Stormy Gdansk in October

My latest trip to Gdansk wasn’t where I had planned but decided to change my travel arrangements because of news of strikes and demonstrations in Polish Cities on Monday. I stayed near to the airport, and had a good couple of hours birding before the rain arrived mid morning.

I made my way to a lake, I have been to a few times, with the airport close by. I heard and saw a black redstart from a factory roof. In the scrub I saw lots of goldfinch and a whinchat, with skylarks and meadow pipits flying over. There were a few ducks in the pond, goldeneye, pochard and tufted ducks, with wigeon and mallards feeding in the field close by. There were two families of cranes in the field, that kept their distance when they saw me inching closer to get better pictures. A green sandpiper called and flew, and I flushed a snipe.

Female goldeneye

There was a lot of activity in some rowan trees, close to the lake, with song thrush, blackbird and fieldfare. Black redstarts again with finches, including brambling. Yellowhammers and corn buntings were also calling. A huge flock of geese were flying over, which from their calls were taiga bean geese. Rain started to fall and I made my way back to the hotel to move to a cheaper hotel a bit further out.

Common crane

There was not a direct bus route to the new hotel and as I couldn’t check in until 2 pm and I walked, and the rain had eased. I was however getting windier. Not much to see on the way, apart from some cranes flying quite low.

After checking in at the new hotel, I immediately went to a nature reserve opposite. It was quite windy now and not much to see or hear. A lake in the park only had a family of mute swans, goosander and mallards.

Common merganser (Goosander)

I made my way to Sobieszewska the next day, but faced a problem because I couldn’t check in until 4pm. It wasn’t raining but was quite windy. With my suitcase I tried to do a bit of birding but it wasn’t very productive. There was a large tit flock, which included the white headed long-tailed tits and crested tits. Brambling were among the chaffinches.

Now Wednesday I hadn’t had many opportunities for birding and wanted to start early the next day. The weather forecast was not good. I heard reports of a “landscape changing” storm. I made a short journey to and walked along the River Vistula. The river looked choppy and a number of branches had fallen. I was wary about walking in the wooded area but was hampered when the path near to the river had flooded, so I had no choice. The noise from the Baltic and the rustling trees made it impossible to hear anything. The only birds in the river were goosanders, cormorants and gulls. When I reached the coastline I tried to find a sheltered area to scan the coast. The waves were high and in the exposed areas it was very blustery.

I saw goldeneye, cormorant and a vast array of gulls and two sandwich terns on a sand bank. Sheltering near to the beach were mallards, teal, wigeon, scaup, tufted ducks and 3 slavonian grebes. I walked further along to the tower hide but it was near impossible to stay on your feet in the high winds and hat had to come off. Near to the hide was a bar tailed godwit, with sadly one leg.

Slavonian grebes

Bar tailed godwit

Sandwich terns

I had had enough of being battered with winds and rain started to fall, to add insult to injury. I decided to return and the trees swaying had not abated. Luckily no trees had fallen. I came across numerous tit flocks, which included willow, coal, marsh, crested and Long tailed. Amongst them I also saw treecreepers and goldcrest, with the odd chiffchaff.

After having my evening meal, I had a knock on the door in the hotel about 10 pm to report that the water was off and there was only bottled water to wash, etc.

After breakfast the owner advised the engineers would be out later and hopefully fixed later in the day. I stayed closer to the hotel and went to the Ptasi Raj reserve. The wind had not dropped and rain was forecast most of the day. I made my way to the 2nd tower hide. Two large pine trees had fallen in the storm yesterday. It was raining heavy now and the hide only partially sheltered from the wind and rain. In the large lake there were goldeneye, tufted ducks, teal, mallards, gadwall, shoveler, wigeon and scaup. I also saw great crested and little grebes. I was also made up to see a red crested pochard and a female smew. In the reeds in front of the hide, there were bearded tits flying low. It would have been impossible to see them in the swaying reeds. I had stayed over 3 hours in the hide and it had rained all that time. After the rain had eased I walked up to the coastline, and the waves were high again. I scanned for about half an hour before it started to rain again. I saw common and velvet scoters, also a little gull. I made my way back to the hotel, in the rain, with my waterproofs.

Red crested pochard with tufted ducks

My last day, the wind had dropped, but rain was forecast. I had a good hour’s birding before the rain. I had fantastic views of bearded tits, and numerous tit flocks. Also reed bunting, brambling and goldcrest. The rain started and I went back to the hotel and make my way to the city and then the airport. Whilst at the bus stop, there were huge flocks of geese migrating and saw, taiga bean, greylag and white fronted geese. The rain got heavier and heavier and was torrential when we made our way to the aeroplane.

It wasn’t ideal weather for birding but still enjoyable to be in Poland again.