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Vogel des Jahres 2001/German Bird of the Year 2001

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BIALOWIEZA FOREST PETITION

Southern Poland/Süd-Polen

Birding & Wildlife in Poland

BIRDING IN POLAND OCTOBER 2000

Great Egret (Silberreiher) Egretta alba czapla biala
- 26.10.2000 71 ind. Przyreb (MC). - 27.10.2000 82 ind. Spytkowice (DW).
This year again brings record numbers of this beautiful bird. Flocks of 10-20 birds were reported from many places around the country, the biggest was 170 ind. in C.Poland, about a month ago.

Red-breasted Goose (Rothalsgans) Branta ruficollis bernikla rdzawoszyja
- 31.10.2000 1 ad. Goczalkowicki Res. (JK) - 31.10.2000 2 ind. Mietkowski Res. (AW).
Together with 10000-20000 other geese in Mietkowski Res, Wilczkowice and Pustkowo Wilczkowickie area.

Ruddy Shelduck (Rostgans) Tadorna ferruginea kazarka
- 24.10.2000 at least. 1 ind. Jeziorsko. (RW)

Red-necked Pochard (Tafelente) Netta rufina helmiatka
- 21.10.2000 flock of 94 ind. Luknajno (TK)

Steppe Buzzard (Falkenbussard) Buteo buteo vulpinus myszolow wschodni
- 23.10.2000 1 ind. Borowa Olesnicka - Rakow (TD) - 29.10.2000 1 ind. Bierutowo (TD)

Saker Falcon (Wuergfalke) Falco cherrug rarog
- 15.10.2000 1 ad. Lezczak (DS)

Great Skua (Skua) Stercorarius skua wydrzyk wielki
28.10.2000 1 ind. Siemianowka (S.Niedzwiedzki, info KZ).

Pallas's Gull (Fischmoewe) Larus ichtyaetus mewa orlica
- 1.10. & 20.10.2000 1 ad. Starzawa (J.Grzybek, info PK)

Lesser Black-backed Gull (Heringsmoewe) L.f.graellsii/intermedius mewa zoltonoga
- 31.10.2000 1 subad. Zegrzynski Res. (JD, A.Gasiorkiewicz).
Western subspecies are scarce migrants in Poland.

Siberian Chiffchaff (Sibirischer Zilpzalp) Phylloscopus collybita tristis pierwiosnek syberyjski
- 10.2000 1 ind. Bukowo-Kopan near Darlowko (MR)

Yellow-browed Warbler (Gelbbrauen-Laubsaenger) Phylloscopus inornatus swistunka zoltawa
- 10.2000 1 ind. Bukowo-Kopan near Darlowko (MR)

Azure Tit (Lasurmeise) Parus cyanus sikora lazurowa
- 23.10.2000 2 ind. Gornianskie Laki near Hajnowka (E.Pugacewicz, info TK)

RED-EYED VIREO (Rotaugenvireo) VIREO OLIVACEUS WIREONEK CZERWONOOKI
- 17.10.2000 1 ind. ringed and photographed, Bukowo-Kopan near Darlowko (Wojciech Busse, info MR).
FIRST FOR POLAND. One of the easternmost records in Europe and only the third American passerine to reach Poland.

Lapland Bunting (Spornammer) Calcarius lapponicus poswierka
28.10.2000 1 ind. Siemianowka (S.Niedzwiedzki, info KZ).

Thanks for those, who submitted the news:

Michal Ciach, Tadeusz Drazny, Jerzy Dyczkowski, Jan Krol, Tomasz Kulakowski, Przemyslaw Kunysz, Magdalena Remisiewicz, Dariusz Szlama, Damian Wiehle, Radoslaw Wlodarczyk, Andrzej Wuczynski, Karol Zub

Explanation: Recently, US hacker broke into our academic server which resulted in disk failure and loss of data. This is the reason, why no birding news come from September and beginning of October. Apologies!
This is mainly summary of interesting recent messages from the Polish birdlist "PTAKI". If you want to subscribe, send a letter to:listserv@main.amu.edu.pl and type in the body of a message: Subscribe PtakiName Surname. Main language of the list is Polish, but messages in Englishwill be understand too. Reports of rare birds are unchecked and may not beaccepted in future by Polish Rarities good birding,
Jurek Dyczkowski

IS THE TATRA NATIONAL PARK TO BE CARVED UP?

After strong lobbying by the tourist industry the Minister for the Environment, A. Tokarczuk, has signed an agreement on the Tatra National Park. For conservationists and press, this means the beginning of " the National Park carve-up."

The agreement excludes the numerous small areas around ski lifts, water supplies and private lands from the national park protection. Ski developments are to be extended , which will mean increased tourist traffic for an already overburdened environment. The National Park entrance fee will not be spent on conservation, will but go in the pockets of private individuals owning pastures within the national park. No consultation took place with the National Park director, who opposed further tourist development; the agreement is in any event contrary to Polish conservation law.

The Tatra National Park protects the only alpine habitat in Poland. It is the last refuge (along with the Slovakia Tatra) of the endangered Tatras chamois – Gemse – Rupicapra rupicapra tatrica. Rare birds include the Golden Eagle Steinadler (Aquila chrysaetos), Three-toed Woodpecker Dreizehenspecht (Picoides tridactylus), Wallcreeper Mauerlaeufer (Tichodroma muraria) –and the Alpine Accentor Alpenbraunelle (Prunella collaris).

BIALOWIEZA FOREST UPDATE

I forward this text from Tomasz Wesolowski, vice-president of OTOP.

...on February 23, the Polish Minister for the Environment accepted a draft of a decree on enlargement of the Bialowieza National Park (ton take effect from from January 2001) to include the whole of the Forest. However, this declaration is by no means legally binding, and, in reality, nothing has changed - logging continues.

Opponents of the park enlargement, an alliance of foresters, timber-loggers and the local administration, run a brutal anti-park campaign - by spreading false information they encourage local inhabitants to protest, and even to harass physically the conservation adherents. This local strong-arm policy is combined with intense lobbying at the governmental level. The enlargement of the park can be still blocked.

The Minister for the Environment visited Bialowieza Forest on February 14 to present the idea of the enlarged Park - it is going to be human friendly and largely accessible for public. Visitors will be permitted to pick mushrooms, berries and shed antlers; local inhabitants may still gather brushwood for fuel. The current forestry workers will be offered a chance to become employees of the park. Parallel to the park enlargement, there will be massive financial help for improvement of local infrastructure and conditions of life of local communities. This offer was been rejected by a hostile and orchestrated welcoming committee (...)

In order to prevent the introduction of the decree failing we must continuously exert pressure on the Polish government. (...) However, as the Minister of Environment has been recently showing a real commitment to the Bialowieza National Park enlargement, I think the government deserves some acknowledgement."

THE PETITION TO SAVE BIALOWIEZA is available online at:

Save Bialowieza (Many thanks to David Conlin!)

Thanks for those, who provided the news:
Michal Baran, Maciej Buchalik, Szymon Bzoma, Marcin Faber, Andrzej Felger, Andrzej Kepel, Tomasz Kulakowski, Michal Maniakowski, Wlodzimierz Meissner, Tomasz Mokwa, Lukasz Rejt, Slawomir Sielicki, Lucyna Szymura.

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This is mainly summary of interesting recent messages from the Polish bird list "PTAKI". If you want to subscribe, send a letter to 'Ptaki' Mailing List and type in the body of a message: "Subscribe Ptaki Name Surname". Main language of the list is Polish, but messages in English will be understood too. Reports of rare birds are unchecked and may not be accepted in future by Polish Rarities Committee.

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(From UKBN/EBN) by Jerzy Dyczkowski