POLAND:  BIRDS AND MUSIC 2007

 

“The Poland birds-and-music tour always centres on the Beethoven Festival during the days leading to Easter – which of course is a movable feast.  This year it was a critical week earlier than last, depriving us of some summer migrants.  But more than compensating for this were the six extra concerts we managed to attend.  This was achieved by arriving in Warsaw on a Saturday (rather than Palm Sunday) – thus giving us the opportunity to attend three concerts on our first full day (in addition to the Saturday evening concert performance of Verdi’s Otello) – and by restructuring the Kraków days to give us three very contrasting musical evenings there too (plus more time exploring the Carpathians on the Slovakian border, thanks to a later flight home which enabled us to visit Wieliczka salt mine on our last day).

 

The Beethoven, needless to say, was superb: six string quartets, five piano sonatas, piano concertos, piano trios, variations for piano and cello, and a stirring performance of the eighth symphony.  But so too were the Berlioz Damnation of Faust, Wagner’s Valkyrie, Mahler’s ninth, the Liszt Years of Pilgrimage, the Szymanowski songs, Richard Strauss A hero’s life and Don Juan, and the Frank Martin and Schönberg – all performed in the splendid acoustics of the Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall or Chamber Hall, the Polish National Opera House, or the Grand Hall of the Royal Castle. 

 

In Kraków, too, the settings perfectly complemented the music: Vivaldi, Handel, Bach, Corelli, and Mozart in the gilded glitter and baroque splendour of St Bernard’s Church; Chopin, Liszt, and Schumann in the most beautiful chamber in Poland (decorated with baroque stucco by Baltazar Fontana in the 17th century); and Jewish klezmer music in the 19th century décor of the celebrated Klezmer Hois (where Spielberg stayed when making Schlinder’s List).  In the intervening days our musical fare ranged from a private concert by a wonderful piano quartet in Lutoslawski’s manor to the sonorous and mesmeric singing of the Russian choir in Hajnówki orthodox church on the Belarus border at their Easter Day service (which happily this year coincided with ours).

 

Our selection of birds was equally wide-ranging.  For the second year running our bird list was launched on Day 1 with a Peregrine which flew over our minibus as we left the hotel.  The Warsaw city parks then added a variety of delights – from exotic Mandarins and Peacocks to more real woodpeckers (Lesser, Middle, and Great Spotted plus two edge-of-range Syrians), Fieldfares, Jays, and Goosanders.  Chopin’s birthplace gave us our first Black Woodpeckers, Firecrest, Blackcap, and Cranes and our only Kingfisher.  Lutoslawski’s manor gave us a very close pair of Black Woodpeckers at a nest hole.  And also between concerts in Warsaw we saw White-tailed Eagle, Bewick’s Swan, White Stork, Black-necked Grebe, Garganey and Goldeneye, Green Woodpecker, Marsh and Willow Tits, Woodlark, and Hawfinch.  In the Biebrza marshes we were welcomed by thousands of White-fronted Geese, plus Bean Geese, Whooper Swans and both Lesser Spotted and Greater Spotted Eagles. Red-necked Grebes were also a highlight in this area. 

 

The Bialowieza forest seemed to be full of Bramblings and Redwings but our traditional Easter Day trio of Three-toed and White-backed Woodpeckers and Hazel Hen gave us only the briefest of glimpses this year (thanks to the extraordinary weather conditions), though a Grey-headed Woodpecker was particularly obliging, as were numerous Great Spotted and occasional Lesser and Middle Spotted and a pair of Blacks plus both Marsh and Willow Tits.  The much-desired Crested Tit failed to show itself at all (not even a call) but this was put into perspective a few days later when at the edge of Podczerwome peat-bog near the Slovakian border a particularly energetic and charismatic individual put on such a show a few feet in front of our eyes that it was voted Bird of the Trip – well ahead of the other specialities at the same location: an equally close Firecrest, our only Great Grey Shrike, three Black Storks, and twenty-one Black Grouse (the most we have ever seen there) – plus Dippers and Grey Wagtails just a few miles away. 

 

Runners-up were an equally obliging pair of Penduline Tits at Spytkowice fishponds (another species which had eluded us earlier) where Great Egrets, Marsh Harriers, Night Herons, Ruffs, Temminck’s Stints, Wood and Green Sandpipers, Black-tailed Godwits, a proliferation of grebes, and the first Yellow Wagtail of the year also competed for our attention.

 

In addition to the birds and the music we visited many beautiful and historic buildings and some magnificent natural habitats with cloudless blue skies setting off vast vistas of marsh and reedbed, pure white blossom cumulus-clouding the hedgerows and ancient woodland carpeted with blue hepatica and pink anenomies.  But in a year when the first three months had been particularly mild in Poland with anticyclonic weather, warm temperatures, and clear blue skies throughout March the most memorable aspect of the trip was when during our pre-breakfast walk on Easter Day, large snowflakes began to fall and by the following morning the core area of the Bialowiesa forest was deep in snow and even more mysteriously silent than usual – a rare and magical experience and such a contrast with the eventual arrival of summer (and a temperature of 22şC) on the day we left.”  Bryan Bland

 

Bird List:

 

Column A = Number of tours this species has been recorded on.

Column B = Number of days this species was seen on the last tour.

Column C = Maximum daily count for this species on the last tour.

H               = Heard only

 

A                                                                      B         C

 

3

Little Grebe  

2

30

 

Tachybaptus ruficollis

3

Great Crested Grebe  

5

50

 

Podiceps cristatus

3

Red-necked Grebe  

1

5

 

Podiceps grisegena

3

Black-necked Grebe  

2

30

 

Podiceps nigricollis

3

Continental Cormorant  

5

120

 

Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis

1

Pygmy Cormorant

 

 

 

Phalacrocorax pygmeus

3

Bittern  

1

1

H

Botaurus stellaris

2

Night Heron

1

40

 

Nycticorus nycticorus

3

Great Egret  

4

19

 

Egretta alba

3

Grey Heron  

8

50

 

Ardea cinerea

3

Black Stork  

1

3

 

Ciconia nigra

3

White Stork  

10

40

 

Ciconia ciconia

3

Mute Swan 

10

200

 

Cygnus olor

3

Bewick Swan

2

5

 

Cygnus columbianus

3

Whooper Swan  

1

3

 

Cygnus cygnus

3

Bean Goose

1

30

 

Anser fabalis

3

White-fronted Goose

3

000s

 

Anser alibfrons

2

Mandarin Duck

1

16

 

Aix galericulata

3

Greylag Goose  

5

30

 

Anser anser

3

Wigeon  

4

20

 

Anas penelope

3

Gadwall  

2

8

 

Anas strepera

3

Teal  

5

20

 

Anas crecca

3

Mallard  

13

40

 

Anas platyrhynchos

3

Pintail

2

50

 

Anas acuta

3

Garganey  

7

12

 

Anas querquedula

3

Shoveler  

5

20

 

Anas clypeata

1

Red-crested Pochard

 

 

 

Netta rufina

3

Pochard  

4

200

 

Aythya ferina

3

Tufted Duck  

5

200

 

Aythya fuligula

3

Goldeneye  

2

2

 

Bucephala clangula

3

Goosander  

5

9

 

Mergus merganser

2

White-tailed Eagle 

5

4

 

Haliaeetus albicilla

3

Marsh Harrier  

8

6

 

Circus aeruginosus

3

Goshawk  

2

1

 

Accipiter gentilis

2

Sparrowhawk  

2

1

 

Accipiter nisus

2

Common Buzzard  

9

4

 

Buteo buteo

1

Rough-legged Buzzard

 

 

 

Buteo lagopus

3

Lesser Spotted Eagle  

1

3

 

Aquila pomarina

1

Greater Spotted Eagle

7

1

 

Aguila clanga

1

Booted Eagle

 

 

 

Hieraaetus pennatus

1

Osprey  

 

 

 

Pandion haliaetus

3

Kestrel  

4

1

 

Falco tinnunculus

3

Peregrine

2

1

 

Falco peregrinus

3

Hazel Grouse

1

1

 

Bonasa bonasia

3

Black Grouse

1

21

 

Tetrao tetrix

2

Grey Partridge