| POLAND 1 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Coming back from Finland I picked up my nephew Eli(Nickname: Olepole) in Berlin and we went to, eventually, the north east part of Poland. First to the area of the Biebrza and Narew rivers. This territory is one of the finest nature reserves in Europe with endless bogs and swamps, mixed with forests, inbedded in an agricultural environment.
The water of the rivers overflow in spring and cows have to find there way in between the tributaries (see picture near Gora Strekowa along the Narew). What amazed me was the extreme high numbers of White-winged Black Terns; thousands upon thousands were hovering above the overflowing meadows and bogs.
These very beautiful little terns were all around us while we were kayaking part of the Biebrza river. They breed in colonies. Taking pictures out of a kayak provides you a low viewpoint. A landing Mute Swan next to the kayak is directly at eye-level (see next picture).
Apart from thousands of birds this area is Moose-country. Specially in the morning and evening they wander the open spaces and are very visible.
(See picture of a female Moose at 8 meters away, behind some leaves of a willowbush). Later on we drove to the indigenous forest of Bialowieza, Europe's oldest National Park and an UNESCO World Heritage Site. Besides visiting this NP, we rented bikes for 2 days, exploring the forests around the NP. At first we saw mainly Wild Boars, Roe Deer and Red Deer, but on the second day we were so lucky to spot 7 Bison on an open field in the forest. The wind was heading directly towards us and we could approach up to 40 meters. The largest landmammals of our continent close to us and, besides us, nobody else to watch this special event.
|
