Trip Report Autumn Birds & Mammals 12-19 Sep 2015 8 Day Bird & Mammal Watching Tour in the Białowieża Forest and Biebrza Marshes

Trip report Autumn Birds & Mammals 12-19 Sep 2015 8 day Bird & mammal watching tour in the Białowieża Forest and Biebrza Marshes

Text and photographs by Łukasz Mazurek

Tour Leader: Łukasz (Lucas) Mazurek Participants: Thomas, Sherry (USA), Selina, Alain (CH), Willem (NL) Wildlife: 14 mammal and 97 bird species recorded, full checklist on page 9

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Day 1, Saturday 12th Sep - Warszawa to Białowieża

The meeting and pickup went smoothly but 2 pieces of luggage did not make it on time and were about to reach us on the next day. We set off and just outside the city had a nice lunch of traditional Polish schabowy with potatoes at a roadside bar. A few hours later, after checking in, a lovely dinner of Polish soup and meats was followed by a short introduction to the area and a talk over a map. Day 2, Sunday 13th Sep - Białowieża

The forecast was showing a bit of rain early morning so we decided to stay in beds until breakfast and thus have some rest after a travel day. First thing in the morning, we had a walk in the Wysokie Bagno Reserve and saw a selection of Tits, Pied Flycatchers and Great Spotted Woodpeckers. As we arrived back at our hotel for lunch we saw a Sparrowhawk chasing a few Marsh Tits in the hotel garden. The bags have arrived as promised, to the content of their owners and all of us. After a hearty lunch of potato pancakes we have continued in the forest, this time an old patch of a coniferous stand and saw a few Black Woodpeckers, in addition to Crested, Coal and Willow Tits, Nuthatch and Pied Flycatchers. We have also found some quite fresh Wolf territory marking - scratched ground that was an impressive view. Afterwards, we transferred to the central part of the forest for one of our most favourite trails leading to a large glade where we expected some Bison to come out at dusk. Didn’t have to wait long as after a few minutes upon our arrival there a herd slowly came out of the forest. They were shy and maybe smelled us, moved back into the forest but after a few minutes came out again and started grazing. A minimum of 8 Bison, mostly cows with young but also one large bull was there. We decided not to disturb them and slowly moved back. Several Black Woodpeckers were calling and ﬂying above our heads. Seeing this herd os Bison at sunset was a magical experience.

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On our way back a Pygmy Owl was calling in the distance so I whistled and it came right in giving smashing views in torchlight for a few minutes. Female Tawny Owl has also called but did not want to show. As we drove home for dinner a hind of Red Deer with young and a Red Fox had crossed our road just in front of the bus giving great views. Day 3, Monday 14th Sep - Białowieża

Early morning we had a short walk in the village that produced a Nuthatch, Siskins, Marsh Tits and a Red Squirrel. It was a bit windy so we decided to have a short visit in the forest. A short drive took us at a bridge in the bog alder forest where we could see 2 Black Woodpeckers, Long-tailed Tits and great long views of a Nutcracker perched atop a spruce tree. After the usual plentiful breakfast we had a walk in the Strict Protection Area of the National Park planned. At a short visit in the village Palace Park we heard a Middle Spotted and a Grey Headed Woodpecker. In the meadows on our way to the Strict Reserve we saw a Tree Pipit and while in the forest - an amazing and breathtaking habitat. But the most breathtaking thing that morning was the howling of a nearby pack of Wolves that we heard at the beginning of the walk, coming from inside the forest.

Our guide to the national park, Arek, explained the ecosystem complexity in detail and we also saw a Red Squirrel and a female Three-toed Woodpecker feeding that gave us great and long views. On our way back we saw a Grass Snake and a Red Fox in the meadows.

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We had lunch of sweet pancakes back at the guesthouse and after a short break moved back into the forest for an evening walk in the river valley. We saw a nice Honey Buzzard just over the road and a yet another Red Squirrel in the forest. On the walk we saw 2 more Red Squirrels, heard a Nutcracker, Green and Middle Spotted Woodpeckers, saw Wolf tracks, a ﬂock of Long-tailed Tits (white headed) and heard a yet another Nutcracker that within a few minutes came back and showed very well for a short time.

We decided to have a short peek at the glades in the river valley and within a few minutes of our arrival a herd of 26 Bison came out of the forest and we had a feast of great, long views until it was too dark to see. A great luck or maybe also a bit of the guide’s experience to visit the right spots at a right time ;) On our way back we also saw 2 Wild Boar, a Red Fox and a Stoat crossing our track.

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Day 4, Tuesday 15th Sep - Białowieża + Siemianówka Lake

Today, we started after breakfast and drove up north of the forest to spend the day out around the Siemianówka Reservoir. We stopped on the way at the meadows of Siemianowka village, saw 3 Common Buzzards, a Sparrowhawk, Whinchats and a Great Grey Shrike. Before lunch, we focused on the southern part of the lake where we have found 60+ Great White Egrets, 60+ Dunlin, 20+ Little Stint, 20+ Ringed Plovers, 300+ Lapwings, 8 Ruff, 1 Black Tern. Black-headed Gulls and Cormorants were also abundant. Linnets gave us great views in the village on the wires (online!) and we managed to identify and age a juvenile Caspian Gull. Next stop was the northern side where we stopped for lunch of sandwiches and freshly brewed coffee. Saw 2 Great Grey Shrikes there, a distant White-tailed Eagle, a Hobby and a Marsh Harrier. We also briefly stopped at a dam in Bondary and had some fantastic views of a Nutcracker collecting hazel nuts very near and a yet another distant White-tailed Eagle. On our way back we stopped at the southern side again and added 2 Grenshank, a flock of Goldfinch and a Penduline Tit heard, to our bird list. We decided to take an alternative, longer way home and it soon proved a good decision as Willem spotted a Bison at a small clearing in the forest we drove by. A huge Bison bull gave us all some great and long views. 2 Wild Boar also showed well on our way back. After the usual delicious and plentiful dinner we had a short night drive spotlighting for mammals and scored 10+ Red Deer, a few Wild Boar, and a Fox.

Day 5, Wednesday 16th Sep - Białowieża to Biebrza

After our last hearty Polish breakfast in Białowieża we packed our stuff and were on the way to the Biebrza Marshes. We brieﬂy stopped at one of the Ruthenian villages with colourful, wooden houses. Two other stops were dictated by 3 Lesser Spotted Eagles overhead with a Red-footed Falcon and followed by a pair of White Storks that were kind of late with their migration south and a nice surprise.

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We arrived at the fishponds near Knyszyn still before lunch and went for a walk. As we stood on the bank of a pond watching Little Grebes and Whooper Swans, a Great Bittern suddenly flew out of the reeds right in front of us, a fantastic observation. Other birds spotted there were Great Crested Grebes, Lapwings, Garganeys, 60+ Whooper Swans, Tree Sparrows, 2 White-tailed Eagles (this time very close), 20 Ruffs, one Wood Sandpiper and a Black-necked Grebe very near. We arrived at our guesthouse, checked in, had a short rest and a talk about our plans for the next days over a map and moved on for an evening walk in the marshes. It wasn’t long after we came out into the marsh that we heard Elks rutting and moaning and soon spotted a female followed by a large bull in the tall reeds. Further along the trail a yet another Elk bull following a cow with young came out very near but were quite shy and moved back into the willow shrub shortly. Cranes gave us a nice spectacle at sunset, flying in overhead to roost in the marsh. Happy, we got back for dinner on time and enjoyed the fresh home made food.

Day 6, Thursday 17th Sep - Biebrza Middle Basin

After breakfast that included gorgeous home cooked pancakes among lots of other stuff, we were ready to visit the Red Bog Reserve. Yellowhammers, Chaffinch and Mistle Thrush were perched up on the wires in the village right in front of our guesthouse. As we arrived in the reserve and parked the car, a flock of tits flew in and we had great views of Coal Tits and Willow Tits. During the walk we saw a Marsh Harrier and a Honey Buzzard while up at one of the viewing towers there - a total of 10 Common

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Buzzards and a yet another Marsh Harrier. We also saw 2 Fox, a Red Squirrel, Yellow Wagtail and 2 Grass Snakes. Interestingly, one of the Foxes tried to brake into our van, probably smelling our sandwiches we had there for lunch! We spent a bit more time at the reserve there, also investigating one of the largest known Beaver lodges, now abandoned as the stream completely dried out (very dry summer and autumn this year). We arrived back at the guesthouse right on time for dinner and were ready to go on a boat trip for spotting Beavers. A 30 minutes drive through the marsh took us onto the river edge and we boarded our ﬂat bottomed boat steered by 2 boat men. As it got dark the ﬁrst Beavers started showing up, coming out to the shores to groom their fur and feed on twigs. We had excellent views of several animals very near in torchlight and everyone was very happy. A Tawny Owl was calling near our bus and with a bit of effort we managed to spot 2 Owls in torchlight after a while.

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We started early with an Elk Patrol down the Csar’s Road and a few of the watchtowers in the southern basin. We managed to miss a Wolf (a friend saw one about half hour after we left the place) but otherwise it was quite a successful morning with Elks, Roe Deer, Foxes, Montagu’s Harrier, Great Grey and Red-backed Shrike. After the usual hearty breakfast we went on a drive around the best sites of the southern basin of the Biebrza. We saw some fantastic landscapes and a huge variety of habitats with great birds. Some of the species seen included: Black Stork, White-tailed and Lesser Spotted Eagles, Marsh Harrier, Middle Spotted Woodpecker, Great Grey Shrike and over 300 Cranes ﬂying over the marsh at sunset. A nice Spadefoot toad and a few distant Elks at sunset were also a nice touch to our last full day of the tour.

Day 8, Saturday 19th Sep - Biebrza to Warsaw

We had a short walk in the hotel area before breakfast and saw some Common Buzzards, Chafﬁnches, Linnets, Black Redstarts, Nuthatch, Lesser Spotted and Grey Headed Woodpeckers. After our last Polish substantial breakfast we packed and headed towards Warsaw, spotting some Ravens and a Red Kite (a rarity here!) on the way. We arrived at Warsaw Old town on time and had a nice walk showing some of the most important monuments and buildings followed by lunch of some traditional jewish

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Checklist F - footprints H - heard +, ++ - common, very common Mammals

Species name Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 SUM

European Bison Bison bonasus 8 26 1 3

Red Deer Cervus elaphus 2 H H H H 5

Roe Deer Capreolus capreolus 1 1 F 11 4

Wild Boar Sus scrofa 2 2 2

Elk Alces Alces 6 1 10 3

Wolf Canis lupus F H Poo 3

Red Fox Vulpes vulpes 1 2 3 3 7 1 6

Racoon Dog Nyctereutes procyonoides 1 1

Badger Meles meles F 1 2

Stoat Mustela erminea 1 1

Weasel Mustela nivalis 1 1

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Species name Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 SUM

European Beaver Castor fiber 1 6 2

Red Squirrel Sciurus vulgarus 5 1 2

Arvicola sp 1 1

Number of species: 1 4 8 3 6 9 4 1 14

BIRDS

Species name Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 SUM

017 Black-necked Grebe Podiceps nigricollis 1 1

017 Little Grebe / Dabchick Tachybaptus ruficollis 5 1

019 Great Crested Grebe Podiceps cristatus 7 1

029 Great Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo 45 1

031 Great / Eurasian Bittern Botaurus stellaris 1 1

033 Great White Egret Egretta alba 1 70 12 1 4

035 Grey Heron Ardea cinerea 10 6 2

035 White Stork Ciconia ciconia 2 1

035 Black Stork Ciconia nigra 4 1

039 Mute Swan Cygnus olor 5 7 1 3

039 Whooper Swan Cygnus cygnus 65 1

043 Greylag Goose Anser anser 4 1

049 Mallard Anas platyrhynchos 2 12 20 12 2 5

053 Garganey Anas querquedula 5 1

075 White-tailed Eagle Haliaeetus albicilla 2 2 3 3

079 Lesser Spotted Eagle Aquila pomarina 3 2 2

085 Red Kite Milvus milvus 1 1

085 Marsh-Harrier Circus aeruginosus 2 2 1 3

087 Montagu's Harrier Circus pygargus 2 1

091 Common Buzzard Buteo buteo 1 3 2 3 10 6 3 7

091 European Honey-Buzzard Pernis apivorus 1 1 2

093 Sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus 1 2 3 4 4

095 Common / Eurasian Kestrel Falco tinnunculus 2 2 2

095 Red-footed Falcon Falco vespertinus 1 1

097 Northern / Eurasian Hobby Falco subbuteo 1 1 2

111 Grey Partridge Perdix perdix 15 1

117 Common Moorhen Gallinula chloropus 1 1

117 Common / Eurasian Coot Fulica atra 40 1

119 Common Crane Grus grus 30 4 300 3

129 Common Ringed Plover Charadrius hiaticula 23 1

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Species name Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 SUM

137 Northern Lapwing Vanellus vanellus 20 300 500+ 3

141 Dunlin Calidris alpina 63 1

143 Little Stint Calidris minuta 24 1

145 Wood Sandpiper Tringa glareola 1 1

147 Common Greenshank Tringa nebularia 3 1

157 Ruff Philomachus pugnax 8 20 2

171 Black-headed Gull Larus ridibundus 100 5 2 3

175 European Herring Gull Larus argentatus 2 1

175 Caspian Gull Larus cachinnans 1 1

193 Black Tern Chlidonias niger 1 1

201 Feral Pigeon Columba livia feral 6 4 12 1 ++ 5

201 Wood Pigeon Columba palumbus 2 1 2 1 4

203 Collared Dove Streptopelia decaocto 2 3 2 3

207 Tawny Owl Strix aluco 1 H 3 3

211 Pygmy-Owl Glaucidium passerinum 1 1

225 Black Woodpecker Dryocopus martius 8 3 H 2H 4

225 Green Woodpecker Picus viridis H 1

225 Grey-headed Woodpecker Picus canus H 1 2

227 Great Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopos major 4 1 1 H 2 5

227 Middle Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopos medius H 1 2

229 Three-toed Woodpecker Picoides tridactylus 1 1

229 Lesser Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopos minor 1 H 1 3

233 Woodlark Lullula arborea H 1

243 Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica 12 20 300 300 100 100 6

243 Northern House-Martin Delichon urbicum 1 2 2

249 Tree Pipit Anthus trivialis 1 1

251 White Wagtail Motacilla alba 3 12 6 1 4 6 6

253 Yellow Wagtail Motacilla flava 1 1

255 Wren Troglodytes troglodytes 6 3 2 2 4

259 European Robin Erithacus rubecula 2 1 3 1 4

263 Black Redstart Phoenicurus ochruros 1 3 2

273 Whinchat Saxicola rubetra 6 1

275 Song Thrush Turdus philomelos 1 1 H 3

275 Mistle Thrush Turdus viscivorus 3 1

275 Fieldfare Turdus pilaris 2 1

277 Blackbird Turdus merula 6 2 2 6 6 10 2 7

307 Chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita 2 1 6 6 4

311 Goldcrest Regulus regulus 1 1

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Species name Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 SUM

315 Pied-Flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca 3 3 2

317 Great Tit Parus major 6 3 1 1 2 5

317 Coal Tit Periparus ater 1 4 2

317 Blue Tit Cyanistes caeruleus 3 1 6 6 3 1 6

319 Crested Tit Lophophanes cristatus 3 1

319 Willow Tit Poecile montanus 1 4 2 3

319 Marsh Tit Poecile palustris 4 1 2

321 Long-tailed Tit Aegithalos caudatus 8 H 2

321 Penduline Tit Remiz pendulinus H 1

323 Nuthatch Sitta europaea 6 3 1 H 1 5

325 Treecreeper Certhia familiaris 1 1

327 Red-backed Shrike Lanius collurio 1 1 2

329 Northern / Great Grey Shrike Lanius excubitor 4 2 2

331 Magpie Pica pica 2 4 2 6 6 5

333 Jay Garrulus glandarius 12 30 20 12 6 12 10 7

333 Nutcracker Nucifraga caryocatactes 3 1 2

335 Jackdaw Corvus monedula 200 6 300 10 ++ 5

337 Rook Corvus frugilegus 6 50 ++ 3

337 Hooded Crow Corvus cornix 12 1 12 + 4

337 Raven Corvus corax 3 2 20 4 20 30 6

341 Starling Sturnus vulgaris 12 12 20 400 30 100 ++ 7

343 House Sparrow Passer domesticus 12 2 30 3

343 Tree-Sparrow Passer montanus 20 1

347 Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs 30 1 8 12 2 3 6

349 Linnet Carduelis cannabina 33 3 2

351 Goldfinch Carduelis carduelis 20 2 2

351 Siskin Carduelis spinus 12 20 2

355 Hawfinch Coccothraustes coccothraustes 1 1

373 Yellowhammer Emberiza citrinella 2 6 4 6 6 3 6

Number of species: 7 35 28 41 46 26 37 29 97

OTHER

Species name Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 SUM

Common frog 2 1 2

Dung beetles 30 30 2

Red admiral 1 1

Grass snake 1 2 1 4 4

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Species name Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 SUM

Common toads 2 1

Comma butterfly 1 1

Red admiral 2 1

Tree frogs H 1

Marsh frog 6 1

Peacock 1 1

Fritillary Sp. 6 1

Brimstone 2 1

Spadefoot 1 1

Moor frog 1 1

Number of species: 0 3 4 4 3 3 2 0 14

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