Hello,
My birdwatching hobby started in erly 80s when Poland was still under communist regime. Good books, binoculars and other equipment was expensive and hard to get. In 1989 I got a nice guide for beginners and contacted local bird protection society which soon accepted me as a member. In the meanhwile I was organizing workcamps for youth from various European countries. We worked in Bialowieza, Narew, Biebrza on some restoration projects. I work closely with PTOP (Polish Society for Bird Protection) as a member of the board and CEO.
I started my real activity in the society which resulted in coordination of youth workcamps, guiding birdwatchers from abroad and preparing our newsletter.
Almost every weekend is currently spent on birding and taking photos. Most often I visit Biebrza Valley, Siemianowka Reservoir, Bialowieza Forest, Narew Valley and Dojlidy Fish-ponds. Bialystok is located really fortunate as you may within one hour reach 3-4 national parks and within 15 minutes drive outside the town and listen to Tengmalm's Owl:)
Although business and family activities are tough I try to maintain a database of non-breeding birds as well as phenological data.
As one could expect also all holidays are planned for birding. So far I've visited 16 european countries, twice Asian and African edges. Recent trips are described in my "Podroze (trips)" page.
Since the beginning of my birding activity I try to keep field notes so every year my shelves welcome one new notebook full of new records, phenological data, sketches etc. I always tried to share my observations with others and share my knowledge so when the internet age came to Poland in early nineties I joined EUROBIRDNET discussion forum and soon after its polish version called PTAKI ('birds"). In the beginning of XXI century, when Internet became cheaper and more common I managed to start my own website. It was first only in Polish but soon after I realised that our part of the country is od real interest among foreign birdwatchers. This forced me to work on English version of some parts of my website.