Eastern European Birding Sites?

[jgrnot]

Hello All,

It appears that work may take me to Eastern Europe this fall, and I was wondering if anyone knew of some great birding sites in Eastern Europe?

Also, any species updates would be great too.

Thank you,
Jgrnot

[njlarsen]

Hello All,

It appears that work may take me to Eastern Europe this fall, and I was wondering if anyone knew of some great birding sites in Eastern Europe?

Also, any species updates would be great too.

Thank you,
Jgrnot

This is a little like asking for good sites between California and the Alaskan border. Any chance you can be more specific?

Niels

[Jos Stratford]

As Niels points out, 'Eastern Europe' is rather vague and encompasses a dozen or so countries. More specifics would be useful.

[albatross02]

As Niels points out, 'Eastern Europe' is rather vague and encompasses a dozen or so countries. More specifics would be useful.

Hi,

it is a big area ( big part of Russia included until mountains of Ural and Kaukasia ). Sometimes the transport ( public and streets ) are much different from US and Western Europe.
For some countries You need a visa.
One of easiest bird watching place to reach, is in Poland, Wartha river mouth nationalparc. It is just 1,5 h with car from Berlin city centre.
How much time do You have ?
Buy the way the area around Berlin is not bad in fall ( escpecially between end of September and begin of November ). Because we are an transit country ( e.g. 2. biggist crane place of Europe, just 60 km from Berlin ).


Best regards
Dieter

[jurek]

Poland is enough for several weeks of good, intensive birding. You can see my old webpage:

http://www.birding.gt.pl

[jgrnot]

Hello All,

Thank you for the responses and I apologize about not specifying the areas that I will be in. I will most certainly be in Poland, probably Romania, and potentially Macedonia and Hungary. I didn't want to overload everyone due to the volume of the places. I may also be in the Netherlands and Switzerland, but probably won't have too much time there.

Again, I look forward to any advice you have.

Jgrnot

[wintibird]

Romania: The Danube delta, one of the best places in Europe for migration. Waterfowl, Waders (almost everything), passerines... Best time would be from mid-August to october, perhaps early november. I had good experience with ibistours (www.ibis-tours.ro (http://www.ibis-tours.ro) ). You will also find general informations on their site.
Hungary: Hortobagy National park is very nice in autumn as well (up to 20'000 Cranes, Imperial Eagle, Saker, Great Bustard,.....), also the mountains north of the park (Zemplen) is very good woodland for woodpeckers and owls.
Poland: For migration in autumn almost every river mouth can be great, the Hel peninsula is famous and the forest of Bialowieza stands out for woodland species (owls, woodpecker, hazel hen,...). But of course there is much more.
A good site for finding places in Europe is www.fatbirder.com (http://www.fatbirder.com). Go there to World birding and you will find useful links and informations.

If you're coming to Switzerland and you'll have some time, PM me. Maybe we can arrange something.

Greetings
André

[jgrnot]

Andre,

Thank you for all of the information. It will take some time to review, and it definitely sounds exciting. I am still in the planning stages of my trip, but it sounds like my timing couldn't be any better (September).

I'll let you know if Switzerland is indeed in the plans, but our corporate folks love it there and they always try to schedule events there. I have never been, but everything I hear, read, and see makes it look great.

Jgrnot

[njlarsen]

Try take a look at http://www.birdguides.com/estore/browse.asp?cat=30 for some inexpensive small booklets with "Where to" type of information. They have in the past been critizised for being a little dated, however. Trip reports from the usual sites also will work for a lot of these places.

Hungary and Poland are still on my "to do" list ...

Niels

[bszigeti]

Hi,for birding sites in Eastern Europe lokk around in
http://www.ecotours.hu/