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.