AVESTOM publishes bird news from NorthEast Poland as well as some birding trip reports, tips and site description. Feel free to contact me at tomaszkulakowski@gmail.com

Friday, May 30, 2014

2014 Belarus, Turow

Late May (22-25) we visited Turow area in Belarus.
Prypiat floodplain was at this time quite dry because of short snow cover during winter of 2013/2014.
Birding was nice, though the temperature exceeded 30 C.
We used help of Dymitrij Vincheski - without his knowledge we would not find many nice birds and villages.



The valley of Prypiat is in southern Blearus:
Turow area is a an elevated souther bank of the river with some old and new settlements.
Main targets of this trip were AZURE TIT and TEREK SANDPIPER. Both seen well and recorded:)
We recorded at least two pairs of Azure Tit with nest and probably third one - a single bird.
One of the most spectacular observation was of a birds facing Grass Snake (Natrix natrix) just by the village house. The old lady living there said - "oh yes I know all the guys from London, Holland and who knows where from come here to take pictures of this tiny bird. Snakes? Yes we have plenty of them in garden, in the basement". The nest hole was just hald a meter from the ground. The other nest was located in flooded willow woodland also maybe 50 cm over water level.

Prypyat River, calm and full of biting flies (no mosquitos!)

Local White Storks mostly use electric poles but without platforms. Nests like this are currently very unique.

Great leeches in great river







Volkovysk orthodox church in the middle of large blocks quarter. Shiny and new

Azure Tit video:





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