.

Many fieldfares flying to treetops.

There is a greenfinch nest with chicks in a small coniferous shrub in the garden.

As we walk along the river, we see four adult elks and one calf through the telescope.

Swifts flying. An icterine warbler (see also here) singing.

Then, we hear a wryneck sound in a distant tree. When the Polish biologist in our group plays a recorded wryneck sound, the bird immediately flies to the big tree above our heads.

This is a video of a wryneck; recorded in Breskens, the Netherlands.

The wryneck keeps calling, while making the neck movements from which its name is derived.

Meanwhile, under the wryneck tree, a common frog jumps through the grass.

A Savi’s warbler‘s song from a river reedbed.

A white stork arrives back on its nest, where its sitting partner welcomes its with a clattering sound. Hear stork clattering sound here.

We reach the bridge, where we put up the telescope.

Across the river, we see two cranes. They are asleep already, though it is not really dark yet.

Then, not far from the cranes, we see a fox. Probably, the fox is eating something quite big, as it keeps eating for a long time. However, the long vegetation hides what exactly the fox is eating.

A lapwing tries to drive the fox away, by flying closely to it and calling loudly. This wakes up the cranes, who stand up and start calling.

A black-tailed godwit tries to drive the fox away. It has as little success as the lapwing: the fox keeps eating.

Then, a redshank tries. The fox is still unimpressed.

The lapwing tries again, with the same result.

Meanwhile, the cranes have started dancing. These big birds are apparently the only ones which might impress the fox enough to leave its meal. However, will they do it? Sometimes, one crane walks to within a few meter of the fox. The fox then lifts it head to watch. As soon as the crane walks away, it starts eating again. Sometimes, both cranes walk to within a few meter of the fox. Again, it lifts it head. And goes back to its food, as soon as the cranes walk away again.

Then, the night falls, making it impossible to see how this story ends.

A bat detector detects a commun noctule bat flying near the river. Tree frog sounds.