Photos taken in 2020 by Wojciech Muła

The beginning of the year was pretty sunny. There was no snow, maybe except morning hoarfrost. I explored forests surrounding a pond, taking advantage of the weather, lack of tourists and hunters — generally quietness of the place.

The pond was crowded with mallards and quite rare goosanders. The lovely long-tailed tits and siskins were flying around.

The most interesting buddy I met was the albino fallow deer, clearly a calf. People met there also a black male fallow deer.

This was a month of beautiful frosty mornings on glades

... and meetings deer in a forest and fields.

The other day I met friends on a pond-side, and we talked about the lack of good opportunities for taking pictures. Few minutes later, a pack of red deer was run through a channel, making lots of splashes and nice looking fountains of water.

Spring was slowly starting. Grey herons were building up their nests on high trees, soon the leaves would cover them. This year I saw for the first time the red kite and the redwing. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to take any good pictures of the red kite.

Red deer and deer were crossing a meadow back and forth.

The story behind these amazing shots of a fallow deer (this time not an albino) is rather typical for nature photographers. You have already spent several hours waiting for animals or birds. Finally, you decided that it's high time to back home. So you emerging from camouflage mesh, pack your backpack, tripod, etc. Then, out of the blue, the "object" appears. You are unprepared, uncovered... and sometimes have a bit of luck that a young fallow deer is more inquisitive than scared.

Unfortunately, COVID stoke and due to legal reasons, I couldn't visit my favourite ponds and forests. It was a blessing in disguise, as I had an opportunity to visit nearby fields and forests (which I would explore years ago). There was a great session with a quite rare black woodpecker. Also saw for the first time the cute linnet.

Due to a national quarantine, I had to spend more than a half of the month at home. The common wood pigeon landed on my balcony and let me took a nice portrait. I don't understand why people hate pigeons and call "flying rats" (at least the Spanish people) — they are beautiful.

April is the breeding time of the crested grebe. Their mating dance on the water is a thing worth seeing. One may also observe how males bribe partners with a fish or seaweed.

At the month's end, the COVID restrictions got reduced, thus I could back to the ponds and forests. The sandpiper rewarded the absence time, posing nicely on a branch. Trivia is that it sounds like the kingfisher, sometimes I can't tell the difference between them.

Nature was blossoming. The grey herons had nestlings, as well as kingfishers and long-tailed tits. I saw how a male marsh harrier passed the prey to the female partner, which then flew to a nest hidden somewhere.

Waiting patiently in a forest paid off. Young and adult fallow deer and red deer were walking around.

One thing I still regret is not recording the love song of the wood warbler. The bird itself is cute, but its tune is beautiful.

The pond name Stary Staw (literally The Old Pond) is a perfect place for watching many bird species, including unique ones. Speaking of the kingfisher: I had seen them several times flying around. The other day it paused for a few seconds.

I remember this day very well. It was Saturday, and I went to a meadow in the early morning. Being quite sleepy couldn't believe what I witnessed. I had seen thousands of moose pictures. Their silhouette is unique. I couldn't confuse them with anything else. But... there are no moose in this area; if there are some, newspapers write about it.

Lazy, late afternoon on a meadow. To be honest, I was waiting for the pack of red deer, which I noticed there earlier. But a nice male deer having dinner... it had to be photographed.

The same meadow, this time the hare had dinner. It was the first photo session like this. I love its eyes.

I had an opportunity to observe over several weeks how a pair of coots were building their nest. Then, how they looked after the nestlings. Also, they bravely protected the nest from a swan; although the swan seemed just to swayed by.

While observing the coots, it appeared that the rushes are also settled by muskrats, also having offspring the same time coots did have. A baby muskrat is so cute and small.

There's a common belief in Poland that storks eat mostly frogs. This time I caught a stork that nailed a mammal on a field.

Highlight: the first decent photo of the hoopoe.

The month of the black-crowned night heron. The bird used to be extremely rare in this area. Last year I saw just one adult. This year there were a couple of them, including young ones. My friend Marek photographed 12 or 13 of them sitting on trees close to each other.

I spotted the young kingfisher that caught a fish. I observed it for a while as the bird tried to kill the fish... but failed miserably, the fish slipped away from its beak.

The little crake saw for the first time.

The five-spot burnet saw for the first time in my life. The perfect afternoon light uncovered the facture of the wings. And the spots.

Forests were crowded with all kinds of deer known in Poland: red deer, fallow deer, and most common roe deer.

An offspring of the sorex was crawling next to a pretty crowded road.

In July colorful insects invaded forests and meadows...

The grass snake is one of few snakes living in Europe. They are exceptionally good swimmers.

The special guest of July is the black stork. Until that cloudy day, I had several opportunities to saw them flying by. That day the stork was patiently sitting on a tree.

Offspring of robin, bearded reedling saw close to a pond. I was observing how young black-crowned night heron was fishing — it succeeded.

For several years I was trying to take a "good" picture of the kingfisher. Finally found a spot where these birds are fishing. Then an hour or two waiting — and here we are.

Grey herons are popular in Poland. As a result, some photographers are fed up with them, seeking less common species. But I do like them, and I believe that haven't taken a really good picture of a heron yet (although there are hundreds of herons' photos in my archives).

Mornings in forests can be nice. For sure they are quiet and cold.

The black storks and the little grebe.

The rut of red deer. I took two weeks off solely to spectate this event.

The Polish species name of the read deer means literally "the noble deer." In my opinion, it fits better.

Adult red deer were running through meadows, emerging from forests, roaring for the whole days. Sometimes one could see just stags' antlers. Or merely heard how these massive animals were getting through dense bushes.

Last year I had seen two stags fighting. This year didn't see any. Instead, I observed how that mature stag just took over the hinds and calves from a younger stag that appeared on the meadow. The old one only roared few times. It was more than enough.

While watching animals on meadows or glades is rather easy, spotting them in forests is difficult. In a forest, the roles are reversed — a human is just a guest. I got noticed almost immediately, at the same time having a hard time spotting animals, even though they could be near. That is the reason why most of the deer looks directly at the camera.

First, I noticed the antlers in a distance. I thought their owner would go by. But when the antlers were still there, I decided to get closer. I started to sneak, trying not to make the slightest sound. I was approaching the stag for half an hour. Finally found a cover near the stag. When the stag went away — with a pretty hoe, shown on this page below — I got back by the same path. This time it took me a minute.

Another day of the rut, a sunny morning. This younger stag just crossed a river and stood on the opposite side.

I spent the majority of my time in forests and on meadows. The other day my friend Piotr convinced me to visit fish ponds. We sat on a pond-side. We could hear red deer roaring nearby, but couldn't see anything through dense rushes. After an hour or two, red deer finally appeared. We had in total a minute to take pictures.

While the main actors of the rut are magnificent stags, everything is about hoes. They are beautiful. And also really watchful & clever.

It may seem that taking a picture of red deer is easy but definitively it is not. Sometimes forests are empty yet still beautiful and green. From time to time you came across a group of boars or fallow deer. Or the cute common treecreeper would stop on a branch near you.

Foxes' fur was getting fluffier before the coming winter. And they seemed not to care much about red deer running around.

The rut is over, the red deer returned to the forests. They had become hard to see. Also, most adult stags were wiped out by hunters.

Hundreds if not thousands of geese were on fishing ponds. The majority of them just stopped by during winter migration.

A cute fox on a meadow.

Sunny autumn in parent's garden.

Having a garden pays off. One can be visited by such cute, fluffy buddy.

Despite being colorful, such nice mushrooms are quite difficult to spot in a forest.

Squirrels are common in city parks. But it's not that easy to see them in the wild.

One of few sunny days. I saw this fox far in the middle of a vast meadow. The decision to wait for him appeared to be a good one. I remained unnoticed for a long time. Thanks to that managed to take several great shots of the nice fox.

The fishing ponds were still crowded with geese and other birds.