Spotting the Elusive Corncrake ~ The "Crex crex" Call

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🔽 License the footage here:
https://1url.cz/nugUH
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Ladies and gentlemen, that's him! The Holy Grail of Czech ornithology, the mysterious inhabitant of wet meadows, for which we declare nature reserves and dozens of volunteers participate in his monitoring every year. An umbrella species that provides protection for many other creatures and whose constant decline is the reason for special agricultural subsidies. The noisy but endlessly admired corncrake!

I hope that was a sufficiently pompous introduction.

The corncrake looks a bit like a slender partridge. It should be called a meadowcrake, as it has long since lost its habitat in our intensively farmed corn fields. It has moved mainly to the foothills where it inhabits wet meadows and wetlands. From them, on nights in May and June, the corncrake‘s hoarse call is heard, marking its territory and making it known to other birds. However, even here, corncrakes are not very lucky, because most meadows are mowed exactly at the time of their nesting. Therefore, ornithologists go out for regular night monitoring, try to locate the birds according to their calls and then agree on protection for them with landowners - postponing mowing for a later period. Thanks to the corncrake, many other animals for which the meadows provide essential shelter in spring are also protected: from partridges, quails and meadow pipits to the more popular baby hares and roe deer to a mass of invertebrates.

The corncrake is one of the "challenging" bird species, whose observation and filming I owe mainly to my friend Ivo Hertl. With Ivo, as an inexperienced greenhorn I met my first-ever corncrake, which sent a suspicious eye at us through the jungle of thick grass. And this year, a full ten years later, we finally managed to film it decently, even though I had to bring Ivo all the way from southern Moravia to the Eagle Mountains.

And how did it all go? You'll find out in the next corncrake post, so that you don't fall asleep while reading 😎 For now, listen to the corncrake‘s unmistakable voice, which sounds like a comb running over a matchbox. At least when his call pulls you out of bed one night, you'll know how lucky you are!

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Location: Eagle Mountains, Czechia | 2023

Equipment:
Panasonic GH6
Metabones T Smart
Sigma 60-600
Zoom F3
Sennheiser MKE600

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Corncrake | Crex crex | Chřástal polní | Wachtelkönig | Râle des genêts | guion de codornices | re di quaglie | Коросте́ль

#europeanwildlife #corncrake #crexcrex