Northern Poland October 2024
- Bob Croxton
- Oct 20, 2024
- 5 min read
Updated: Jan 16
A return to stay for 7 nights at the town of Jastarnia on a peninsular to the north of Gdansk Poland. The north side of the town is the Baltic Sea with a continuous strip of fine sandy beach and pine woodlands. The southern side is the shallow Gulf of Gadansk, which has a number of holiday resorts, harbours and towns and is edged by reeds, woods and heathland.
Weather
13 to 15 October SW winds with showers. 16 to 19 October Strong SE winds, clear and sunny. Apart from the many skeins of geese going over, no indication of any mass migration by passerines when there are SW and SE winds.
Geese
During the trip I had many skeins of geese flying over, many too far or too high to identify. On some occasions I put the Merlin App on and all the geese where identified as Greater White-fronted and on some occasins this was confirmed by photos. Grounded Pink-footed and Greylags were found and would also be going over. Also there is the likleyhood of Bean Geese flying over. So a complicated picture!
Saturday 12 October.
Arrived at Gdansk Airport 1730 hrs, 30 minutes early, but then had to wait ages for someone at the car hire desk.
Sunday 13 October
Jastarnia
Walked to the Baltic Sea pre-dawn
Black-headed Gull, Cormorant.
Southern side
Great Black-backed Gull, Herring Gull, Mallard, Wigeon, Coot. Two wader species Bar-tailed Godwit and Dunlin. Distant geese flying SW were too far away to ID. Hooded Crow, Magpie, Starling, White Wagtail, Chaffinch, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Woodpigeon.
Baltic Sea late morning
Little Gull, Long-tailed Duck, Velvet Scoter, Common Gull.
About
Great Tit, Robin, Jay, Collared Dove
Kuźnica
Baltic Sea side
Great Crested Grebe
Gadansk Bay side
Dunlin, Grey Plover. Photogrphed by quietly sticking my head above the harbour wall stood on stacked fishing nets
Jastarnia
A walk to the Baltic coast at dusk was quiet. A bat was out but I did not have my detector on me.
Monday 14 October
Jastarnia Baltic Sea dunes & woods
Little Gulls on the sea. Along the woodland edge Crested Tit, Goldcrest and a large skein of Greater White-fronted Geese flew south in off the sea.
Due to heavy rain we left the peninsular and went inland for a drive. The rain cleared later.
Władysławowo jetty on south side of town.
Grey Heron, Kingfisher, Little Grebe. A distant gull showed characteristic features of a Baltic Gull, I have been carefully checking all the Great Black-backed Gulls so far without success. This one had a mottled head which Baltic have in winter, no contrast on the dark wings and a lack of white spots on the primaries.
Between the villages of Strzelno and Mieroszyno
100+ Common Cranes in a freshly ploughed field, typically next to a busy road with nowhere to stop.
Rezerwat Bielawskie Błota
A peatland nature reserve
We stopped for lunch around 1300 hrs. Immediately an adult White-tailed Eagle appeared and flew around for a while, with an immature later. Two Ravens hung around most of the time. Then the amazing spectacle of a constant stream of Greater White-fronted Geese skeins, totalling many thousands. Two Buzzards.
Jastarnia Marsh and tip
Reed Bunting, a flock of 200+ Chaffinch, Sparrowhawk, Blackbird.
Two what seemed semi-tame Pink-footed Geese were waddling about. They did not allow close contact, but on the other hand did not fly away. Note; The following day when pushed, these two geese did fly.
Tuesday 15 October
Jastarnia Baltic Sea side
Little Gulls most common Gull early morning. First Sandwich Tern flew past. A distant Swan over the sea flying west turned out to be Whooper from zooming in on photos.
Hel beach and woods
The woods were very quiet a southerly wind seems to have stopped migrant song birds. A female Red-breasted Merganser and good numbers of Sandwich Terns all of interest on the beach.
Jastarnia marsh and bay
Ring-tailed Hen Harrier being mobbed by two Hooded Crows. Along the bay a Great White Egret, Small flock of Dunlin and a lone Pink-footed Goose.
Jastarnia Baltic Sea side woods
A Soprano Pipistrelle at dusk.
Wednesday 16 October
The first all sunny day.
Jastarnia Baltic Sea/woods
Small party of Long-tailed Duck landed offshore. A huge flock of several thousand Cormorants flew east at sunrise 0720 hrs. Little Gulls became the most common between 0800 and 0900 (Non present mid-afternoon). In the woods a decent size flock of Crested Tits and Goldcrests with the Merlin app pinging Firecrest, but non-could be found amongst the many Goldcrests. A skein of White-fronted Geese flew over.
Midday
Jastarnia south side and marsh
Small parties of Greylag Geese and Whooper Swans landed amongst the flocks of Mute Swans. A large flock of several hundred Rooks flew over west, possibly on migration from Scandinavia or Russia?
Late afternoon
Jastarnia south side and marsh
Large skein of geese flew over south too far away to identify. Lots of kite surfing going off, annoyingly going through rafts of Mallard and Wigeon! At the Marsh a distant lark.
Thursday 17 October
Another sunny and clear day, but a strong SE wind seems to have stopped any migration again.
Jastarnia Baltic Sea & woods
Large flock of Cormorants flew east at sunrise again, but not as many as Wednesday. Little on the sea today just one Little Gull and a few Long-tailed Duck. In the woods, just the local birds mainly Crested Tits and Goldcrests, a Coal Tit being the only new bird today.
Hel beach, harbour and woods
Very quiet in the woods and beach. A few hundred Rooks left the end of the peninsular flying SE over the Gulf of Gdansk a distance of 28 km/18 miles to the other side! A Grey Seal in the harbour.
Jastarnia south side
A dead Meadow Pipit found. Over 50 kite surfers had cleared all the wildfowl, including the many Mute Swans. Four Bar-tailed Godwit by the harbour wall was all of note.
Friday 18 October
Jastarnia Baltic Sea
Very much the same again early morning.
Jurata
In the pine woods two Red Squirrels.
Hel Harbour
Immature Little Gull.
Jastarnia south side
Meadow Pipit and Stock Dove on the tip.
Between the sea and marsh a Great Grey Shrike a skein of geese flew over south at 4.15 pm. Three Greenshank were on the sands and 5 Pink-footed Geese were down on some grassland.
Saturday 19 October
Jastarnia Baltic sea and woods
With only an hour to spare early morning, due to having to leave for the airport.
Apart from the first Wren of the trip, the same as previous days.
Butterflies
Large Whites the only ones identified
Quick flight back to Leeds/Bradford, though border control fairly quick. Bus overcrowded on the way to Leeds station. Train delayed 15 minutes due to signals fault, had to run to catch the bus to Treeton back in Sheffield.
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