opisska
rabid twitcher
I have been "living in Poland" for almost 4 years by now and I have done a fair share of birding outings around the country in the meanwhile. But in the past years, I also had to go to the Czech Republic often and traveled to various parts of the world, typically not leaving a large chunk of spring to dedicate to Poland (in particular because northern spring is so good for WP birding elsewhere).
And then came corona and the (ridiculous, if you ask me) border closures - in any case, this year, I simply had to be in Poland, so I took the chance to enjoy it is much as possible. Between May 12 and June 7, we have spent almost 17 days traveling around the country, in three trips - to Podlasie (NE), Lubelczczyna (SE) and Pomorze (N) regions for 4.5,4.5 and 8 days.
On those trips, we have recorded 123,98 and 128 species respectively, making for 166 species in total. These are still rookie numbers, but as we are (finally, after almost 10 years of birding) slowly improving, these are the best lists we ever accumulated in Poland or anywhere in central Europe for that matter. It also shows that Poland is a great birding destination - it is true that our "trip" was spread over 4 weeks, but there were probably not that many species that we would have missed if we started later and done it consecutively - after all, 74 species were seen during all three trips (while 19 species only in Podlasie, 9 only in Lubelszczyna and 30 only in Pomorze). To be fair though, I am talking about something around 4000 kms in a car here - yes, Poland is surprisingly big!
We have taken looking for birds quite casually, mostly just enjoying the landscape and also looking for mammals often through late evenings (leading to sleeping in), but I have to admit that on all three trips, we have kept a list and once we started seeing the numbers growing, we also started to ask ourselves questions such as "we haven't seen a Robin yet, what would be a good site?" which we otherwise wouldn't.
This year has been unusual, not only because of corona - the entirety of April was extremely sunny and warm (but we were mostly locked down through it), then some rains came and May was pretty sunny again, but very unusually cold. That created really pleasant conditions to be out (I am a really big fan of blue skies without heat) but the previous drought meant that a lot of places where you would expect water in early May were completely dry - the big spring water show on Biebrza was simply cancelled. On the flip side, they were no mosquitoes until mid-May and even now the situation is incomparably better to a normal year.
I am planning to make a series of posts, casually depicting the highlights of our journeys, but don't expect a detailed diary with an account of all the species from me. Any questions will be very much welcome though.
And then came corona and the (ridiculous, if you ask me) border closures - in any case, this year, I simply had to be in Poland, so I took the chance to enjoy it is much as possible. Between May 12 and June 7, we have spent almost 17 days traveling around the country, in three trips - to Podlasie (NE), Lubelczczyna (SE) and Pomorze (N) regions for 4.5,4.5 and 8 days.
On those trips, we have recorded 123,98 and 128 species respectively, making for 166 species in total. These are still rookie numbers, but as we are (finally, after almost 10 years of birding) slowly improving, these are the best lists we ever accumulated in Poland or anywhere in central Europe for that matter. It also shows that Poland is a great birding destination - it is true that our "trip" was spread over 4 weeks, but there were probably not that many species that we would have missed if we started later and done it consecutively - after all, 74 species were seen during all three trips (while 19 species only in Podlasie, 9 only in Lubelszczyna and 30 only in Pomorze). To be fair though, I am talking about something around 4000 kms in a car here - yes, Poland is surprisingly big!
We have taken looking for birds quite casually, mostly just enjoying the landscape and also looking for mammals often through late evenings (leading to sleeping in), but I have to admit that on all three trips, we have kept a list and once we started seeing the numbers growing, we also started to ask ourselves questions such as "we haven't seen a Robin yet, what would be a good site?" which we otherwise wouldn't.
This year has been unusual, not only because of corona - the entirety of April was extremely sunny and warm (but we were mostly locked down through it), then some rains came and May was pretty sunny again, but very unusually cold. That created really pleasant conditions to be out (I am a really big fan of blue skies without heat) but the previous drought meant that a lot of places where you would expect water in early May were completely dry - the big spring water show on Biebrza was simply cancelled. On the flip side, they were no mosquitoes until mid-May and even now the situation is incomparably better to a normal year.
I am planning to make a series of posts, casually depicting the highlights of our journeys, but don't expect a detailed diary with an account of all the species from me. Any questions will be very much welcome though.
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