East Poland Trip

A birding trip to the most easterly point of Poland may not appeal to everyone but it was for me the best by a country mile. I didn’t have the best of starts to the holiday, having an early flight from Heathrow meant a hotel near to terminal 1 the night before. I set my alarm for 3 am, took a shower, and then the shower tap got stuck and wouldn’t turn off. In trying to turn it off I managed to turn the temperature to its highest, which also stuck. Panicking I quickly dressed and with luggage in tow I rushed down to the desk to check out of my hotel, sweating like an Olympic 100m runner on the hottest day of summer. I told them of the running shower, also afraid that the steam might set off the alarm. I couldn’t hang around to find out the outcome.

I arrived at the airport LOT Polish Airlines check in desk and met up with my fellow holidayers. We arrived in Warsaw to heavy rain, and thick black clouds. The mini bus was picked up from a Polish company called Panek, which led to the inevitable “don’t panic Captain Mainwearing” quotes. and we set off on our journey, about 220 km east. We stopped about half way for lunch, and picked up some nice birds in the wooded area by the café, including a great spotted woodpecker feeding in a rubbish bin. Not somewhere you would normally find one. We set off again and later through a hail storm to end all hail storms. We arrived at our hotel in Bialowieza and it looked (and was) fabulous. We had an evening meal and then had a walk in the local park to check out the surroundings and immediately some interesting birds, spotted flycatchers, black redstarts, icterine warblers, thrush nightingales and great reed warblers. In the trees were wryneck and great spotted woodpeckers and a honey buzzard flying right above the car park. There were nesting starlings in the trees by the hotel. There was very little on the lake in the park, but we saw white storks there, the first of many during our weeks stay in Poland. One mistake I made was forgetting to put on my insect repellent and all the midges and mosquitos must have been seen me coming as they all came for me. There must be something about my blood they like.

Great Reed warbler

After a good night’s sleep, forgetting all about hot showers and taps that don’t work, some of us had a pre-breakfast walk and we walked along an old railway line for an hour or so. Here we saw river, barred, icterine, great reed and sedge warblers. We saw golden orioles, thrush nightingales and snipe making their delightful drumming noise.

After a taking a shower, which worked, we had a continental breakfast and packed a lunch from the leftovers, we set off in the mini bus. Caked in insect repellent I still managed to get some more bites that I must have missed rubbing on my skin. We set off to the Belarus border, passing the border guards with their rifles. We drove along a path that was only a few feet from the border. We saw two turtle doves fly off from Belarus into Poland. Amongst many stops in various habitats we came across black storks, lesser spotted eagles, middle spotted and white backed woodpeckers. Marsh, savi’s, icterine, sedge, great reed, garden, willow and river warblers, as well as the common chiffchaff, whitethroat, lesser whitethroat and blackcap, it was certainly a warbling day. We saw a wonderful male rosefinch, that grabbed everyone’s attention immediately. Also hawfinch, serin and red backed and great grey shrikes.

Our evening visit was to see great snipe, but we were warned about insect repellent and wellingtons. I wore my special shirt and another dose of repellent we stood in standing water in the swamp at dusk for over an hour for the great snipe to appear. When we thought all was lost we saw them further to the right than we were looking. Only brief views in the fading light but heard the “Symphony of icicles”. Walking back we heard and saw a woodcock fly in the almost night sky. Arriving back at the bus we were impersonating Christopher Walkden dancing to Fatboy Slim. Me, of course, about three times as bad as the rest. Somehow I managed to get some sleep and up early for the pre-breakfast walk.

The next day was easily the best birding day I have ever experienced because we were going into the protected area in the primeval forest. We weren’t allowed in without a permit or a guide. We were taken in by Arek who has been a forester all his working life and he is an expert. What he doesn’t know about these forests is not worth knowing. It was quite an experience walking through the forest, along the paths that had been constructed by the Russians in the 18^th century. I would have liked to have stopped a few times to take everything in but we were hurried through because Arek was on quite a tight schedule and we had quite a distance to walk to come across a nesting black woodpecker. Also the delightfully tuneful red breasted flycatcher, although when we managed to see it, there was no red breast. For me this bird was the star of all the 150 species we came across, 16 of which were lifers. Later he took us to other sites, although not in the protected areas. We came across grey headed woodpeckers, three toed woodpeckers and pygmy owls. The sighting of the three toed woodpecker was quite an achievement for me as I have now seen all 10 European woodpeckers. 

Still severely itching all over, I managed to get a good night’s sleep and make the pre breakfast walk. Seeing all the usual suspects in the park, it was wonderful hearing icterine warbler sing with their “squeaky toy” sound. We saw a river warbler sat up on a bush singing away. Birds not always seen were just a few feet away in full view.

After breakfast we set off. We had seen most of the target birds of the first leg of the holiday, but we still had an excellent day, with whooper swans seen, goldeneye, great crested grebes, nesting green sandpipers and many middle spotted woodpeckers, the highlights. Two quite exceptional mammals we encountered were pine marten and bison. Not too many people can say they have them those two animals on the same day. The pine marten was quite by chance and to see the way it made its way through the high canopies was incredible. It caused havoc with the birds with them all going mad. We all stood there watching, then the marten made its way down the tree at lightning speed and briefly stopped to look at us and then made its way off into the forest. The three bison we saw were in the distance then started to make their way toward us, so we had good views. One of the group wandered off into a field and saw the head and neck of a corncrake, but he was the only one. We heard many.

We had early start the next day, but a couple still managed to get a pre breakfast walk in, we were off to the Biebrza marshes with quite a few stops on the way. The habitats were quite different and our first target bird was heard and later seen, one of Europe’s rarest songbirds, the aquatic warbler. It was quite a find as we had been (unreliably) informed by a group of birders from Suffolk we had seen earlier, that there weren’t any there. Also seen here was a fast flying hobby and cranes flying in the distance, what a marvellous sound they have. We also came across common, black and whiskered terns, great white egrets, white tailed eagles, wood larks, hoopoes and blue headed yellow wagtails. In some of the wooded areas we saw crested tits and collared flycatchers. We also saw the delightful penduline tit gathering nesting material and we spotted the nest nearing completion.

Our new hotel was in Dobarz, and the setting was impressive, we sorted out our rooms and then quickly for an evening meal. There was no time for any rest during the day.

White Stork

I don’t know what it was about showers on this holiday, but I had a further mishap. I had noticed there was no shower gels in the room, so I took the soap dispenser into the shower cubicle. It was quite a posh one, pottery and quite heavy. I dropped the thing and it smashed and cut my foot. I didn’t have any soap left either. The bathroom was now beginning to resemble a scene from the film Physco. It was about 4.30 in the morning and was beginning to wish I hadn’t agreed to go on the pre breakfast walk, but make it I did and quickly forgot of my earlier woes when the birds were singing. Spotted flycatchers, house sparrows, black redstarts and swallows were close to our rooms. Walking along the road near the hotel we saw an ortolan bunting, golden oriole, wood larks, icterine warblers, hawfinch and bullfinch, we could hear distant cranes and bitterns booming, and cuckoos, both near and far. Yellowhammers were everywhere and whinchat. The loud song of the thrush nightingale made you stop and try to get a glimpse.

After a breakfast that included pancakes we set off for a tour of the marshes, with a packed lunch, made up by the hotel staff. We found a number of tower hides and had some delights. My 2^nd favourite bird of the tour was the white winged black tern. I have seen them before but when they fly past just a few feet away their wonderful plumage is revealed. They were plentiful as well as black terns and common terns. There were some garganey being flushed by marsh harriers and montague harriers. We had a close view of a pair of Montys. We saw black and white storks flying high, the black stork is so graceful. More waders in the marshes too with lapwing, snipe, breeding black tailed godwits and redshank. We were able to see Elk in the marshes and in one scene, a white tailed eagle landed close to the moose. Photographic opportunities were taken.

Elk and White tailed eagle

We had an excellent meal at the hotel, and the draught beer was back on thankfully after having run dry the night before.

The next morning started early as ever, but we tried a tour of a swampy area and walked through a wooded area to get there. There was so much to see, and we had to be selective in what we stopped for. Thrush nightingale and golden orioles are certainly birds worth stopping for as well as hawfinch. We found the swampy area and saw that some Germans had beat us to it. We saw immediately that they were recording bird song so we just waved our greetings. We saw a raised platform that was originally built to view great snipe, but they are no longer there. There were plenty of common snipe though displaying. We saw cuckoos, yellowhammer, whinchat, whitethroat and sedge warblers. We also saw yet another warbler, grasshopper warbler, our first view of the week. A majestic goshawk also flew close by.

After another nice breakfast we set off for our last full day and we actually saw over 90 species in the day. We visited some private fish ponds, where we needed a permit to enter. Some great birds here included temminck’s stint, wood sandpiper, little ringed plover, ruff, black tailed godwits, redshank, whooper swan, little grebe and common tern. Here surprisingly we had our first view of linnet. Later we saw ruddy turnstone and dunlin, as well as five species of tern, with about half a dozen little tern which surprised all. We tried a site that may have had the Syrian woodpecker but none were spotted. From a tower hide we had close views of otters, which had everyone rushing to the viewing spot, fantastic animals.

Black tailed godwit

We tried a sand quarry and saw about 10 bee eaters nesting, with sand martins close by. Here we had a brief view of a tawny pipit and a quail was heard but not seen. Whinchats and great grey shrikes were seen perched too. It was approaching 30 degrees centigrade which had me caked in sun screen and insect repellent. My dilemma was what to put on first. There was an easy answer, insect repellent after the sun screen. After an exhausting day there were not many that had a late night due to our early breakfast at 6.15 am. Well that was the plan because there breakdown in communication because the Polish waitresses thought it was 6.50. Two of us also were up at dawn breaking to see our last birds. Not much time but we still managed over 30 species.

It had been a fantastic week in Poland, my fifth visit to this wonderful country, with a further three visits planned later this year and early next year to Wroclaw, Warsaw and Szczecin. I really should start to learn the language.

We made it back to Frederick Chopin airport at Warsaw, then to Heathrow, where the lower temperature and dark rain clouds reminded us we were back in England.