Heading Podlasie 28.02.2012 / Day 2

This day we decided to see Biebrza basin and to find some elks.

Soon after sunrise at about 7.00AM. just at our hotel we may had a luck, as two black woodpeckers were flying just above my head. Then they were knocking in nearby forest. Our guests hadn't that luck yet.
Short drive to the viewing tower at Ławki bog where elks nearly always could be seen hadn't succeed. There were absolutely no elks there at that time. We came back for a breakfast without any additional interesting observations (siskins, tits, voice of black woodpecker). The meal was great with a huge variety of food - hams, sausages, cheese, jam, fresh rolls etc. - absolutely delicious.

After breakfast we started longer drive around souther Biebrza basin. We traveled through Ławki bog (secound attempt also without elks), than to the place where Narew and Biebrza region meet each other. In that place we could see some cranes, great grey shrikes, buzzards, white tailed eagle and flocks of yellowhammers and siskins. Also we could see one eagle, but due to the term we were very suprised and we didn't manage to identify perfectly what was it. For sure it wasn't juvenile white-tailed eagle nor buzzard or osprey.

Next stop was on the bridge through Narwia river in search for beaver or mink, which unfortunatelly haven't occured. We managed to spot big flock of goldfinches on nerby trees. We traveled further to bunker on Strekowa Mountain. It's a place connected with battle of Wizna in 1939, which sometimes is called a polish Termopile. Short story about courage and brave of polish soldiers was found to be interesting for group.
There was a strong wind and it begun to snow but we spotted otter hunting for fish in nearby river, group of swans (mainly mute swans), geese (mainly grey lag) and few goosanders. Probably if the weather was better then we'd have a possibility to see some smews, widgeons or goldeneye'e resting in that region (source: discussion list). We continued our track spotting common and rough legged buzzards.

After reaching town of Goniadz (still we hadn't spotted elk on our route), we visited Biebrza Educational Center and than we moved in direction of railway bridge. Fiona was very excited to spot a water shrew. Feeling disappointed and frustrated with our bad luck we began our way back to the hotel. . Finally !! we spotted our first elk, and few moments later few more elks. We hoped that our bad luck was about to change. During all trip we had a possibility to see great amount of red deers and roe deers.

After dinner myself and one of the guests took a night walk with the torch from the hotel into the nearby forest. We found the tracks of the lynx that had been spotted a couple of days ago and followed these and other tracks along a path further into the forest. We listened carefully for sounds and heard an animal run past in the undergrowth though we were not able to see it. We heard a tawny owl and called it. The owl called back and we found it hunting in the forest. We watched the owl hunting from the trees above us for some time and had a beautiful view of this with the torch.It was a beautiful grey coloured tawny owl. Fiona enjoyed watching the owl and looked forward to spotting many more owl species during the trip as there are many more species which occur in Poland than in England. The day ended shortly before midnight and shattered from the demands of the group retired to bed for peace and a well earned sleep!