Biebrzański and Białowieża

Exclusively guided by PTOP in northeastern Poland for a week in April

LITHUANIA AND POLAND

4/15/20242 min read

Two BirdLife Norge-colleagues and myself have just returned from a partner visit with our friends at the Polish Society for the Protection of Birds (PTOP - Polskie Towarzystwo Ochrony Ptaków). There were daily field excursions, and the week ended with an ornithological seminar organised by PTOP.

We visited lots of wetlands in the region, but also managed to do a morning of birding in the enigmatic forest of Białowieski. Birding was excellent throughout the trip, and about 120 species were recorded. Highlights included Greater Spotted Eagle, Black Stork, Great Snipe, Middle Spotted Woodpecker, a White-spotted Bluethroat and a couple of singing Collared Flycatchers. Also memorable were the large flocks of Ruffs and dabbling ducks staging in the flooded wetlands.

PTOP had prepared a full program, and we spent every day in the field exploring key bird habitats in northeastern Poland. PTOP guided us through several of their ongoing conservation efforts for breeding waders, and at the photo the group is inspecting the electric fences put up to keep four-legged predators away. Gródek area.

The annual spring flood of the Biebrza National Park in northeastern Poland typically occurs from March to May, peaking in April. Ruś area.

White Storks were seen all through the trip, and this individual sat on its nest in the Ruś area 13 April 2024.

The birding highlight, or at least one of them, was this adult Greater Spotted Eagle near the Siemianówka lake 12 April 2024. The bird was ringed, and we managed to read the code. It had been ringed in Belarus, not far from Siemianówka, a previous year. This was my first sighting of the species in Europe.