POLAND – BIRDS AND MUSIC 2006

 

“The 2006 Poland birds-and-music tour confirmed this destination as equal to any of Sunbird’s established dual-interest tours to Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Finland and Estonia.  Although based largely on the Easter Beethoven Festival the selection of music was wide ranging (from Vivaldi to Penderecki) and every single performance was definitive.  The selection of birds, too, was impressively comprehensive, featuring both winter visitors and summer migrants.

 

The excitement started the evening we arrived with an exhilarating performance in the Warsaw Opera House of Khachaturian’s ballet Spartacus – a perfect blend of testosterone and tenderness which thrilled us from the moment when Crassus ran onto the stage along the shoulders of his legionaries and completely captivated the British participants when the familiar love theme evoked memories of The Onedin Line.

 

The following morning, just around the corner from our hotel, a Peregrine perched on the Palace of Culture launched our birding list, to be followed by Black-necked and Great Crested Grebes, and Short-toed and Common Treecreepers at Razyn fishponds.  A highlight of our city-centre picnic park was a pair of Syrian Woodpeckers at the very north-west periphery of their limited world range – a significant sighting which set us on a course to see all ten European Woodpeckers – a quest which continued apace in the other city parks with Great Spotted, Middle Spotted, and Green, together with a wealth of birdlife ranging from Goosander and Mandarin to Tree Sparrow and Hoopoe.  Rudolf Buchbinder’s playing of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations and four Schubert Impromptus in the Warsaw Philharmonic Hall that evening was the perfect finish to a happy day.

 

The very first bird we saw as we disembarked from our coach on our second day was a magnificent adult White-tailed Eagle, completely dwarfing the Hooded Crows standing beside it on the small island in the floodplain of the River Bug.  But our attention was also taken by seven Caspian Terns, Whooper Swans, a selection of ducks including Garganey and Pintail, and our only Marsh Tits of the trip.  Buchbinder delighted us again that afternoon, performing with the celebrated Shanghai Quartet Schumann and Dvořák piano quintets in the Grand Hall of the Royal Castle.  Even more joyous was the evening ‘Concerti della Natura’ (how appropriate for a Sunbird tour) by Dorothee Oberlinger (flute) and I Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca.  This was Vivaldi at his most delightful, and with Il Cardellino gave one (American) participant his second Goldfinch lifer of the day.

 

Kampinoski national park the next day delivered our first Black Woodpecker and Woodlarks and an obliging pair of Hoopoes; the grounds of Chopin’s birthplace a further selection of woodpeckers and finches; and the Famulki wet meadows our first Cranes and Black Storks.  Musical treats included Chopin scherzos and Brahms rhapsodies played by Alexander Kobrin, winner of last year’s Van Cliburn piano competition (another afternoon recital in the Royal Palace) and (in the Philharmonic Hall) Beethoven’s symphony no.7, Prokofiev’s classical symphony, and Shostakovich’s cello concerto thrillingly rendered by Natalia Gutman and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic.

 

Maundy Thursday brought more water birds at Modlin plus Curlews, Serins, Whinchat, and Bullfinch at Bronisławka and Stawinoja.  But perhaps the most intriguing sight of the day was the striking blue frogs at the latter location.  A return to the opera house gave us a brilliant production of Pendericki’s opera buffo Ubu Rex – a fitting finale to our days in Warsaw.

 

En route to the Biebrza marshes a visit to Drozdowa manor, the home of Lutoslawski, for coffee and cakes, a tour of their nature museum, and a private concert by the Podlasie Quartet added not only more Chopin but also Wieniawsky, Koszewsky, Mozart, Piazzolla, and even Lennon/McCartney.  Then more clangorous Cranes, thousands of White-fronted Geese, Great Egrets, and a pair of Otters.  Our constant searching for Bewick’s Swans and Bean Geese (two of the very few lifers possible on this trip for one participant on the countdown to 4000) was finally rewarded by two distant Bewick’s only to be followed at our next (and final) stop by a further 220 at close range, plus 250 Bean Geese which obligingly joined them just as we were about to call it a day.  The spectacle of so many target birds against a backdrop of Elk and Red Deer in beautiful evening light will surely be an abiding memory.

 

A morning walk along the Wulka road from our hotel reinforced our fondness for Biebrza marshes, with Lesser Spotted and Booted Eagles, Rough-legged Buzzard, and Black Storks but at our next stop a passerine stole the show – the first Bluethroat of the year, displaying to us in all its technicolor glory.  It was also a passerine – the delightful Penduline Tit – which gazumped the Red-necked Grebes as the star of Dojlidy fishponds.  But bird of the day was the last one of the day – a charming Pygmy Owl which posed in the last rays of the sun on our arrival in the Bialowieza forest.

 

Easter Sunday in the Bialowieza forest is always a memorable day.  It began (at -3şC with much frost and ice) with a pair of Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers (with a Lesser Spotted Eagle overhead just to confuse matters) and ended with Three-toed and White-backed Woodpeckers sharing the same trees.  Other delights were three Hazel Hens, 31 Bohemian Waxwings, Crested Tit, and two hours of mesmeric singing at Hajnówka Russian Orthodox church – a splendidly theatrical Palm Sunday (by their calendar) service conducted by the bishop of the diocese.

 

Then, on cue, came spring – warm sun (up to 19şC) and the first Wryneck of the year quickly following Grey-headed Woodpecker to complete our set.  On our walk in the restricted core area of this ancient forest along the Belarus border it was obvious that the monotones of winter were already enlivened by yellow catkins, blue Hepatica nobilis, pink Daphne mezerom, and touches of scarlet Sarcoscypha coccinea like tiny earthenware bowls of tomato soup abandoned by fairies on the forest floor.  By the time we reached Kazimierz Dolny (6 pearl of the Polish Renaissance) the spring sunshine lent this attractive town all the atmosphere of a summer holiday resort.

 

Beginning our day with an hour’s river-watch at nearby Meçniera on the Vistula we added perched Woodlark, convenient comparison of Goshawk and Sparrowhawk, and a pair of Oystercatchers heading for the Baltic.  And the sun was still out for our history walk through photogenic Krakow that afternoon.

 

Then came a fascinating three-hour tour of Wieliczka salt mine (including Chopin at 110m below ground); a choice of crossing the peat bog for Black Grouse or walking the woodland edge for Crossbill, Bullfinch, Mistle Thrush, Rough-legged Buzzard, and a flurry of spring butterflies – Brimstone, Comma, and Camberwell Beauty; Dipper, Grey Wagtail, Common Sandpiper, and a field of crocus at Koniówka; a photostop for the wooden houses of Chochotów; the briefest of visits to Slovakia; and a wonderfully intimate visit to Wysoka manor for a delicious home-cooked meal and a memorable lute concert.

 

Finally, and appropriately, spring arrived quite indisputably with the temperature rising to 21şC and the songs of migrants everywhere – Blackcaps, Willow, Reed, Great Reed, Sedge and Savi’s Warblers (the latter vibrating in full view so close that it was voted bird of the trip, the first time ever that this honour has gone to an LBJ).  Other new birds for our list included Night Heron, Spotted Redshank, Greenshank, Little Ringed Plover, Long-tailed Tit, and Stonechat.  Our afternoon activities were concluded by a walk around more fishponds or an optional visit to Auschwitz and Birkenau – a moving experience which gave added poignancy to the tapes of Kilar’s Requiem of Father Kolbe and Gorecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs as we rode home but which was put into perspective by our happy evening in the Jewish Quarter and our fine meal of yet another fantastic soup, tender meat, and fancy sweet, complemented by joyous klezmer music.

 

All in all, a very satisfying two weeks with a wide-ranging selection of music and a tally of over 140 species of birds, including a remarkable number of specialities and all seen very well. Next year we plan to arrive at the Beethoven Festival a day earlier.  But this year will be a hard act to follow.”  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

 

2

Little Grebe  

1

15

 

Tachybaptus ruficollis

2

Great Crested Grebe  

5

100

 

Podiceps cristatus

2

Red-necked Grebe  

1

2

 

Podiceps grisegena

2

Black-necked Grebe  

3

50

 

Podiceps nigricollis

2

Continental Cormorant  

5

120

 

Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis

1

Pygmy Cormorant

 

 

 

Phalacrocorax pygmeus

2

Bittern  

2

3

H

Botaurus stellaris

1

Night Heron

1

62

 

Nycticorus nycticorus

2

Great Egret  

1

3

 

Egretta alba

2

Grey Heron  

7

10

 

Ardea cinerea

2

Black Stork  

4

3

 

Ciconia nigra

2

White Stork  

10

60

 

Ciconia ciconia

2

Mute Swan 

7

75

 

Cygnus olor

2

Bewick Swan

1

222

 

Cygnus columbianus

2

Whooper Swan  

3

20

 

Cygnus cygnus

2

Bean Goose

2

252

 

Anser fabalis

2

White-fronted Goose

3

500

 

Anser alibfrons

1

Mandarin Duck

1

10

 

Aix galericulata

2

Greylag Goose  

5

100

 

Anser anser

2

Wigeon  

5

200

 

Anas penelope

2

Gadwall  

2

12

 

Anas strepera

2

Teal  

3

40

 

Anas crecca

2

Mallard  

10

20

 

Anas platyrhynchos

2

Pintail

2

1

 

Anas acuta

2

Garganey  

5

50

 

Anas querquedula

2

Shoveler  

3

12

 

Anas clypeata

1

Red-crested Pochard

 

 

 

Netta rufina

2

Pochard  

5

100

 

Aythya ferina

2

Tufted Duck  

6

100

 

Aythya fuligula

2

Goldeneye  

2

6

 

Bucephala clangula

2

Goosander  

4

8

 

Mergus merganser

1

White-tailed Eagle 

3

3

 

Haliaeetus albicilla

2

Marsh Harrier  

9

12

 

Circus aeruginosus

2

Goshawk  

1

1

 

Accipiter gentilis

1

Sparrowhawk  

2

1

 

Accipiter nisus

1

Common Buzzard  

7

4

 

Buteo buteo

1

Rough-legged Buzzard

2

1

 

Buteo lagopus

2

Lesser Spotted Eagle  

3

2

 

Aquila pomarina

1

Booted Eagle

1

1

 

Hieraaetus pennatus

1

Osprey  

 

 

 

Pandion haliaetus

2

Kestrel  

2