Three Days in Prague 8th - 11th January

My first visit to the city of Prague and I couldn't decide whether to bother taking the camera. In the end I took the 300mm lens, 2x converter and 5D III which fit neatly in my carry-on luggage case, which is all I was taking. I was glad I did!
We flew directly to Prague from Manchester with Easyjet on a package booked through Thomas Cook staying at the 4* Hotel Elite on the edge of the old town, which I would recommend, and close to the river. All in for £250 for two is probably as cheap as I could get a weekend in Manchester.
It was cold, around zero degrees on our first day and after a walk around the town we headed for the river Vltava. 
Plenty of Black-headed Gulls and Greater Cormorant, Mallard, around 100 Tufted Duck, 4 Pochard and several Little Grebe. There were several larger gulls on concrete pillars in the centre of the river but as they periodically flew closer I could see that there was a mixture of Herring and Caspian Gulls. Several landed reasonably close to where I was stood and I managed some reasonable shots of first winter and adult Caspian Gull.

Caspian Gull 1st winter

Caspian Gull adult

Crossing the river we entered Petrin Park. There were not many birds but several Jay, Nuthatch, Great Spotted Woodpecker and one or two Short-toed Treecreeper plus a single Marsh Tit. I managed some decent photos of the treecreeper and have made a composite with a photo of a Eurasian Treecreeper taken in the UK for comparison.

Short-toed Treecreeper (L) v Eurasian Treecreeper (race brittanica)

I've seen quite a few Short-toed Treecreepers in the last few years and have concluded that there is no single feature that reliably separates the two species, other than voice, but they can be distinguished by a combination of field characteristics; Short-toed Treecreeper is generally;

• greyer below with buffish flanks,
• the outer edge of the largest alula feather is white with pale tip, whereas Eurasian Treecreeper generally just shows a pale tip,
• the pale band in the primaries overlap evenly forming an even band whilst in Eurasian the band is uneven,
• the bill is longer, particularly in the male Short-toed,
• supercilium between the eye and bill is fainter whereas in Eurasian it is as prominent in front as it is behind the eye,
• other features such as the short hind claw, dark and unstreaked forehead and colour of the primary tips I have found less helpful.

On the walk back to the hotel there were around 50 Jackdaw close to the river and I returned the following morning for a closer look. Of about 150 birds 10% had pale collars and one or two of these were very obvious such as the bird below.

Western Jackdaw probably soemmerringii

Western Jackdaw with ring

One of the birds, with a slightly less marked collar, had a ring which I was able to read. I sent the details to Prague Museum and got an almost immediate reply to confirm that the bird had been ringed in Prague ~ 2km away just over 4 years ago. So it looks likely that both nominate monedula and soemmerringii are resident here.
On our final day, which was around -5ºC with intermittent snow, we walked through the old town again then followed Parizska road north, through the poshest part of town, crossing the river again but this time to Letna Park. Several Great Spotted and a Green Woodpecker were a good start, along with Nuthatch and Jay.

Green Woodpecker

Then calling Long-tailed Tits, all looking pale headed and a least one with the pure which head of nominate caudatus. The cream of a superb species, often referred to as Northern Long-tailed Tit as it resides in NE Europe. I presume the birds with some black behind the eye and on the ear coverts are all within the range of caudatus or are inter breeds with europaeus.

Northern Long-tailed Tit

There were many more Red Squirrel in Letna Park than we had seen in Petrin Park and they were rather more approachable, one was a sooty black melanic.

Red Squirrels with lower animal melanic

On the way back a pair of Egyptian Geese were calling loudly by the bridge, an addition to my Czech Republic list.
So, all in all a very enjoyable few days. Prague is a beautiful city with lots to see and many good eating places. I'm sure with a bit more time and the opportunity to get slightly further afield there would have been many more birds to see.

Bialowieza, Poland 6th -10th May

We arrived at the U Michala campsite on the outskirts of Bialowieza late afternoon on Saturday, the temperature was a very pleasant 26°C and we enjoyed our evening meal in the open air to the sound of Wrynecks calling.

Dinner at U Michala Campsite

That night it started raining and, on and off, it continued most of the following day. The mid day temperature fell to around 11°C but although in remained overcast the next couple of days were mainly dry. Today Tuesday 9th May it has turned cold with an early morning temperature of 3°C and a bitter wind with frequent snow showers but with blue skies between. It appears that the weather in Poland is as variable as the UK!
Bialowieza is famous, amongst other things for the number of species of woodpecker in its woodlands and on our first day I managed White-backed in addition to the much commoner Great Spotted Woodpecker. 

White-backed Woodpecker

Over the next couple of days I added several Middle Spotted and Black Woodpeckers but despite extensive searches couldn't find Three-toed. Hopefully I'll find this northern species elsewhere on the trip.

Middle Spotted Woodpecker

The Palace Park in the centre of the village is one of the premier birding spots. This building in the park is one of the oldest buildings in the area, constructed in 1845. 

The old lodge, Palace Park

During my first visit to the park I had found a very obliging Collared Flycatcher at a nest site. I thought the female might already be incubating but the following day I saw both birds carrying nesting material in to the hole. 

Collared Flycatcher - male

Collared Flycatcher - female

Another Flycatcher which breeds no further West in Europe than Poland is the Red-breasted Flycatcher and I managed a single male singing from high in the tree canopy.

Red-breasted Flycatcher - male

A single Common Rosefinch was giving its simple whistle from on of the islands on the lake but this is the only bird I encountered during our stay so I must be slightly ahead of their arrival date. Another bird which attracts birders to Eastern Poland is the Thrush Nightingale which replaces the Nightingale of Central and Southern Europe here. I only came across half a dozen different birds so the main contingent must also still be on their way. Like the Nightingale the Thrush Nightingale is not easy to photograph singing its powerful song from deep within a bush but after several attempts I finally found a more cooperative bird. 

Thrush Nightingale

Birds of prey have been few and far between but on our first day a Lesser Spotted Eagle flew overhead carrying an item of prey, presumably to a nearby nest although we never saw the bird again.

Lesser Spotted Eagle -showing the upper wing

Visiting Eastern and Northern Europe one of the birds I was hoping to see was the Long-tailed Tit, here the species has an all white head making it look quite different from the subspecies we see at home. I have only seen one once before, at Easington in 2005 so was pleased to find a couple of birds today that allowed me to capture some photos.

Northern Long-tailed Tit

Apart from a glimpse of Roe Deer in the forest the only mammal we have seen is the Red Squirrel, and this individual posed well whilst eating a Larch cone.

Red Squirrel

In spite of all the birds and other wildlife, the most famous wild inhabitant of the area around Bialowieza is the European Bison. Extinct in the wild in 1919 when the last wild animal was poached the animal was reintroduced in 1952 from zoo stock and the wild population now numbers over 1000 animals in eastern Poland and neighbouring Belarus. We saw captive animals when we visited the Bison enclosure whilst looking for Red-breasted Flycatcher but so far I haven't managed to see the wild animals but will have another look early tomorrow morning before we move north to Biebrza.

Captive European Bison