September 3rd - 13th 2016

Poland- Mountains, Meadows and Fish ponds.


Preparation is everything when planning a birding trip abroad. Studying and reading trip reports written by others is essential. Choosing a good guide is important. Choosing a guide that can stay sober beyond lunch time is a bonus. Choosing a guide who doesn't lean out of the mini bus window and bark at every dog he spots is another bonus. A guide who doesn't call a Pine Marten a Norwegian Cat is also a good starting point. in fact any guide other than Felix Felger has to be good. Though I could bitch and whinge about our guide and his failings I will try and concentrate on the plus side of this trip.
We met at Krakow airport and when the rest of the party arrived a little later. We were driven by Malik a recovering cancer patient and a nice man  towards the boarder with Slovakia in the south east corner of Poland. High in the mountains the location was stunning with forests and open pastures cut through by clear fast flowing streams. The hotel Osw Wolosan was good with panoramic views of the peaks and several bird species within spitting distance of the car park. Black Redstart being quite  numerous  , Spotted Flycatcher also.  Woodpeckers were heard around the nearby woods. Common Buzzard and Lesser Spotted Eagle soared over the forested mountains.
Arriving around 6pm at our hotel we birded around the grounds without our guide for a hour or so before dinner and a early night. 

Nutcracker

Next morning  we set off into the Carpathian mountains allowing Felix to call at rangers house to gather information, Felix wasted a hour at the place taking a good slice of a early morning start away from us and having a poor day throughout the stop proved worthless and pointless.The best we could find being Nutcracker, Dipper and a Whitebacked Woodpecker found by Malik the only non birder. In the evening we tried for Pygmy and Ural owl but we would of seen more action staring at a brick wall in the dark.
The next day we set off again with Felix stopping again to gather more information from another source, this time taking 90 minutes and robbing us again of any chance of benefiting from a early start.This time I spoke out and tried to apply some pressure on Felix to come up with some good sites and birds... but Felix carried on talking himself up and telling us all about how good his past clients thought he was. We seemed to drift from place to place never stepping far away from the bus or off the beaten track.
The next day we headed north towards the Lesko area a beautiful place. We stopped alongside a river and saw one Grey Heron and one Caspian gull before heading high into a village for Syrian Woodpecker without success. The alpine meadows and views of the Bieszczady mountains stunned us all with flocks of Fieldfare in their 100's and Swallows gathering insects above . We drove around the high villages not stopping until Lucas and I spotted a Grey shrike that was as pale as could be, slightly smaller than a Great Grey shrike but with the light behind it making a true ID hard. Behind us we found a female Red backed Shrike but no male. A Grey headed woodpecker gave us good views making the day better but this was found by Branka a Slovakian girl in our party. We struggled all day with good birds though Hawfinch gave us a run around for awhile. I refused to go out with Felix in the evening due to a row between us and when the party did return they had been shown a Beaver dam for their efforts, no Beavers no Owls and no mammals.
The next day started badly over a row about a Red throated Pipit that we had seen near the hotel, I asked Felix if it was likely to be seen around this area and he replied " all birds are here " not a yes or a no or a explanation from him.  We walked through a beautiful wooded area high above the town and quickly spotted Pine Marten and in a clearing we had Marsh Harrier and Ravens, the only downside was that we had to keep stopping for Felix to catch up, Lucas and Branka picked up Red Deer,Crested tit, Sparrowhawk and Hobby. We also had the briefest of views of a possible Three toed Woodpecker, just entering a wooded area we spotted it move to the blind side of a tree where it must of dropped lower down before flying off deeper into the woods. A possible sighting maybe. We picked up Blackcap and a nice flock of White headed Long Tailed tits, Nuthatch and several common species. 

White headed long tailed tit.

The evening was a total embarrassment and summed our guide up well. We went to a forest that we had been through earlier to watch Beavers at a small pond. When we arrived a metal barrier was closed across the forest track so we parked up and walked, we made our way towards the pond and sat and waited as the light dimmed. After awhile we had 3 Beavers tail slapping close to us, the noise was loud like a concrete block had been hurled into the water, Felix shone a torch over the water catching Beavers now and again. Ten minutes of watching was broken up by a huge light from the other side of the pond directly at us...terrified for a few moments we wondered what the hell was happening. It became clear that the forest police had seen us and thought that we could be poachers, they led us back onto the path and it became clear that Felix did not have permission to be in the forest as the hunting season had started. The police treated the group fine and in a  friendly way with Branka Lucas, David and myself being separated from Felix. They took all his details and seemed annoyed with him. One police man asked me why he had brought us here when he knew himself of  better viewing places for Beaver closer to our hotel. 

White Backed Woodpecker.

The next day we headed towards a ringing station on the Wisloka or Vistula river at Myscowa. En route we passed through some stunning places and a mile or two before the ringing station we glimpsed a Goshawk soaring above the trees, the markings clear in good light and its size and bulk separated it clearly from a possible Sparrowhawk. 
The river Wisloka was very high and flowing fast on our arrival, but the guy and girls who ran the station showed us around with great pride. It was a education to us all how they ran the place and how they set up the nets. They showed us what they did after a bird was trapped and how they kept the data. They seemed fairly self sufficient and lived out of tents and camper vans. We spent a couple of hours with them walking around and checking nets, it was a good place to visit and we were all pleased when we left. We stayed at Gorlice a average town but the hotel was good with a supermarket next door. By now the party was growing weary of the lack of interesting birds and places that Felix had shown us. That evening he didn't join us for dinner or at the bar afterwards.
The next day we spent in the Pieny mountains though the group had now lost faith in anything Felix said or promised  us. Between us we picked up some decent birds as we walked, Chiffchaff, Black Woodpecker, Tree pipit, and Bullfinch. We stopped at one open area and scoped 4 Marsh Harriers in the same area. On our way towards our next stop we passed a hillside on our left, just as we passed a huge male Bison appeared from a small wooded copse followed by what looked like two smaller females, we only watched them for a minute before they walked out of sight unfortunately.

European Bison..I never said it was a great photo!

 Moving on we picked up Great Grey shrike, Linnets, Buzzards. A open stretch of road gave good views both sides of the bus and we spotted a couple of Lesser spotted Eagles but only one was perched  close to the road. I climbed out with my camera and wondered how i was going to get close without spooking the bird. Two minutes later a slow moving wagon rolled past and I used this as a shield between the bird and myself. Gaining a good distance on the bird i kept down and grabbed some decent shots.

We stopped at a small town for a break before we went towards the marshes and boating lake. Whilst in the town we noticed two large hawks circling overhead we agreed that Sparrowhawk was unlikely due to the shape and size so these had to be Goshawks, one peeled away and mockingly attacked a group of feral pigeons as if for fun. At the boating lake we had Great crested Grebes, Caspian gull. 20 Cormorants, Willow warbler, Yellow wagtail and White Stork. Moving towards the marshes we had Red backed shrike, Goldfinch, Great grey Shrike and Kestrel. The raptors at the marshes were distant but the habitat was good close by for Woodpecker and Owls. We were all surprised that we did not return in the evening.These marshes are vast and the nearby woods and open areas looked superb habitat for more than just birds. On top of this the side roads were all tarmac and easy to view from. One regret i have above all the others was not seeing this habitat at dusk. On the way back David spotted a Black Stork on the river edge, a good spot. Malik pulled into a lay-by yards away and we jumped out with bins and cameras. The evening was spent without Felix for whatever reason, i think he had had enough of us all to be honest. 
The next morning we headed off towards Tatra NP. We had been advised by the hotel that the queues for the cable car started building early and they were not mistaken. We joined the line up at 7.15 and had about 150 folk in front of us, by 8am we had over 500 folks behind us.

View from the Cable car.

The cable car to the tops was epic the scenery was amazing and the ride smooth.  The cable car takes you close to the rock face in places and the whole journey is breath taking. Felix had developed a attitude towards us all and was very quiet and distant, Once at the top we exited the cable car station and noticed a cafe a restaurant/ bar and a small souvenir shop. To the right hand was the peak of the mountain with a very symmetrical stone building on it, the army walked around its perimeter though no restrictions of access were imposed. I looked at the building again and again and thought long and hard were i had seen it before...then the penny dropped. Years ago i had seen photos on the web of this building with a Wallcreeper on its stone walls and window cills, the tall critall windows and square shape of the building was clear in my mind. I told the others and we made our way up searching around. At the top we noticed the absence of Felix so we scanned with our bins and David found him through the bar window drinking a pint of lager at 9.15am. No luck with the target bird up here so we walked down and looked from the paths at the open ground below us hoping for a distant Bear maybe. David did well and picked up two Chamois in his scope this was a good find.

View from the top of the Tatra Mountains.

Looking around the rocky area we didn't find much and the skies were quiet. Back at the shops we stood looking at the fantastic sights when amazingly a Alpine Accentor flew out of a gully and landed yards from us. I tried to focus on it with a 300mm lens but it was far to close so i backed away. As i did this my shadow crossed the bird and it flew back down the gully. I waved Lucas and Branka over and as they came looking with me .The Accentor was now visible along with another 5 Accentors on a rock face. They seemed to be in the shadows though,  obviously this was a small family group we had found. We watched them move over the rocks through our bins clear in the sunlight but harder to spot in the shadows. A few minutes later a small bird fluttered up out of a crevice in the same area followed by another. Two Wallcreepers at once was magical. They clung to the rocks and dropped back down and then fluttered up again before creeping onto the wrong side of the rocks... they really are special little birds. Harder to see when in the shadows of the rocks but beautiful once glimpsed in sunlight. We hung around scanning and searching every crevice for more views but after awhile we admitted defeat, they had gone.We made our way down again staring at the rocks in the hope that we may see another one. 
This was the highlight of the trip without doubt. Driving towards our new hotel/chateau we stopped to scan a small raptor upon a fence post finding it to be a Kestrel and not the Red footed falcon that we had hoped for. One bonus for stopping was a couple of Harriers quartering the pasture fields the closest being a juvenile Montagu's Harrier and the other being more distant looked to be a female.

Juvenile Montagu's Harrier

though once back at our new chateau hotel Felix announced that he would no longer be guiding us, saying that another guide would take us the next couple of days. Adding to this that i was the biggest trouble maker he had met. We really didn't expect this but i lost no sleep over his comment nor cared that he had gone.
Paul was our new guide and Felix had warned him about me though within a hour or so we became friendly, he was keen and knew his stuff. He walked us around the fish ponds near Auschwitz. Showing us Ferignious duck, Marsh Harriers, Yellow hammers and even a single Dotterel. He took us to a old slate quarry where a thousand plus gulls roosted. Pointing out each gull species and the waders at the edges of the quarry pools and gravel pits. He knew the fish ponds of Auschwitz well and talked enthusiastically as we walked. On one path between two ponds a Kingfisher flew at eye level less than a yard in front of our eyes startling us both. We had European Bittern twice on our first afternoon.He even found us Penduline Tits though these were youngsters and not in adult plumage yet. He showed us one large pond that had probably a thousand migrating coot upon it. The whole area is a maze of pools and lakes with paths and roads linking them. The highlight came at one pond when i was lucky enough to spot a Black crowned night heron fly past me on my side of a large pond that we were scoping. Paul had told us that they bred in the area but that we would be lucky to spot one, though this bird did offer decent scope views when it landed in a tree some distant away.

Black crowned night heron.

The last day with Paul was spent on a 5 hour walk around the fish ponds. The night had been showery and as we walked the gravel paths some puddles held lots of small frogs ... a lesson was to be learnt here. We spent time watching Kites and a Osprey and many small birds like Hawfinch and Bullfinch. Branka spotted at distance a possible Otter but once the scopes focused it was clear she had spotted a Muskrat we spent time watching this American mammal forage around before looking for more birds and mammals. The walk was good with Whooper swans and the odd Spoonbill and Great white egret showing, and as we returned to the car  we noticed a Bittern feeding on small frogs along the footpath from where we had started initially, before we knew it, it was away. How clever are birds when left undisturbed ?
On the whole the trip was not a total disaster, the Pieny and Tatra mountains are superb areas and worthy of another visit. The fish ponds at Auschwitz are fantastic birding spots. The marshes around Bieszczady are divided by the raised tarmac roads and paths, being marshy on one side and drier on the other offering two habitats from a raised safe platform.