Walking The Iron Curtain and the Curonian Spit..... (3 Viewers)

[rollingthunder]

An atmospheric 3-parter from The BBC World Service.

BBC series about the European Green Belt: Walking on the Iron Curtain

The BBC World Service produced three episodes about the European Green Belt. All episodes are available online after broadcast.

www.europeangreenbelt.org

Full of sounds both of wildlife and the people that care passionately about it. Walking (and talking) the former Eastern bloc borderlands where wildlife and rewilding are taking place. From the Balkans to Finland the sounds conjure up images of wild places and kindred spirits. Just listened to the last one where it takes you from Lithuania to the Finnish Arctic Circle - well worth a total of an hour and a half of your time! So many wildlife-rich places effectively on your doorstep in you are a Western Palearctic birder/botanist.

Having worked on a Norfolk nature reserve that is the product of longshore drift and accretion I was fascinated to listen to the birds and scientists that manage the Curonian Spit a 60 mile sandy peninsular that links the Baltic tip of Lithuania with the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia. It is sad to listen to the breakdown in liaison between the professional Soviet and Lithuanian naturalists as they 'speak the same language'. This of course due to politics.....

Although I have visited Poland I had intended to pay a second visit back to the Baltic coast and forest at the Belarus border. Should travel allow I would like to visit the Curonian Spit at some stage but it might require flying to Vilnius. A single road down the spine would make taking my folding Brompton a must.

Curonian Spit - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Good birding -

Laurie -

 

[kb57]

An atmospheric 3-parter from The BBC World Service.

BBC series about the European Green Belt: Walking on the Iron Curtain

The BBC World Service produced three episodes about the European Green Belt. All episodes are available online after broadcast.

www.europeangreenbelt.org

Full of sounds both of wildlife and the people that care passionately about it. Walking (and talking) the former Eastern bloc borderlands where wildlife and rewilding are taking place. From the Balkans to Finland the sounds conjure up images of wild places and kindred spirits. Just listened to the last one where it takes you from Lithuania to the Finnish Arctic Circle - well worth a total of an hour and a half of your time! So many wildlife-rich places effectively on your doorstep in you are a Western Palearctic birder/botanist.

Having worked on a Norfolk nature reserve that is the product of longshore drift and accretion I was fascinated to listen to the birds and scientists that manage the Curonian Spit a 60 mile sandy peninsular that links the Baltic tip of Lithuania with the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia. It is sad to listen to the breakdown in liaison between the professional Soviet and Lithuanian naturalists as they 'speak the same language'. This of course due to politics.....

Although I have visited Poland I had intended to pay a second visit back to the Baltic coast and forest at the Belarus border. Should travel allow I would like to visit the Curonian Spit at some stage but it might require flying to Vilnius. A single road down the spine would make taking my folding Brompton a must.

Curonian Spit - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Good birding -

Laurie -

I visited the Curonian Spit in 2018 on a day trip from Silute in the Nemunas Delta, taking the short car and passenger ferry from Klaipeda. Flew Ryanair to Kaunas (which is nearer than Vilnius) and hired a car, although I'm sure it's possible to get to Klaipeda by public transport.
The Curonian Spit would be great for cycling with quiet roads and as I recall some cycle paths too. We only got as far as Juodkrante - highlights included getting a great view of a singing wood warbler in the woods between the village and the Baltic coast - the most frustrating was sitting on a park bench listening to a great reed warbler which somehow managed to remain invisible in a very small patch of reeds...

 

[Jos Stratford]

I'm sure it's possible to get to Klaipeda by public transport.
The Curonian Spit would be great for cycling with quiet roads and as I recall some cycle paths too. ...

Indeed simple to get to Klaipeda by public transport and the ferry to the Curonian Spit is only a few minutes from there. Ferry is very cheap for pedestrians and bicycles. Many cycle paths run the length of the spit through the pine forests.

 

[jurek]

Hi,

I am not familiar with the BBC series, but there are several other sandy banks on the southern Baltic. All are easily visited from Gdansk and well developed for tourism. All are bird migration hotspots and have lots of other wildlife. And all are good for biking and have single straight roads going through the middle and nowadays bicycle trails, I guess. You get massive bird migration with some Eastern species, like Caspian Terns, White-tailed and Lesser Spotted Eagles, Broad-billed Sandpipers etc etc. Basically all birds migrating through Kuronian Spit migrate along these places next day, plus a trickle of birds going from Falsterbo in Sweden. The problem is overcrowding by holidaymakers in mid-summer, but migration times in April/May and September/October should be rewarding.

Vistula Spit, which is mostly in Poland, is a huge migratory funnel. In autumn I watched there swarms of finches and tits fleeing northern winter. And raptor migration is spectacular – on a good day, you have 100s of buzzards and Rough-legged Buzzards, Sparrowhawks, single-double figures of eagles, Red-footed Falcons etc. It has been a site of a songbird ringing camp. Recently there is also raptor migration count – google Facebook for Drapolicz.

Hel peninsula is also famous bird migration, ringing and rarities. Perhaps the most touristy of the three. But it is a good place for rarity hunting – all these Yellow-browed Warblers etc. Savannah Sparrow was found there a few years ago.

Łebsko and Gardno lakes are two huge lakes in a Slowinski national park separated by two splits. Lots of birds on the shore, lake and on migration. The biggest attraction is the landscape of moving sand dunes, 40m Sahara-like behemoths which bury a forest and a lake on one side and leave dead stumps on the other side.

You can go there. These places are very good.

 

[rollingthunder]

Thank you very much for your feedback and I look forward to visiting it in the not too distant future (the clock as they say is ticking). I do not drive so public transport and folding bike will be the MO. I feel a Spring visit in May would be my most productive option?

Good birding -

Laurie -

 

[Jos Stratford]

I feel a Spring visit in May would be my most productive option?

May is excellent. In such case, do not stick to the spit only, but for example the Nemunas Delta a little to the south, also easy by bicycle... will be superb, fish pools full of birds, Aquatic Warblers in places, common everyday birds like Red-backed Shrikes and White-tailed Eagles.

 

[jogresh]

Hi,

I am not familiar with the BBC series, but there are several other sandy banks on the southern Baltic. All are easily visited from Gdansk and well developed for tourism. All are bird migration hotspots and have lots of other wildlife. And all are good for biking and have single straight roads going through the middle and nowadays bicycle trails, I guess. You get massive bird migration with some Eastern species, like Caspian Terns, White-tailed and Lesser Spotted Eagles, Broad-billed Sandpipers etc etc. Basically all birds migrating through Kuronian Spit migrate along these places next day, plus a trickle of birds going from Falsterbo in Sweden. The problem is overcrowding by holidaymakers in mid-summer, but migration times in April/May and September/October should be rewarding.

Vistula Spit, which is mostly in Poland, is a huge migratory funnel. In autumn I watched there swarms of finches and tits fleeing northern winter. And raptor migration is spectacular – on a good day, you have 100s of buzzards and Rough-legged Buzzards, Sparrowhawks, single-double figures of eagles, Red-footed Falcons etc. It has been a site of a songbird ringing camp. Recently there is also raptor migration count – google Facebook for Drapolicz.

Hel peninsula is also famous bird migration, ringing and rarities. Perhaps the most touristy of the three. But it is a good place for rarity hunting – all these Yellow-browed Warblers etc. Savannah Sparrow was found there a few years ago.

Łebsko and Gardno lakes are two huge lakes in a Slowinski national park separated by two splits. Lots of birds on the shore, lake and on migration. The biggest attraction is the landscape of moving sand dunes, 40m Sahara-like behemoths which bury a forest and a lake on one side and leave dead stumps on the other side.

You can go there. These places are very good.

Interesting stuff. I've been thinking about an October trip somewhere like this, birding by bike.
A Polish person i know told me that the Hel peninsula is very windy, would you agree?..
TIA.

 

[Jos Stratford]

October can be almost any weather from moderately warm and pleasant to calm and frosty to wet and windy

Lithuanian coast can be excellent - massive overhead migration, flocks of White-tailed Eagles etc

Lithuania better than Hel Peninsula 🙂