On Saturday, I was picked up at 11:30 by Wild Poland for the wildlife and birdwatching part of the trip. The guide, Andrej, picked up me and 6 other people for the tour at our hotels and the airport. There’s a retired couple from Scotland, a younger couple from London, a retired mother from Australia and her daughter who lives in Amsterdam, and me. We drove out of Warsaw for about an hour, then stopped for lunch at a hotel restaurant. After lunch, we drove another 3 hours on country roads through quite a few towns and farm areas. Finally, we reached the very small town of Bialowieza (pronounced bia-wo-vay-zha) about 4:30 pm. It’s immediately outside the forested national park of the same name. We’re staying in a pension named Unikat that has about 25 basic rooms in several buildings, plus a restaurant and bar.
After getting settled, taking a short walk around the town, and discovering the pension’s wifi didn’t work, we ate dinner all together in the dining room at 7 pm. There was a very good soup, chicken and french fries. After dinner (and after dark), we walked with Andrej into the city park that abuts the national park to listen for Pygmy-owls, but didn’t hear any. We came back and went to bed early, since a 5:45 a.m. pre-breakfast walk was planned for today.
We were up and ready to walk with our binoculars before sunrise this morning (Sunday). We walked about 4 blocked and suddenly the town ended and fields began. We walked along a dirt road through the fields and looked across the fields to the edge of the forest. There, in the far distance, barely discernible with binoculars, were 3 bison which soon made their way into the forest. We walked deeper into the fields looking for more bison and birds. We struck out on more bison, but saw quite a few birds of various types. Then we walked back, returning about 7:30. Breakfast was in the pension’ dining room at 8:00, and was scrambled eggs, choices of bread, cold ham, bacon, cheeses, cucumbers and tomatoes.
At 9 a.m. we met Eva, a young botanist from one of the scientific institutions that study Bialowieza forest, who would serve as our guide for a 14-km walk (about 6 hours) through the strictly-controlled area of Bialowieza National Park. During the walk, we learned a lot about the forest and wildlife that lives in it. Eva was very knowledgeable, especially about plants, and Andrej pointed out the birds. We saw two different types of woodpeckers and several other birds. There was a huge variety of mushrooms visible and very beautiful. For most of the day, until near the end, we didn’t encounter any other people.
We returned to the pension about 4:15 and discovered that wifi was working. We then ate an early dinner at 5:00 so we could drive out into the forest at dusk to search for owls again. It was raining. Out in an area of managed (logged) forest that surrounds the strictly-controlled park, Andrej played a recorded Pygmy-owl call to lure one near. Instead, a Tawny Owl answered back and flew above us in the trees. It called from several places and Andrej tried to spotlight it with his flashlight, but couldn’t. But just seeing the large silhouette flying above us quite a few times and hearing the owl call was better than any of my previous owl searches, so I was quite satisfied. We drove back in the rain, returning about 7:30.
It will be an even earlier wake up tomorrow morning.
(I’ll post photos later when the wifi is a little faster.)
Lori's Travels 