Poland July - August 2007, Dojlidy Fish Ponds

During the family holiday we also visited Bialistok, so I paid this birding site a short visit. It is famous being a good spot to see all five European grebe species together. Furthermore Little Crakes, White-tailed Eagles, Ospreys and several tern species can be seen here. The Dojlidy Fish ponds are located just outside of the city and are easily reached by car. How to reach the fish ponds by other ways of transport I don't know as I visited this by car. There are several trails leading around the fishponds, enabling birders to check to ponds from various angles. Unfortunately all the species mentioned above proved not to be present during mid August. Furthermore I only saw a single grebe species: Great Crested Grebe. Besides some tame juvenile Red-backed Shrikes there was little else worth noting. I guess this site is well worth your time in spring, but in my opinion it can be skipped during summer. This blog post and other posts concerning my visit to Poland can be downloaded as PDF file here.

Juvenile Red-backed Shrike (Lanius collurio)

Poland July - August 2007, Biebrza National Park

During the summer of 2007 I spent my holiday with my parents in Poland. After a while I managed to convince them to take a detour, so we could visit the Biebrza national park. We spent three days within the national park. I can't say how easy it is to reach this park by public transport or how to get around within the park, as we did everything by our own car. Even though August is not the prime time for the birds here (for example most warblers are silent, Corn Crake is silent, Great Snipe is more or less impossible and all the terns were gone) we managed to observe several interesting species.

The first day was spent in the South Eastern part of the national park. There was a board walk leading from the road towards the East into the Marshes. We checked out these marches carefully as they looked suitable for Aquatic Warblers and towards the end of the boardwalk we were proven right. We got to enjoy five of these beautiful birds while they were singing around us. This was surprising for it was rather late in the year. Other birds of interest observed here included Montagu's Harrier, Great Grey Shrike and Spotted Nutcracker.

Adult Aquatic Warbler (Acrocephalus paludicola)

Adult Aquatic Warbler (Acrocephalus paludicola)

Great Grey Shrike (Lanius excubitor)

The next morning we spent a bit further North, but still in the Southern part of the national park. Here was a place that was quite good (according to locals) to see Greater Spotted Eagles. Unfortunately it was very rainy and misty that day and no eagle showed itself. However we got to enjoy a female Eurasian Elk and a calling Thrush Nightingale.

Female (Alces Alces) Eurasian Elk

The next day we went to the Northern part of the national park into an area called the Red Marsh. Here we enjoyed lots of good birds, including a male Montagu's Harrier, a female Barred Warbler, Eurasian Hoopoes and loads of Common Cranes and White-tailed Eagles. However best of all were the two Greater Spotted Eagles that flew over and allowed reasonable views. We even could exclude Greater Spotted Eagle X Lesser Spotted Eagle hybrids, as both birds were tagged with satellite transmitters and their antennas were clearly visible! We stayed in the area until the evening and when it got dark we even heard an Eurasian Eagle-owl calling and observed several European Nightjars!

A crappy record shot of one of the Greater Spotted Eagles (Clanga Clanga)

Common Crane (Grus grus) in the typical Biebrza setting

This park is truly a magical place and I can recommend to everybody to visit it. However, as lucky as we were with the species we saw, I still feel that this park should be visited in spring when much more specialties can be observed and the bird activity is truly at is peak. This blog post and other posts concerning my visit to Poland can be downloaded as PDF file here.

Poland July - August 2007, Masuria

During the summer holidays I visited Poland together with my family. The majority of our time in Poland was spent in Masuria. This is a very beautiful area in North Poland, dotted with countless lakes and old growth forests. Although it is not on the "birder radar" and we did not spent much of our time birding, it proved to hold several interesting bird species. We had based ourselves in a nice home-stay in Ruciane-Nida, a small town in the South of the area. All sites mentioned here are easily reached by car, however I do not know how to get there by other means of transport,

Even simply around the town several nice bird species could be observed with ease. The garden of our home-stay held Spotted Nutcracker, Hawfinch, Spotted Flycatcher, Common Redstart, Whinchat, Red-backed Shrike and several species of Woodpecker, including Middle Spotted Woodpecker. Furthermore White Storks seemed to be the most common bird in the village as well as in the entire area.

Middle Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos medius)

Spotted Nutcracker (Nucifraga caryocatactes)

White Stork (Ciconia ciconia)

A visit to the lake Jezioro Mokre, that lies to the east of Ruciane-Nida proved a good site to look at soaring raptors. Several White-tailed Eagles (both adult and sub-adult), some Northern Goshawks, some Western Marsh Harriers and a single Lesser Spotted Eagle were observed here.

Lesser Spotted Eagle (Clanga pomerina)

Subadult White-tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla)

The small Jezioro Luknajno proved a good spot for marsh bird like Common Crane, Western Marsh Harrier, Savi's, Grasshopper and Marsh Warbler, next to some nice European Golden Orioles, Middle Spotted Woodpeckers and Red Kites. Furthermore a small peninsula on the south shore of the gigantic Jezioro Sniarwy held more Savi's Warblers and Common Cranes, next to some Great Reed Warblers and Eurasian Penduline Tits. The lake itself also held Goosander and Common Goldeneye.

Common Cranes (Grus grus) in flight

In total we observed almost a hundred species in the Masuria area, so even though it is not a classic Polish birding site, I found it surprisingly entertaining, Furthermore it is a very scenic area, so if you are looking for a site to extend your stay in Poland, Look no further! This blog post and other posts concerning my visit to Poland can be downloaded as PDF file here.

Egypt December 2006 - January 2007, Hurghada

After the Nile Cruise, we spent a couple of days at the beach in Hurghada. Here we spent most of the time at the beach and just relaxed. This city is very easily reached as it has its own international airport. However we still managed to see several Red Sea specialties. Some of those could be easily seen just from the Hurghada beaches like Red Sea (Western) Reef Heron, White-eyed Gull and Striated Heron. We also spent one day snorkeling and for that we went out onto the Red Sea. During this trip we also saw some interesting birds including White-eyed, Sooty, Yellow-legged, Caspian and Armenian Gull, Lesser Crested Tern and Osprey.

Lesser Crested Tern (Thalasseus bengalensis)

Red Sea Reef Egret (Egretta (gularis) schistacea)

White-eyed Gull (Larus leucophtalma)

For birders who keep a WP list, Hurghada as a very accessible place to see some Red Sea specialties without major difficulties. However besides that and the beaches there is very little of interest. I would not even recommend the snorkeling here as most of the coral is already dead.
This post and other posts concerning my trip to Egypt can be downloaded as a PDF file here.

Egypt December 2006 - January 2007, Nile Valley

During late December and early I spent my holiday with my parents. They had booked a Nile cruise starting in Luxor and ending in Aswan. This Nile Cruise took four days. During those four days we stopped at many historically and archaeologically interesting spots at places like Esna, Edfu and Kom Ombo. These sites are of course breathtakingly interesting, but next to visiting archaeological sites I spent most of my time, both on board and off board, looking at birds. The Nile cruise proved to be a rather convenient way to get a good look at both the local waterbirds as well many migrants.

During those four days resident birds like Brown-necked Raven, Pale Crag-martin, Laughing Dove, Pallid Swift, Pied Kingfisher, Egyptian Goose, African Swamphen, Common Bulbul, Greater Flamingo, White-tailed Lapwing, Spur-winged Lapwing, Black-winged and Yellow-billed Kite were much enjoyed. However the best find of all was an African Skimmer at Kom Ombo, which was resting in between Gull-billed Terns! Obviously the boat did not stop for this critter, so I got to enjoy this bird for a rather brief period.

African Skimmer (Rhynchops flavirostris) together with Gull-billed Terns (Gelchelidon nilotica) and Northern Shovelers (Anas clypeata) in the foreground. 

Pied Kingfisher (Ceryle rudis)

Brown-necked Raven (Corvus ruficollis)

Yellow-billed Kite (Milvus aegyptius)

Next to the resident birds, myriads of winter visitors could be seen on and around the Nile. Large groups of Eurasian Wigeons, Northern Pintails, Common Shelducks, Ferruginous Ducks, Northern Shovelers, Tufted Ducks, Eurasian Teal and Eurasian Coots were regularly encountered. Waders were also present everywhere and Black-tailed Godwit, Marsh Sandpiper, Spotted Redshank, Little Stint, Black-winged Stilt, Common Ringed Plover and Green Sandpiper among others were observed almost all the time. White-winged Terns were also omnipresent together with Gull-billed Terns. Larger migrants included Osprey, Great White Pelican and Glossy Ibis.

Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)

I did enjoy the Nile cruise, but now I think for birders it would be much wiser to visit several sites at the Nile, simply by car, so you can observe birds longer, scan groups more carefully and search more focused to find rarities. This approach will undoubtedly yield more and rarer species as well as better and longer views. This post and other posts concerning my trip to Egypt can be downloaded as a PDF file here.

Typical view from the boat. Eurasian Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia), Eurasian Teal (Anas crecca), African Swamhen (Porphyrio madagascariensis), Black-winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus) and Egyptian Goose (Alopochen aegyptiaca)