When my good friend Jason said he was heading over from the land down under for a month-long visit to his second home, the threat of four days with him loomed large and the pressure was on to find a suitable destination for a birding and beer trip. While the UK of course provides a multitude of possibilities, the meteorological vagaries temper confidence in a rain free trip which could dampen things somewhat. So Poland it was, cheap, accessible, and generally full of sun at this time of year. So on arrival, to find it was 14C and raining was somewhat amusing.
Thankfully the weather had improved the following day, low 20s as oppossed to the 34C that we had left behind in London. This made things really pleasant for wandering around and we did cover some ground amassing a total of 106 species which we felt was a great effort considering the time of year.
With two and a half days at our disposal, the car hire pickup and subsequent two and a half hour drive had us in an interesting hotel on the outskirts of Bialystok by the evening. Very much a throwback to the the ex-Soviet era, the Belweder Hotel exuded character, it was clean, felt a bit odd, but was a fun place to stay. And so the birding started with the following highlights (and thanks to Jason for recording everything on ebird).
Fri 17th June
Bialystok - Kalarny
An area of grassland southwest of the city and a first glimpse at a few species to get the trip list going.
Highlights here were, a calling corncrake, three lovely male whinchat, five yellow wagtail and two serin.
The heart of Biebrza and it was great. A lot of interest here with around 10 white-winged tern flying across the marsh, a couple of black stork, sparring marsh harrier, and my highlight of the trip, a montagu's harrier hunting at close quarters watched from the car for around 10 minutes.
Biebrza NP - Observation Tower 9.3 km N of Laskowiec
Stopping off at random spots along the along around the National Park. Here we encountered a calling
spotted crake, a
hawfinch along the road, and a brief
common nightingale.
An area I've visited on numerous occasions - birding this time was a little hard work with birdsong at a premium and with plenty of foliage now on the trees made connecting with anything quite difficult. However, we managed to observe a lesser spotted woodpecker calling from high up in a pine, two middle spotted woodpecker, five wood warbler, two pied flycatcher, three tree pipit, a reeling grasshopper warbler, and three cuckoo. The full list can be found using the link.
Dluga Luka
A classic and for me an icon of the reserve, Dluga Luka. Quieter than previous visits but there were at least five singing
aquatic warbler here with other highlights that included two
montagu's harrier, three
whinchat and two
grasshopper warbler.
Sat 18th June
After a restful night, we were out again, this time heading to Bialowieza which turned out to be a little disappointing given the restrictions with the proximity to the Belarus border. It was interesting seeing the presence of the police, army and at one point, leaving an area where a military guard was positioned on a roof with a presumed loaded firearm.
Not a great deal here, but worth a stop and a scan with four willow warbler being the best we could prize out.
Not had much success here in the past but it was worth a look along the wooden boardwalk that routes through the forest. A singing golden oriole, an icterine warbler, a reeling river warbler and two marsh tit were present in the woodland but we decided to make a hasty retreat given the lack of birds and the mosquitos that were finding us particularly tasty.
Bialowieza NP - Stara Bialowieza
Not too far from Zebra Zubra was another area we had decided to check out. Again it felt a bit quiet until I heard the distance song of a red-breasted flycatcher. With a bit of patience, it made its way toward us providing lovely views of a full adult bird.
Also here were three wood warbler, two tree pipit, and a spotted flycatcher.
An interesting place that I hadn't visited before. The first stop was on the south side of the lake where having avoided the sniper atop a roof of an old building, we negotiated our way to a tower overlooking the marsh where at least 100 white-winged tern were present with around 30 black tern and five whiskered tern. It was an amazing sight, but unfortunately the birds were quite distant. A thrush nightingale was going typically bonkers from a nearby willow, with two great egret, a single great reed warbler, and cuckoo also noted here.
We then drove around the lake to another viewpoint where six
whiskered tern were fishing close to the bay, with a further
great reed warbler, and
thrush nightingale singing here.
One of the highlights of the trip and quite unexpected. We pulled into a municipal area parting with 10zl in the process to find plenty of public amenities and a path that headed toward what seemed like a nature conservation area. A golden oriole sang from the woodland which as seen briefly, two goosander flew past and there were plenty of common species. We continued along the path to find that we couldn't proceed any further to what looked like a much more interesting part of the lake.
We went back to the car and drove round the north side of the lake where we found an access track that led to where all the action wash and it was brilliant. On the lakes were plenty of waterbirds that included two stunning summer adult red-necked grebe along with seven goldeneye. The marsh held at least three singing savi's warbler as well as a variety of common species. It was a lovely site.
Sun 19th June
The final half day and it wasn't over. We still had to find a blue tit (!) and there were a couple of sites to discover. The day started with a speeding ticket having been caught just outside of the town but we were on our way to another interesting site.
Totally random but another great place with the undoubted highlight was the discovery of a penduline tit nest complete with a stunning adult bird that showed beautifully. The large ponds held around 30 caspian gull, a whiskered tern, two great egret, two wood sandpiper, six red-backed shrike, two great reed warbler, and a fly-through turtle dove. We also bagged blue tit here.
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