Denmark, Germany, Netherlands or Poland Late August/Early September (1 Viewer)

Hello,

I'm thinking of a short (2-week) trip to Denmark, Poland, via Netherlands & Germany late August/early September this year.

Of course it will totally depend upon travel restrictions.

I would really appreciate some help in findings some good sites for birding - I'm particularly intersted in seeing species that aren't common in UK, prefer wilder landscapes with fewer people.

Any thoughts would be appreciated with regards to destinations or websites that may give more info. Thanks ever so much.

In Poland you can still visit classical places like Białowieża forest and Bieszczady mountains for woodpeckers, grouse, big mammals etc. Biebrza marshes will have birds of prey in the Wizna part, and moose, plus migrating shorebirds along the river. Floodlands will be gone, of course, and waders and waterbirds with them. Most songbirds are still present at that time, but they will be difficult to see as not singing.

You can concentrate on numerous fish ponds and artificial reservoirs, like Siemianowka, Siemien etc., where there is passage of waterbirds, with species like black storks, caspian terns, broad-billed sandpipers.

Please note that seashore, Tatra mountains and any river or pond one can bathe in are full of holidaymakers in August. This often makes birding impossible.

For places, I suggest trying ebird or ornitho.pl. There is good birding in autumn in Poland, but it is not well described in foreign guidebooks.

In Netherlands etc., do not expect few people anywhere.

I'd say it depends a bit on how far you're willing to travel within those two weeks, and what your exact target species are.
For instance, Short-toed Treecreeper, Crested Tit, and Hawfinch are relatively easy to find in Germany, even here in my state, which is relatively close to your other target countries. Black and Middle Spotted Woodpeckers are also widespread and not terribly difficult, even though they're much easier to locate in spring. But some of the fancier candidates can only reliably be found in the Alps or eastern Poland, or are not present during that time of the year.

August/September is a toughie. The classic Poland things - Aquatic Warbler, Great Snipe, Thrush Nightingale - will be nigh impossible to find. There is obviously already migration and in September people will be going to Hel and Baltic coast for that, but many of the species are easier in the UK (because of the huge twitching support there) and Hel will still have bathing tourists early in September, making it a bit of .. hell . In any case it pays to look at www.clanga.com an Birding Poland Facebook to check for rarities in Poland at that time of the year.

Probably the most interesting thing to look for is the Great Grey Owl in Sobibor (I can PM you the exact place, but at this point, it's not that hard to figure out the "secret" online) which is resident, but even that is easier to find in spring. That area also has White-backed Woodpeckers, which you may run into year-round. The other owls will also be present - Pygmy, Boreal, Tawny in many places and Ural as a bonus in the south, but not vocal, so it's up to luck. September may be relatively good to look for Hazel Grouse in the forests.

If you just like good wide open nature, you are in luck, we have that. Come to Biebrza and visit any other place but Osowiec-Twierdza or Bagno Lawki and you will meet almost noone and see a lot of wild landscape, with a chance for Wolf or even Lynx, if you are into animals in general. Or try Knyszyn or Augustow foretsts for endless ... forest, there is simply a lot of room, but mainly in the eastern half of the country, which is a bit far from the rest of the journey.

The problem with me is that I am not sure what exactly are the species that aren't common in the UK and am always surprised by that

There is a number of ringing stations in Poland - on the Vistula mouth and inland - which you can visit, too.

@Jan: pygmy owl is actually vocal in autumn as much or more than in spring.

jurek said:

There is a number of ringing stations in Poland - on the Vistula mouth and inland - which you can visit, too.

@Jan: pygmy owl is actually vocal in autumn as much or more than in spring.

Click to expand...

Yeah, that's true, my mistake, they do the typical rising sequence song frequently in autumn. So it may be a good time for them actually.

Thanks- You have really tempted me to visit north East Poland ! Looks awesome

Any thoughts recommendations for Denmark pls?