Birding places in Poland

1. Birding places in Poland Piotr Malik

2. Overview • Biebrza Marshes • Puszcza Bialowieska • Siemianowka • Ptasi Raj (Gdansk Bay) • Ujscie Warty

3. Plan • Overview • Map • Habitats • Species • Places, routs • When

4. Biebrza Marshes • The river valley is protected as National Park, access on designated routs • Over 100 km long fragment of the valley and adjacent marshes

5. Biebrza

6. Habitats • Huge area with marshes stretching to the horizon, • Swampy alder and birch forests • Kilometers of reedbeds, rivers and lakes • Spring floodings of the area – everything a shallow lake • Consist of river alone with dense reed beds along with marshland and wetland also wet forests

7. Species • Displaying Ruff, Black Grouse, Great Snipe • Waders breeding on wet marshes • Interesting birds of prey • Breeding birds: Red-necked Grebe, Black-necked Grebe, Little Bittern, Bittern, Great White Egret (rare), White Stork, Black Stork, Whooper Swan, Greylag Goose, Wigeon, Garganey, Pintail, Honey Buzzard, Black Kite, White-tailed Eagle, Short-toed Eagle, Marsh Harrier, Hen Harrier, Montagu's Harrier , Goshawk, Lesser Spotted Eagle, Spotted Eagle, Golden Eagle (rare), Booted Eagle (sporadic), Black Grouse, Crane, Spotted Crake, Little Crake, Corncrake, Dunlin, Ruff (more on passage), Jack Snipe (historic, now on passage), Great Snipe, Black-tailed Godwit, Curlew, Green Sandpiper, Marsh Sandpiper (rare), Woodcock, Little Gull (irregular breeder), Common Tern, Black Tern, White-winged Black Tern (quick increase), Whiskered Tern (an increasingly common breeder), Eagle Owl, Short-eared Owl, Roller (sporadic), Hoopoe, Nightjar, Wryneck, Grey-headed Woodpecker, Black Woodpecker, White-backed Woodpecker, Three-toed Woodpecker (sporadic), Citrine Wagtail, Bearded Tit, Red-breasted Flycatcher, Bluethroat, Redwing, Grasshopper Warbler, River Warbler, Aquatic Warbler, Blyth's Reed Warbler (irregular visitor, singing males), Greenish Warbler (passage visitor, breeding probable), Firecrest. Penduline Tit, Nutcracker, Thrush Nigthingale, Marsh, Great Reed and Barred Warblers, Red-backed and Great Grey Shrikes, Serin, Scarlet Rosefinch and Ortolan Bunting

8. Places, routs • Base in Goniadz or Lomza • Public transport scarce • Gonczarowska Grobla, Barwik for Great Snipes, Czerwone Bagno Reserve etc…

9. When • Best time is in spring from March on to May • Autumn for rarer migrants

10. Puszcza Bialowieska (Bialowieza Forest) • NE of Poland at boarder with Belarus • The bigger part of the forest situated in Belarus • Only a small portion (18%) protected as National Park

11. Puszcza Bialowieska

12. Map

13. Habitats • Patches of primeval forest surrounded by forest plantations and open glades • These crossed by river valleys and meadows • In the forest – huge and old oaks and limes up to 50m tall, gigantic standing snags, uprooted trees • In the vicinity – meadows and marshes

14. Species • Woodpeckers (White-backed, Three-toed) • Woodcock, Hazelhen, few Black Grouse and occasional Capercaile • Eagle Owl, Pigmy Owl • Short-toed Eagle, Montague’s Harrier, Lesser Spotted Eagle, Booted Eagle • Flycatchers Breeding: White Stork, Black Stork, Whooper Swan, Honey Buzzard, Short-toed Eagle, Marsh Harrier, Montagu’s Harrier, Goshawk, Lesser Spotted Eagle, Booted Eagle, Hazelhen, Black Grouse, Crane, Spotted Crake, Little Crake, Corncrake, Green Sandpiper, Woodcock, Stock Dove, Eagle Owl, Pigmy Owl, Great Grey Owl, Tengmalm Owl, Nightjar,Hoopoe, Wryneck, Grey-headed Woodpecker, Black Woodpecker,all Spotted Woodpeckers, White-backed Woodpecker, Three-toed Woodpecker, Red-breasted Flycatcher, Collared Flycatcher, Redwing, River Warbler, Blyth’s Reed Warbler, Greenish Warbler, Firecrest, Penduline Tit, Nutcracker, Scarlet Rose finch, Thrush Nightingale, Marsh and Barred Warblers, Red-backed Shrike, Serin and Ortolan Bunting

15. Species • Primeval behavior • Swifts nesting in tree holes high up in the oak canopy • Wrens nesting among roots of toppled trees

16. Places, routs • Usual base in the village of Bialowieza with the park headquarters and guides • Important to visit National Park to see the landscape of the forest • The richest parts – to the west and to the south of Bialowieza

17. When • Early spring (before the foliage appears) and onwards especially May – the peak of spring and breeding season.

18. Siemianowka • Reservoir north of Puszcza Bialowieska • A relict of communist (mis)planning • Huge shallow lake • Railway bride crosses the middle

19. Map

20. Map

21. Habitats • Open, shallow water surrounded by reedbeds, marshland and woods • Parts inaccessible

22. Species • Birds on passage large number of waterfowl and waders visit the reservoir, from mid-spring until autumn there are flocks of non-breeding Great White Egrets; some of the more interesting Eastern species appear too: flocks of Red-throated and Black-throated Divers in May, Red-footed Falcon (about daily in mid-May), Pontic (Caspian, Yellow-legged) and Mediterranean Gulls, Terek Sandpiper and Red-throated Pipit. Many rarities have been recorded. • Raptors hunt over inaccessible north-eastern part • Breeding birds Citrine Wagtail (one of first sites in Poland near Cisowka), Marsh Sandpiper (often seen, breeds irregularly) Lesser Spotted and White-tailed Eagles and other raptors and Black and White Storks fly out of the forest to feed; Little Gulls, three marsh terns, (Black, White-winged Black and Whiskered), Hoopoes, Tawny Pipits, many passerines such as the Scarlet Rosefinch and Barred Warbler, plenty of Cormorants, waterfowl, Marsh and Montagu's Harriers, grebes, waders, gulls and terns; Spotted, Little, Corn Crakes and Bitterns, Rollers • In late winter and early spring northern species: swans and ducks

23. Places, routs • You may lodge in Narewka or access by car from further away • Route from Cisowka at northern shore, over railway bridge – the best • Also east of Siemianowka village

24. When • Early spring for passage and northern species • May for breeding species • Also autumn

25. Ujscie Warty • Western Poland, where Warta flows into Odra, near German border • Huge variety of birds, in spring you can see more than 100 species in one day • Cut in half by Warta river creating two distinctively different parts • Manmade landscape

26. Slonsk

27. Ujscie Warty

28. Habitats • Wet meadows and grassland, pasture lands cut across by many channels and ancient river bed • North polder with stable hydrological conditions • In southern part the water level fluctuations can reach 4 meter creating a very diverse and dynamic conditions

29. Species • 255 species recorded, some 170 breeding • 4 species of grebes, 8-9 species of ducks, 5-6 species of rails, 4-5 species of gulls and 8-9 species of waders nesting • Most important are in Poland for breeding shelduck, gadwall, oystercatcher, little gull and little tern; aquatic warbler, black tern, greylag geese, red-necked grebe, shoveler • Moulting place for thousands of waterfowl in summer: mallards, greylag geese, swans, cranes, coot, • In autumn a kingdom of arctic geese (mainly bean and white-fronted but rarer species occur), flocks up to 200 thousands.

30. Places, routs • Birdwatchers friendly village of Slonsk • Also Kostrzyn further away • In the park take the concrete road • Depending on water level other paths are accessible

31. When • Spring for breeding species • Late autumn for geese and wintering species – swans, ducks etc…

32. Thank you for your kind attention