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Bialoweisa Forest

In February 2008 I took my first trip to Poland (only my second trip to Eastern Europe) and spent a long-weekend in Bialoweisa Forest, north-east of Warsaw on the border with Belarus.

Bialoweisa is about a 4 hour drive from Warsaw, once you get out of the grid locked capital. I was in a rush as usual so used a guide Michal Polakowski whose company is called PO-LARUS. Michal was a good guy and was happy to work as hard as possible to find mammals, though his expertise is birds.

I spent three nights in Bialoweisa "Village" (which is more of a town in my opinion). The hotels were nice and the food was supurb - go those potato pancakes and mushrooms and the Russian dumplings. It was difficult to spot a sober Polish male over the age of 16 on the streets after 7pm on a Saturday night.

I spent several hours driving each night with a spotlight along the public roads through the park (there is a comprehensive network of roads but most are closed to public traffic). I also took a couple of walks and a long bike ride. My main target species were European Bison and Lynx. I knew there was very little chance of seeing the latter but Bialoweisa is one of the better places to look. Having said that one guy I spoke to had spent 25 years working in the park and had seen 4! The road from Bialoweisa to Narewka is probably as good as any of the public roads to look for them I reckon.

In February, Bialoweisa is usually deep in snow. But there had been an early thaw and, though some of the ponds were still frozen, just about all the snow had disappeared at the end of January. This made finding Bison, in particular, a bit more difficult: they hang around the 20 or so feeding stations in the forest when the snow is on the ground. But they disperse when it melts.

Red Deer and Roe Deer were common. I saw them quite often during the night drives inside the forest. I also saw a few Roe Deer in paddocks just outside Olchowka Village.

One sounder of Wild Boar crossed the road late at night just outside of Bialoweisa Forest.

I saw five Bison feeding just outside of the forest near Olchowka Village, early during my first morning, and these were the only Bison we saw (though we stopped looking for them once we found them).

European Bison

We saw a couple of Red Foxes during the first night drive. But we only saw one Brown Hare and one Red Squirrel which was a bit surprising but again we weren't looking for them. We also saw quite a few small mammals along the roads at night. I only positively identified two - a Yellow-necked Mouse and a Northern Birch Mouse.

The walk from the car park to Kosy Most (the Crooked Bridge) early one morning produced my first ever Weasel, which stood out like a sore thumb because it was still in its winter Ermine. I have been in many cars where everyone else has seen a Weasel but somehow I had always missed out, so this was particularly pleasing!

Weasel

The core of the national park is very heavily regulated. You can only visit with an official park guide and though the forest is nice enough inside, I did not think it was worth the money to see it. But the official guide knew his mammals and was interesting to talk to.

Bialoweisa Forest

Stuff I Missed
There are several other nice species in the forest that I missed, aside from the Lynx. Polecats are seen quite often and can turn up anywhere. Pine Martens, Badgers and Raccoon Dogs are also seen quite frequently. There are several packs of Wolves in the park and we saw fresh tracks along a dirt road south of Bialoweisa while we were cycling. There are some nice small mammals too, including Garden Dormice and Striped Field Mice, though trapping is now allowed anywhere in Poland without a permit. About a kilometre along the road from Bialoweisa to Narewka you pass alongside some swampy forest. Look out for a pond full of numbered metal marker poles. This is a study plot for both Common and Miller's Water Shrews, though the water was still frozen when I was there.

Biebrza Marshes

The "Old Soviets"

On the way back to Warsaw I stopped at some old Soviet fortifications (Fortress Osowiec), about 60km west of Bialystok. Visitors usually come to see the museum and the old buildings, but they are also home to various bat species, some of which roost there in summer and some of which form hibernacula in winter. There were fewer bats than usual, because of the relatively warm weather, but I still saw at least four species, and am awaiting confirmation about a couple of others. Again, you can only visit with a guide and the guy who knew most about the bats spoke no English. But it is cheap to visit and was interesting. We saw Daubenton's, Natterers, Barbastelles and a Brown Long-eared Bat. Other species that occur there include Noctules, Brandt's Bats, Nathusius's Pipistrelles, Serotines and occasionally Pond Bats. Scientists visit the site regularly so it would be interesting to return to coincide with some field work.

Elk (Moose) are apparently common in the patches of forest along the first 40kms of road between Osowiec and Warsaw though I didn't see any.