ML611868012
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
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Observation details
When I started to first film this flock spotted on Głowackiego Street, I noticed they kept returning (after each time they flushed, which happened quite a lot, be it due to my slight movements or perhaps a sparrowhawk that landed in the nearby trees a couple of times) to this one patch of dirty, blackish snow. At one point I decided to go closer to investigate - initially I thought it looked like perhaps a patch of oil that probably leaked from underneath a car. But I figured they could not possibly be eating poison willingly. I noticed there were some squashed chokeberries and dog rose berries on the snow so I even squashed them a little more of those; but once I started filming again, it became clear they were not interested in the berries at all (they could probably peck at them directly on the brush). I concluded it must have been not oil spill, but rather dirt (soil), and they were pecking at it to get the necessary gastroliths, since the ground is thoroughly covered with 15-20 cm of snow and so there is no way for them to get the much needed grains of sand otherwise. Nice idea for future attempts at photographing them in similar snowy conditions - provide them not food but some sand/dirt.
Technical information
- Camera
- Microphone
- Accessories
- Original file size
- 356.02 MB