TomKal foto

Nowadays it is very rare in Poland. It is estimated that there are only couple of tens of pairs of nesting rollers in our country and to photograph them you need a special permit. So if you spot a roller you need to step back not to disturb it so it could successfully end its mating period. Presented pictures were made in Spain as a break from an exhausting bustards watching (when you are up from 5 a.m. until around midnight you can not go through the process again the next day). It is a good thing because to herd with a new species and taking couple of satisfying pictures always bring new, positive emotions and contentment. I drove with a workshop organizer (greetings Manuel) couple of kilometres outside the city where we set up a small tent, watching spot, to move it right next to a high voltage pole. I think to myself – Perfect, photography workshop outdoor from a dream – concrete with an offsetting sky. But I do trust the organizer, so I sit and wait. Not even 30 minutes after two rollers flew in next to the breeding booth and started the scarring off of the previous habitants - kestrels. I have recorded their voices (I recommend listening to them) and you can clearly hear that the kestrels already have young and rollers only flew in, as my host explained. It is hard to say whether they were the habitants of the booth the year before or whether they just liked it and decided to evict the previous tenants. Both species were afraid of the confrontation. The scared male kestrel was escaping from the booth three times within three hours while trying to protect it at the same time. It did not bring anything when flying back so the evicting strategy of the rollers would lie not in a combat but not letting the feeding of the young. As kestrels without young would give up the booth without a fight. You need to remember that birds need 2 to 4 weeks after hatching to become an adult able to fly (it differs from species to species). The time of their growth really is an intensive period for their parents who know that a lack of food within dozen or so hours can end up with a demise of their offspring. While watching birds you need to remember not to concern them to the point when they would stop feeding even for couple of hours. Rollers know it and they will probably lead to kestrels' rehousing, especially that they performed the watch in shifts, copulating on a booth every once in a while. Therefore, they were sure that before the female roller will lay eggs the matter of the present tenants will be in the past and the kestrels will have to try again in some other place. The weight of a roller is around 200 grams with a wingspan of 70 centimeters. If the applied protection programs would prove successful and the roller would grow in Poland it would truly be a beautiful adornment to our fields and forests. Unfortunately, its population, not only here, decreases. Let's hope there will be another opportunity to expand the presented gallery of this beautiful bird, especially in more natural surrounding, like forest, meadow, unurbanized...
Last minute news - South Africa 02/2017
Finally I had the opportunity to add new pictures of the European roller. So far I have seen and photographed this bird only once, and in the unattractive scenery of a nesting box against the sky. In South Africa it was different. I was shocked by the amount of rollers there. They were everywhere sitting on wires, poles, bushes. We saw dozens of them or even more. We stopped the car to take pictures  only when the bird was so low that there was no white or blue sky in the background. Some of them were not fearful at all, although with their cooperation or the spotlight addiction, as it is usually called, was differently. But ultimately the changes are radical and the gallery has upgraded in the qualitative assessment. To mark the first contact with this bird I have left some pictures, because this observation of the roller and the lesser kestrel struggling was certainly fascinating. During our stay in South Africa we saw two other species of rollers but I have no photos after these encountes.
Last minute news- Tanzania 12/17'