It is the last, most natural forest complex of the lowlands in the whole Europe. A pearl among the woodlands of the Old Continent! In central part of the forest has been estabilished the Bialowieski National Park, part of which is under strict preservation. The Park has been declared by UNESCO a World Biosphere Reserve and put on the World Heritage List.
The place is wonderful, thanks to protection for centuries as the best hunting area of Polish kings and Russian tsars. The age of magnificient treestands are over 150-200 years. A lot of trees have really impressive size, shape and age - highest spruces, limes and oaks are over 50m high and oldest oaks are over 400 years. These huge trees and a lot of decaying trunks lying on the ground gives a realistic feeling of ancient, unspoiled nature.
Ecotourism is allowed in the Park only in organised groups, guided only by licensed guides. In the area of strict preservation only one, 4km walking trail is available for visitors. Most of the roads in the forest have limited access for cars. Anyway - except the Park and several small reserves- quite big of the area is open for entry. There are numerous dirt roads and paths.
Picture Slide show from Bialowieski National Park
The most well known attraction of the Park is European Bison, that was reintroduced there in 1929 (last wild European Bisons extincted in Bialowieza in 1919). Other mammals include: Deer, Wolf, Lynx and Beaver. The Park is also a site for numerous research projects conducted by scientists from all over the world.
Bialowieza Primeval Forest
Polish Birds that can be seen in Polands Bialowieza Primeval Forest
Biebrza valley is widely known as the largest marshes in Europe. Most of the Biebrza River basin (59 223ha) has been given under the strict protection. The Biebrza National Park established on northern and middle basins is the largest National Park in Poland.
The slowly meandering Biebrza river is one of the very few European rivers, which throughout the passage of time has kept all of its natural quality. It is a really unspoilt wildlife sanctuary and a paradise for both, ornithologists and birds. It has sedge marshes stretching as far as your eye can see giving a stunning views, birch-thickets and alders, acres of reedbeds, wet meadows and peatbogs.
Early spring gives excellent opportunities to watch migratory birds during Biebrza''s flooding season. Every spring (mostly March/Appril or May) the river floods and most of the area seems to be a shallow lake with geese of a thousand flocks, whooper, mute and Bevick''s swans, cranes, widgeons, pintails and many waders and waterfowls can be easily observed while stopping over here. The most well known target rarities of the area are Aquatic Warbler (about 2000 pairs) and Great Snipe (about 450 lekking males). Biebrza is also considered to be one of the best places in Europe for raptors that can be anywhere seen here. Especially eagles: White-tailed, Golden and Greater Spotted Eagle but Booted and Short-toed as well.
Whooper Swans, Biebrza Marshes
The length of the Park is about 100km but public transportation is very bad in whole Biebrza''s valley so it is really hard to move through the valley without a car. Public buses are rare even in the areas of high visitor interest. The more so, car access for birders in the Park is mostly limited to few local roads. There are some hiking trails (usually very muddy, so remember to wear rubber shoes and use repellent against mosquitos), bicycle or kayak trials but expect to walk quite a few kilometers to visit the best spots. Prior to entering the Park, tickets must be bought and groups can enter the Park only guided by licensed guide.
Some of the species of birds you can watch in Biebrza Marshes
Aquatic Warbler Bee-eater Bittern Black Grouse Black Kite Black Stork Black Tern Bluethroat Corncrake Eagle Owl Golden Oriole Great Reed Warbler Great Snipe Hoopoe Lesser Spotted Eagle Little Crake Montagu''s Harrier Red-backed Shrike Red-crested Pochard Savi''s Warbler Short-eared Owl Spotted Eagle (Greater) Steppe Eagle Thrush Nightingale White-tailed Eagle White-winged Black Tern
The entire area of eastern Europe was originally covered by virgin forests similar to the Białowieża Forest. Travel by people was limited to river routes until about the 14th century; roads and bridges appeared much later. Limited hunting rights were granted throughout the forest in the 14th century. In the 15th century the forest became a property of King Władysław II Jagiełło who used the forest as a food reserve for his army marching towards the Battle of Grunwald. A wooden manor in Białowieża became his refuge during a plague pandemic in 1426. The first recorded piece of legislation on the protection of the forest dates to 1538, when a document issued by King Sigismund the Old instituted the death penalty for poaching a wisent (European bison). King Sigismund also built a new wooden hunting manor in Białowieża, which became the namesake for the whole forest.
The forest was declared a hunting reserve in 1541 for the protection of wisent. In 1557, the forest charter was issued, under which a special board was established which examined forest usage. In 1639 King Władysław IV Waza issued the "Białowieża royal forest decree" (Ordynacja Puszczy J.K. Mości leśnictwa Białowieskiego). The document freed all peasants living in the forest in exchange for their service as osocznicy, or royal foresters. They were also freed of taxes in exchange for taking care of the forest. The forest was divided onto 12 triangular areas (straże) with a centre in Białowieża.
The Bison Show Reserve, Białowieża National Park, Poland
Until the reign of Jan Kazimierz the forest was mostly unpopulated. However, in the late 17th century several small villages were established for development of local iron ore deposits and tar production. The villages were populated with settlers from Masovia and Podlachia and many of them still exist.
After the Partitions of Poland, the tsar Paul I turned all the foresters into serfs and handed them over to various Russian aristocrats and generals along with the parts of forest where they lived. Also, a large number of hunters were able to enter the forest, as all protection was abolished. Following this, the number of wisent fell from more than 500 to less than 200 in 15 years. However, in 1801 tsar Alexander I reintroduced the reserve and hired a small number of peasants for protection of the animals, and by the 1830s there were 700 wisent. However, most of the foresters (500 out of 502) took part in the November Uprising of 1830-1831, and their posts were abolished, leading to a breakdown of protection.
Alexander II visited the forest in 1860 and decided that the protection of wisent must be re-established. Following his orders, locals killed all predators: wolves, bears and lynxes. In 1888 the Russian tsars became the owners of all of primeval forest. Once again the forest became a royal hunting reserve. The tsars started sending wisent as gifts to various European capitals, while at the same time populating the forest with deer, elk and other animals imported from all over the empire. The last major tsarist hunt took place in 1912.
During World War I the forest suffered heavy losses. The German army seized the area in August 1915 and started to hunt for the animals. During the more than three years of German occupation, more than 200 kilometres of railway tracks were laid in the forest in order to develop the industry of the area. Three lumber-mills were built, in Hajnówka, Białowieża and Gródek. Up to September 25 1915 at least 200 wisent were killed, and an order was issued forbidding hunting in the reserve. However, German soldiers, poachers and Soviet marauders continued the slaughter until February 1919 when the area was captured by the Polish army. The last wisent had been killed just a month earlier.
After the Polish-Soviet War in 1921 the core of Puszcza Białowieska was declared a National Reserve. In 1923 it was discovered that only 54 wisent survived the war in various zoological gardens all around the world – none of them in Poland. In 1929 a small herd of four wisent was bought by the Polish state from various zoological gardens and from the Western Caucasus (where the wisent was to become extinct just several years afterwards – these animals were of the slightly different Caucasian subspecies). Most of the forest was declared a national park in 1932.
The reintroduction proved successful and in 1939 there were 16 wisent in Białowieża National Park. Two of them were from the zoological garden in Pszczyna and were direct descendants of a pair of wisent from the forest given to Duke of Pszczyna by tsar Alexander II in 1865.
In 1939 the local inhabitants of Polish ethnicity were deported to remote areas of the Soviet Union. They were replaced with Soviet forest workers, but in 1941 the forest was occupied by Germans and the Soviet inhabitants were also deported. Hermann Göring planned to create the biggest hunting reserve in the world there. After July 1941 the forest became a refuge for both Polish and Soviet partisans, and German authorities organized mass executions of people suspected of aiding the resistance. (A few graves of people who were "disappeared" by the Gestapo can still be seen in the forest.) In July 1944 the area was liberated by the Red Army. Withdrawing Wehrmacht troops demolished the historic Białowieża hunting manor.
After the war part of the forest was divided between Poland and the Belarusian SSR of the Soviet Union. The Soviet part was put under public administration while in the Polish part the Białowieża National Park was reopened in 1947.
Belovezhskaya Pushcha was protected under Decision No. 657 of the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union, 9 October 1944; Order No. 2252-P of the USSR Council of Ministers, 9 August 1957; and Decree No.352 of the Byelorussian SSR Council of Ministers, September 16, 1991.
The Reserve was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1992 and internationally recognised as a Biosphere Reserve under UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme in 1993 (the Polish part had been so designated in 1976).
A new attraction in the Belarusian part of the Reserve is a New Year museum and the residence of Dzied Maroz or Ded Moroz ("Grandfather Frost", the East Slavic counterpart of Father Christmas). Thousands of tourists visit this museum.
The Belarusian part of the reserve also became the place where the Belavezha Accords were signed by leaders of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus to dissolve the USSR.
In July and August we usually are on Polish holidays , while birds have their breeding season. If you intend to take a rest outdoors, remember not to make bird breeding difficult and try not to endanger the life of their chicks.
Birds usually build their nests in April and May. Bird nest may be found almost everywhere. However, if birds lose their clutch (e.g. due to bad weather or predation) they may build another nest and begin breeding once again. Some bird species breed two times in a row every year; in favourable circumstances even three times. This is why many bird species breed and look after their chicks in June and July. Sometimes one may come across a nest with chicks even in September.
In order not to disturb birds, as well as other animals, one should avoid thickets and bushes, areas which are seldom visited by people, river banks and lake shores overgrown with bushes and rushes. One should rather follow bitten paths and trails and stop at places where people often stay.
If you notice a nest, do not come close to it and back up carefully. Especially big birds of prey, although they may seem dangerous, they are very skittish and sensitive to the presence of humans in the vicinity of their nests. Moreover, mammal predators (e.g. fox, raccoon-dog, marten) often follow human tracks, which may lead them to nourishing eggs and vulnerable chicks. If you uncover a nest, chicks may be easily noticed by predators, both from the air and from the ground (among them crow, magpie and marsh harrier – specialized in robbing nests). It sometimes happens that a bird, once it has been frighten off from its nest, escapes and never comes back, leaving the eggs or chicks behind. Meanwhile, frightening chicks away from the nest, when they are still too young to hide efficiently, as well as fly and seek food on their own, jeopardizes their lives – they may die of hunger or be eaten by predators.
Polish White-backed Woodpecker
Protection of birds in Poland is guaranteed by the Act on Nature Conservation. According to the article 27b "all native animal species living in the wild and remaining under protection (this refers to all bird species excluding feral pigeon) cannot be frightened off, bothered, photographed, filmed, or observed from the distance, which may disturb animals in the breeding season".
In order to photograph birds in the vicinity of their nests one needs a special permission from the local authorities (voivode). Without such a permission, birds may be photographed only in areas described in the regulations concerning nature protection as "built-up areas and all areas of public use" i.e. by roads, trails and places indicated as road stops or car parks.
We usually think: Polish birds leave in autumn, because they are afraid of winter. They fly away from cold and lack of food. But we can look at this phenomenon from a different perspective – birds arrive in spring, to take advantage of free space and abundance of food, to be able to bring up greater number of nestlings.
The majority of birds leave before they run out of food and before it gets really cold, so they never have a chance to find out how winter really looks like. Autumn migration starts just after the young are big enough to manage on their own. They follow their parents once they learn to fly. To conclude, the main reason to migrate is not to avoid winter but to take advantage of spring.
The migration season in Poland starts in February, when birds wintering in Poland set off to their breeding areas in the north; among these birds are snow buntings, whooper swans and long-tailed ducks.
First migrant larks can be observed in Poland as early as the mid February. When the winters are mild, also the more impatient cranes arrive in February. Yet the high migration season begins in March. First to set off are sea ducks, which spend winter in our country.
Simultaneously, long-tailed tits and other tits, that winter in Germany and Holland arrive to Poland. The first swallows may be observed as early as 14th March. Throughout March and April almost all birds which nest in Poland arrive here. The last to come are river warblers, common rosefinches, golden orioles and swifts. They arrive in May.
Within five months, from February to June, almost 200 species of birds come to Poland to breed and they leave after the breeding season in over. There are just some twenty species of strictly resident birds – they nest in Poland and stay here afterwards.
In spring birds travel much faster then in autumn. For example marsh warbler (smaller than a sparrow, dweller of dense thickets) travels in autumn for 6-7 months (i.e. 26-30 weeks), it stops for winter for 8-10 weeks, and again in spring migrates for 9-10 weeks.
In most cases spring migrations are a kind for race - males race against one another to be first in the best locality. Those, which arrive first can choose the best place to build a nest and the area abundant in food. Moreover, when a male arrives to its destination after a long flight it has to be strong enough to fulfill a breeding season demands. It has to protect its territory from other birds and be attractive enough to attract a female. Meanwhile, a female short after the journey has to lay eggs, rich in fat and proteins. Thus birds which arrive at their hatching habitats in poor condition have little chance for healthy offspring if any.
Bialowieza Primeval Forest
