My recent visit to Poland was largely a family holiday, with family reasons for being in Poland, but that doesn’t mean that all birdwatching was out of the question. In fact I spent some time in the totally wonderful Bialowieza Forest.
There is plenty of forest in the area but the strict reserve is only enterable with a guide. Here we are at the entrance:
And a few paces on into the forest:
We didn’t see any spectacular mammals but the birds were good: Lesser-spotted Eagle, Red-breasted Flycatcher, Collared Flycatcher, White-backed Woodpecker, Middle Spotted Woodpecker and Three-toed Woodpecker in the forests.
But it was the habitat and the forest as a whole which really made the impact. This is one of the least de-wilded places in Europe. All we Europeans should treasure it.
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I and group of friends went into that same piece of forest in 2002. It is simply awe inspiring, I described it as walking in natures cathedral, an utterly magic experience. Rather like you we saw almost the same bird species except White backed Woodpecker, which we fortunately saw elsewhere. We were in Poland I think for 8 or nine days and it was simply marvellous, lots of marsh terns, raptors, woodpeckers, dragonflies, Beaver and European Bison but that early morning visit to the strict reserve was the best of all.
And we should have such fabulous places here, but we don’t.
I have visited the strict reserve and as you say Mark it is a wonderful Reserve and a credit to all those Polish people who so hard to protect it. One of those is Marek Borkowski both in respect of the forest and the marsh.
Pity We has trashed our Uk habitat so much