Friday 15th April 2016 (b)

BUBO in POLAND  -  part 2

Late morning and BUBO search for the remaining woodpeckers.

After our breakfast we didn't waste any time and headed straight back into Bialowieza Forest. We asked Bogdan to take us somewhere which was good for woodpeckers, as we still had three of our four targets to tick off. So we parked up by the roadside somewhere (haven't a clue where exactly) and headed on down a track through the trees (see photo below). As with any walk through the middle of a forest, birds were not exactly everywhere you looked, but we soon came across a superb Wood Warbler singing from low down, giving stunning views. Usually, I've had to crane my neck up and see singing Wood Warblers up against the sky, but this was perfect.

The "Woodpecker Walk"

We had walked quite a way down the track when suddenly there was a movement and one of us picked up a Three-toed Woodpecker on the trunk of a tree to our right. I frantically tried to see it through the trees, but I just couldn't get on it at all. Then, quick as a flash, it flew off again, across the track in front of us, and at speed. I managed to see it now but only had poor unsatisfactory flight views. It was identifiable to species but we wanted to see it again of course. Apparently Three-toeds have been difficult to find this year because of the spruce beetle infestation that has been happening. This has caused many of the forest's spruce trees to lose their outer bark, which means that the species has a lot more opportunities for feeding compared to what it usually has. So they are more spread out, rather than concentrated in certain favoured areas.

Wood Anenome - millions upon millions of these flowers carpeted the whole forest.

So, of course we headed sideways into the woodland to where we saw the Three-toed fly. We were quite confident of seeing it again as it didn't go far. However, we saw it flush again from low down and fly further away, and that was it - no more sign. It was very disappointing but at least we saw one well enough for the tick, and we knew we would have time to look for more. Whilst searching for this bird we split up a little bit and I was lucky to see two Firecrests moving through the trees, the only ones that were recorded on the whole trip.

We wandered back again along the track and, not too far away, one of the guys picked up a woodpecker high in the trees which appeared to be a Middle Spotted Woodpecker. I managed to get a good look at it high above me and then even better when I moved slightly to the side. As is typical of the species, it seemed to prefer feeding near the top branches of the trees and was usually difficult to see. That was three out of five ticks for me and it wasn't even midday of day one! I suppose that this was my number one tart species since it breeds less than 40 miles from my house, although I've never really had a serious chance of finding one before now.

Middle Spotted Woodpecker - Bialowieza (as can be seen, very difficult to photograph).

With two new woodpeckers for me in just one short walk, I was cock-a-hoop by the time we returned to the car. We had parked next to a fenced-off garden with large trees, and just as I had put my stuff in the boot, I saw something largish fly low across the carpet of anenomes. "I've got a green woodpecker-type thing here!" I called out and, of course, being in the middle of the forest, it was not really ever going to be an actual Green Woodpecker. So, after a few seconds of re-finding, we were watching a terrific Grey-headed Woodpecker feeding at the bases of the large trees. My third woodpecker tick in just one walk! ker-ching!! It was showing beautifully, on and off, and we soon realised that we had two birds - a male and a female. And as we were watching these, another Middle Spotted Woodpecker flew in and perched on the same tree as the Grey-headed, and I had terrific views of it down the 'scope. We were in woodpecker heaven! I was punching the air.

Grey-headed Woodpecker - Bialowieza Forest

This fenced off area where the trees had been deliberately thinned-out by the home owner was a real hot-spot. It shows you that it is often the edges of a forest where the biggest concentration of birds are. As well as the aforementioned woodpeckers, I had the best views of the trip of a couple of Treecreepers by the car. These were of the eastern/northern race and were definitely greyer than British birds, with whiter white bits. At one point I got a little excited and claimed a Collared Flycatcher, but I may have made a mistake with that, as it was quite a way away in the back corner and we couldn't relocate it. But searching for it, we came across a couple of Marsh Tits and also a lovely white-headed Long-tailed Tit. Whilst we were in this corner, one of the Grey-headeds came close to us and I managed to snap a single decent photo (above).

The large fenced-off garden by the roadside.

So we were well ahead with our targets - 5 out of the 6 main objectives achieved. We still needed to find Pygmy Owl, but this was going to be difficult, and also very unlikely in the middle of the day. So we headed to a different part of the forest, slightly to the south, where it was a little bit higher, which was a decent spot for Nutcracker. This slight change in altitude changed the look of the forest as it was drier and more conifer-heavy, more like the forest I am used to in the UK. And it was heavy going, especially with our high levels of fatigue, with very little to look at. We couldn't find any Nutcrackers and we also failed to see Black Woodpeckers - it was quite birdless although we were pleased to find a Camberwell Beauty butterfly flying around the birch trees.

Camberwell Beauty - the only non-familiar butterfly we noted on the trip.

The last third of the circular walk did produce some decent sightings though. As we rounded a corner, we flushed a Hazel Grouse ahead of us on the track, and creeping round that corner, we saw another one walking along the road ahead of us, albeit quite far away. Although the species is quite numerous in the forest, it is difficult to find, so two sightings in one day was excellent. Also, we had a Willow Tit which was of one of the pale eastern races, plus a few Crested Tits in the conifers.

It had become rather sunny, and upon returning to the car we found out we were more than a little exhausted after a full day in the field on an hour's sleep. So we decided to take a break from birding and head back into the town to get checked in at the hotel and get our feet up for an hour or so. Our hotel was a great little place called Stoczek 1929 and I thoroughly recommend it. In the picture below, the red-roofed building on the left is the restaurant, and the blue cottage on the right is a small 3-room guest house. Great quality for a very cheap price. Parking up the car in the car park there, we had a singing Black Redstart on a roof - quite a common bird in the villages round here.

Our guest house at Bialowieza - Stoczek 1929

After a rest, we joined up again with Bogdan in the evening, who had been making some phone calls and arranged a owl-hunting session for us with a local guy who does surveying in the forest. So we all met up in a car park by a railway line and followed behind the Poles to our first destination. It was getting quite dusky now and it was very dark under the trees. As we trudged along, suddenly Ian shouts out "Three-toed Woodpecker" and one lands on a tree right in front of us! Right alongside the path! It was incredible views, as we watched it search for food on the tree trunks, and it certainly made up for the poor sighting earlier in the day.

We pushed on until we reached a hole in a tree which was a possible Tengmalm's Owl nest site. We all set up our scopes on the hole ready, and the guy walked up to the trunk of the tree and scratched it with a branch. We were not unduly disturbing any nesting birds since this was how the surveyors check the nest sites are occupied, and they would be doing this anyway as part of their usual surveying methods. If you scratch the trunk, an owl sitting in the nest will pop its head out and look down to see if a predator is climbing up. However, at this hole, nothing appeared.

We walked on through the trees again, to a second hole and we set up our scopes. The guy did the same, scratched the trunk, and immediately a Tengmalm's Owl peered out of the hole! Superb. It looked around for a minute to check we were not about to raid its nest, and when satisfied it was OK, returned into the hole. We couldn't have asked for better views - the bird filled the scope. However, I did not have time to set up my camera on the tripod, so I was unable to get a decent photo. It was too dark for anything hand-held (see below!). I have seen Tengmalm's once before, in Sweden, but those views were very poor, mainly in silhouette, so although this wasn't a tick, it felt like it.

Tengmalm's Owl, Bialowieza - this spectre peering out of the hole is, in fact, a Tengmalm's Owl (honest).

Chuffed with this bonus bird - we never really expected to see Tengmalm's on this trip - we made our way back through the trees. When we reached the surveyor's car, he pulled out a tiny ghetto-blaster and played the call of Pygmy Owl into the half-light. We waited and waited on the track, then quick as a flash, this tiny bird flew right past me, from over my right shoulder, and into the tree in front. It couldn't be that easy could it? But I soon found it in my bins and was looking at a Pygmy Owl perched on a branch which was looking at me! It was so small, unbelievably small, even though I knew how small they are, it's ony when you see one you realise. It stayed where it was and I was able to get my scope on it. It then flew back across the path and perched right at the top of a tree. It looked rather odd there, pretending to be a pine cone, before it flew back from where it came.

Pygmy Owl, Bialowieza - I was amazed that I managed to get any pics using the phone through the scope - there was not one of my photos where it was facing in my direction. 

And that was that. We'd hit all of our 6 pre-trip priority targets in just the first day - 4 woodpeckers, Pygmy Owl & Bison - we couldn't believe it. There were no realistic lifers that we still had to search for, so we looked forward to a few days of more relaxed birding. Our plan was to have one more day in the Bialowieza Forest area, then a couple of days further north in the marshes.

We returned to the guest house and had our dinner in the restaurant next door. I had vegetables and "dumplings" - which was to become a bit of a theme, since vegetarianism does not seem to be high on the agenda in this corner of Europe. A couple of beers later we were zonked out on our beds with the alarm set for another early start in the morning.

Friday 15th April 2016 (a)

BUBO in POLAND - part 1

The BUBO lads overlooking Bialowieza Forest at dawn.

So, in the late afternoon of Thursday 14th, Andy and I checked in for our flight to Poland. We thumbed our noses at Ryanair's extra charges by sharing our hold luggage and packing our bag right to the limit. As usual, my hand luggage was double-checked by security and they did that test thing for explosives - every single time! - and the guy seemed rather dubious that I was going birdwatching in Poland. But apart from that, everything went smoothly and we touched down at Modlin Airport, Warsaw around 9 30pm. All went smoothly for Ian too on his flight from Glasgow and we greeted him in the terminal. We sorted our car hire at the desk and walked out into the night ready for the adventure ahead - and immediately epic-failed when we couldn't find the car. Almost 20 minutes later we eventually located it and we set off eastwards.

I was happy to sit in the back whilst the other two drove the car - I was barely used to driving in the UK, never mind on the wrong side, abroad and in the dark. Our first mission was to find Bialowieza Forest, about a 3 hour drive away, and I had some printed Google-map sheets to follow, which worked pretty well and we never got totally lost. Although some of the "major" roads we were following suddenly turned into little more than dirt tracks and we wondered whether we were correct, but they always turned back to normal. Our first Polish bird was a White Stork perched up in the headlights. After a difficult drive we finally made it to Bialowieza village at about 2 am.

Of course, with our expected arrival being so late in the night, we didn't book any accommodation for this first night, and since it wasn't going to be light for a couple of hours we found a suitable lay-by and made an attempt to sleep in the car. When I was more flexible, curling up in the back seat for a kip may have been nice and easy, but now into middle age, I struggled somewhat. By ramming my face into the back of the front seat and with my feet resting on the parcel shelf, I think I managed an hour's kip before the first of the sun's rays began to light the horizon. I think it took almost as long to unfold myself and straighten to my full height.

After we sorted ourselves out, we drove to our hotel (for the next 2 nights) where we had arranged to meet Bogdan. We had decided to organise a local guide for our time in Bialowieza Forest, not especially to find the birds for us - cos clearly we are more than capable at that aspect - but to show us where the best places were to look. Hiring a guide was not something I had done before, but we were well aware that birding in large forests can be a nightmare. Even if there are birds there, unless you are in the 'hot-spots' you can easily spend hours seeing almost nothing. The hot-spots will vary from year to year and so local knowledge is useful, and we had a few target species that we simply had to see. So we decided that it was worth the cash, and Bogdan had superb knowledge and was a good guy, and I thoroughly recommend him if anyone else was thinking about it.

Even though we were pretty tired from very little sleep, we wanted to get out birding as soon as possible, and the first place we checked was some fields on the edge of town where Bison are often seen early in the morning (see photo above). It was all very misty and evocative, and despite no Bison being visible it was a beautiful sight, with the forest looming behind the wet, sweeping fields. We did hear a Cuckoo calling through the dawn.

It was soon light enough to do some proper birding and we headed deep into the forest proper, Andy and I following Ian and Bogdan in his car. We suddenly pulled up at the side of the road and Ian crept out back towards our car. He pointed sideways into the forest, and 30 yards into the trees stood a brute of a Bison looking at us!

Bison - Bialowieza Forest

This was great stuff. Apart from the birds, the famous Bialowieza Bison was the main thing we wanted to see here and we saw one straight away. It didn't want to move and spent all of the time just stood there munching on weeds. It had a pretty good shaggy mane and impressive horns, but it was difficult to appreciate the size as it was hidden behind the trees. It was difficult to take any kind of photograph of it as there were twigs in the way and it was so dark still. The above photo is much better than I imagined.

Photography itself was quite difficult on the trip altogether. The birds were often in the dark forests where light was a problem, and of course they were not generally on the first tree in front of you, but a few trees back. Everything in the woods seemed to spook very quickly and it was difficult to get close to the birds before they scarpered. Away from the woods, especially on the marshes, the areas were so vast that it was difficult to get close enough to the birds for good pics. I was pleased I decided to bring my scope as I was using it all the time as a lot of the things we saw were far away. The weather whilst we were there was nearly always cloudy and so light levels, in general, were poor. So, with these problems and our priority being the birding, a lot of the shots in these posts are 'record' type shots. But I did get a few pretty nice ones when conditions were more suitable.

Roadside birding in the forest.

After watching the Bison for a little while, we decided to do some general birding in the immediate area, along the roadsides (as in the above photo). I was surprised by the number of conifers in the woods as I had always assumed Bialowieza was mainly deciduous, but perhaps in the proper reserve this was more the case. One of the most common species in these woods was the Hawfinch and, although most of the sightings were brief and flyovers, I watched a pair along here really close - a superb species. Jays were common and we heard lots and lots of woodpeckers drumming all the time, although we hadn't seen any yet. Bogdan bumped into an old friend here and a short while after they had parted, he phoned Bogdan to tell us that he'd just had a singing Hazel Grouse just down the road from where we were! Obviously, we rushed down that track but it had already disappeared when we got there. Hearing a loud call above us though, we looked up to see a large, dark bird fly across the tops of the trees - a Black Woodpecker. Unfortunately we didn't see it very well, but it was obvious what it was.

We carried on birding for a while, having a few Crested Tits calling in the tree tops, when Bogdan got another call, about a calling Pygmy Owl near where we had parked the car. Again we hurried there at speed, but again there was nothing to be heard. We were chasing shadows at the moment. Along this stretch of track we had a nice Wood Warbler singing in the trees. This was a good sign because, I had presumed that we were going to see very few new migrants, but if the Wood Warblers were in, then we stood a chance at seeing many of the summer birds. The others saw a Goshawk here flying past but I was in the bushes having a pee!

White-backed Woodpecker habitat in the swampy areas of the forest.

We moved on to a different part of the forest which Bogdan knew was very good for White-backed Woodpecker. This area was very swampy and looked quite different from the dry woodland we had just left, and we had a Marsh Harrier patrolling an open area behind the trees.

WBWP hunting.

We strolled up and down the road, looking and listening for woodpeckers. After a short while we saw a woodpecker fly in and land on a roadside tree. It appeared similar in size to the familiar Great Spot as it flew across, and luckily we could see it on the tree where it landed, and it just clung there. I managed to get the 'scope on it and it was indeed a superb male White-backed Woodpecker. The reason that it was staying there on the tree became evident, when it suddenly popped inside a nest-hole. The good views showed all the plumage details as well as the larger size compared to Great Spot, and the bill was noticeably longer and more pointed. After a while it flew out onto a tree which was a bit further away, but with better light.

White-backed Woodpecker, Bialowieza Forest

White-backed Woodpecker, Bialowieza Forest (phonescoped)

BUBO lads thrilled with the White-backed Woodpecker, the first tick of the trip!

We didn't have much time to celebrate, since Bogdan got his third call of the morning as his friend was watching a singing male Hazel Grouse! We hurried on up to a different part of the forest - where exactly it was I haven't a clue - and followed Bogdan through the trees. After a while we stopped because we could hear a really high-pitched, 'penny-whistle' song coming from the trees ahead of us - not what I was expecting at all. It sounded more like a passerine song. It then seemed to move away from us a bit and we moved further in. 

Deep in the forest - Hazel Grouse habitat

I was looking ahead on the ground to try and see this gamebird, then all of a sudden the Hazel Grouse flew over us and landed near the top of a tree - it was singing from high up! We tried to get a view of it and then we saw it really well as it glided through the tops of the trees away from us. I thought that it was going to quickly disappear and was so pleased that we even saw it. However, it didn't carry on, but landed on a high branch ahead of us. I managed to get the scope on it quickly and could see the intricate barring and spots of its plumage, the jet black face and breast, bordered with white, and even the red comb over the eye. I had seen brief Hazel Grouse before in Sweden, but this was a million times a better view. It stayed on the branch for ages although from my position it was partially obscured, but I didn't want to start moving in case it startled. I managed a bit of phone-scoping to get record shots and a video, which was more than I'd ever expect from such an elusive creature.

Hazel Grouse, Bialowieza Forest

Walking back to the car we were still hearing woodpeckers drumming all the time, mostly Great Spotted Woodpeckers of course. However, nearing the road one was drumming slightly differently, and after a short search we managed to find a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker searching the tops of the trees for food. We had reasonably good views as well. I cannot remember the last time that I'd seen a Lesser Spot.

We were all now rather flagging even though it was still only early morning, so we decided that it was important that we got some breakfast inside of us. We headed back into the village and found a nice place to eat where I scoffed on bread, cheese, eggs and tea - pretty much the same breakfast that I was to have the whole trip. Fully nourished, we headed out into the forest for more birds.

Toothwort - an unusual flower found in the forests