Bialoweiza Forest, 28-30 April 2018
A work trip to the UK afforded the chance of a short spring birding trip to Europe. I harboured ideas of owls in Finland and almost had something lined up to go with Tom Bedford using local guides Finnature. However when I finally spoke to the Finnature people on the phone after protracted email correspondence, to their credit they recommended we “postpone” (in full knowledge this would mean “cancel”). The end of April, early May is still too early for owls to have been pinned down in their breeding ranges and it would be a lot of money and time with a high chance of dipping on at east one and maybe more of the key targets. Ironically this has turned out to be the best owl year in the last quarter of a century in Finland. I was just a week too early, but had no choice with my dates.
I was still keen to get away somewhere but had little time or energy for the research needed for a new destination, so narrowed my focus on a few places I’d been before, settling on Bialoweiza Forest in eastern Poland (see trip report from there with Tom in May 2011, https://cs.adelaide.edu.au/~ianr/Birding/Reports/Poland%202011.pdf)
My early morning flight from Heathrow arrived at 10.30 and by 11.30 I had collected luggage, Polish cash and my car hire and was on my way to Bialoweiza, some 3 ½ hours away.
I was aware that this weekend would be a bit early for some of the spring migrants such as River Warbler that I would have liked to see again, and Icterine Warbler, which embarrassingly I have never seen. But I was unprepared for how busy Bialoweiza would be. In retrospect I realize this was because May 1st (International Workers Day) is a huge holiday in the old eastern bloc countries and many people will have taken Monday 30th April off work to gain a 4-day weekend. This made booking accommodation tricky but I eventually got something at the adequate, but hardly inspiring, Bierozka.
Having checked in to the hotel I drove around the village to reacquaint myself with the geography. I grabbed a mid-afternoon pizza as my combined lunch/dinner and ate it in the Palace Gardens while Wood Warblers and Song Thrush sang and I grabbed my first views and pics of Collared Flycatchers. A Great Reed Warbler chuntered down by the lake.
At the SE edge of the village I parked in the small carpark at Wysokie Bagno, then walked the entire loop starting with the road to Narew Bridge then into the forest and back to the car. It was pretty quiet, I guess being mid-late afternoon. In the forest at the southern end of the trail I found a pair of Middle-spotted Woodpecker, but walked the rest of the trail seeing not much else of note until back at the car early evening, about 45mins before sunset.
My evening agenda was owling. At Sinica Droga, I looked and listened unsuccessfully for Pygmy Owl, then as the sun was setting I drove further into the forest to the spot Tom and I had heard but failed to see Tengmalm’s Owl 7 years previously. A Woodcock roded over, then just after dark, my weak playback on the phone was answered by a singing Tenglmalm’s! It was not far away and then it came even closer, apparently right next to the track where I stood, but I couldn’t pin it down before it went back a bit deeper into the forest and then went silent. I was left ruing (yet again) my inadequate owling skills.
I waited for 30 mins and then, to my relief, it started singing again. Stumbling in the dark through the dense undergrowth I made my way into the forest and was able to pinpoint the tree it was in, however still I could see nothing and I felt like I was reliving the experience from 7 years ago, in almost exactly the same spot. It felt like I tried every conceivable angle, moving closer, moving further away, looking straight up, etc. Still the bird sang away, taunting me. Finally after more than 20mins of this, standing almost directly under the tree and looking straight up, though a narrow gap I caught glimpse of movement, and then some eye-shine. As I shone the torch up through the gap I could see a cute little Tengmalm’s Owl craning its neck around trying to work out what the light was. The viewing wasn’t great, really rather underwhelming for a lifer, but I balanced the torch and bins and tried hard to stay as steady as possible, regulating my breathing, even though my neck was craning and heart pounding. Then just as I decided I would risk losing sight to try for a pic he decided he’s had enough and flew off deeper into the forest. Happy, but not elated, I retreated to the hotel for some well-earned rest.
29 April
The next morning, after seeing a couple of Bison on the field opposite the hotel, I drove to Zebra Zubra, one of the most famous trails in Bialoweiza but one Tom and I had not explored. I spent around 2 hours from dawn onwards walking the boardwalk through beautiful forest. The first 200m were the birdiest, with many Wood Warblers, and both Middle-spotted and Lesser-Spotted Woodpeckers seen. About 600m from the carpark on the longest stretch of boardwalk I thought I heard a faint high pitched call. Hazel Grouse?
A burst of playback and then all of a sudden there was a whirr of wings. Pigeon? No, it had a barred tail. Sparrowhawk? Too chunky. Click, click, the cogs whirred and then the penny dropped – Hazel Grouse. Why it took so long to piece together when I’d been playing the call I don’t know.
I scanned with bins and picked out a shape standing on a moss-covered fallen log, dappled by the sun filtering down through the canopy. A superb male grouse – you beauty! Over the next few minutes I had views and managed photos of varying quality as he circled me, kept interested by occasional playback. When after a while he flew up and landed on the boardwalk, and I managed unobscured full-frame shots, I left him in peace and bounded back to the car.
In roadside bushes near the village of Teremiski I found both Garden Warbler and Lesser White-throat. A Savi’s Warbler was singing from reeds north of Budy Bridge but otherwise it was not very birdy here, before I made my way back to the hotel for a somewhat underwhelming breakfast.
Back at Narew Bridge around 9.15am it was much more alive than yesterday. Four Wryneck were very vocal, and chased each other across the river and back. Several Thrush Nightingales sang from dense cover and I tried hard to get views, because this was the second of the potential lifers on offer. One was seen flying across the road but I would have to wait until the next morning for good views. Tits were to the fore (phnarr, phnarr), with Blue, Great and Willow, but best of all a superb Long-tailed Tit, my first ever of the caudatus, race from northern Europe, with a clean white head.
A White Stork was and a couple of Mute Swans were the only avian interest in an hour spent in a tower overlooking Teremiski Meadows. Maybe Lesser Spotted Eagles were not back yet?
I grabbed another pizza for a late afternoon lunch early dinner and sat in the tower at Mostowa St. Sedge Warblers sang from the reeds, but the most interesting birds here were Waxwings, a flock of around a dozen were in a tree next to the tower.
For a couple of hours mid/late-afternoon I wandered about at Site 15 in Lucasz’ guide, described as having ideal Three-toed Woodpecker habitat. Numerous dead spruce certainly seemed promising for Three-toed but Great-spotted Woodpecker was the only woodpecker I saw. A couple of Ravens held an aerial battle with a couple of Hobby, and a Black Woodpecker called distantly but was not seen. Best birds here were several Hawfinch, and at one point a Nutcracker flew over the track but landed out of sight.
As afternoon drew towards evening I drove back to Budy Bridge. It was still relatively unexciting there until around 6pm, I heard the unmistakable song of a Pygmy Owl. It sang sporadically over the next 30mins, but never more than a few notes and never coming closer in response to my playback. It would have to go down as h.o.
However as I drove back to Bialoweiza village (via Budy), I noticed some birders on a forest trail just off the road – pretty-much the first birders I’d seen today. As I slowed the car I could hear a more regular, repetitious piping of Pygmy Owl. Once I had “crashed” their party, I realized two things: (i) this was the Szymuras, Arek and Mateusz, and they were with paying punters; (ii) the piping I could hear was in fact Arek whistling, not a real Owl. Nevertheless I naughtily loitered by the edge of the group. Another Woodcock flew over, and then after 15mins Mateusz excitedly called the group – a Pygmy Owl had just flown in and was about 15m away. Beauty!
Later, I returned to last night’s Tengmalm’s spot, hoping for some images, but after an hour in which I saw yet another Woodcock and heard a Tawny Owl I decided to knock it on the head.
30th April
Though delighted by photo opportunities with Pygmy Owl and Hazel Grouse, I had been surprised and disappointed at how difficult the woodpeckers had been. Black was heard only, and I’d had no sniff of Three-toed, Grey-headed or White-backed. The previous evening Mateusz commented they are hard this year, and suggested that the Spruce stands in Wysokie Bagno were my best bet for Three-toed.
I was up just pre-dawn and then spent the next 2-3 hours walking the WB trail in a clockwise direction and then back again anti-clockwise. I found lots of Great-spotted Woodpeckers and a lovely Crested Tit, as well as the ubiquitous but very nice Wood Warblers.
A possible Hazel grouse sang from an ideal looking spot but could not be seen. Finally my perseverance was rewarded with a Grey-headed Woodpecker
then a quick walk up beyond Narew Bridge gave me photo ops of a Thrush Nightingale, particularly gratifying to get nice views of Luscinia luscinia, having seen several of this iconic family in Sichuan 2 years previous in China.
Retracing my steps back along the Wysokie Bagno trail I kept hearing the sharp call of Great-spotted (though the local Chaffinch accent involves a remarkably similar chip at the end of its song). When one call sounded slightly flatter the pulse jumped a few bpm and I quickly found a fabulous male White-backed Woodpecker. A few minutes later I also found a female.
After breakfast I visited the tower on Mostowa St again and enjoyed a very pleasant time walking back and forth along the road picking up a series of nice birds including Golden Oriole, Red-backed Shrike, Whitethroat, and White-Wagtail, though still no raptors.
It was now early afternoon and time for me to set out back to Warsaw for my evening flight after a very enjoyable 48hours in Bialoweiza. By midnight I was back in Oxford, and packing for my next flight, back to Australia, early the next morning!
