Birds
The Drawa National Park with its surroundings is one of the most interesting places in the country for ornithology lovers because of the presence of wilderness-type species, as well as those connected to the natural forest-lake landscape. The most precious complex is the central part of Lake Ostrowiec along with the islands and fragments of forests adjacent to the lake in the east and west. Many species of the highest faunistical value nest here: eagle owl, white-tailed eagle, and osprey. Also present here are a colony of cormorants, and numerous nesting places of goldeneye and merganser. Also significant in bird preservation are the areas around Lake Sitno, along with the meadows by River Płociczna north from that lake and forest and meadows to the south. Here are the stations of white-tailed eagle, eagle owl, boreal owl, stockdove, small fly-catcher, crane, and many other rare species. Another place of high bird-watching value is the valley of River Płociczna and its banks northeast of Karolinka. Among others, nesting here are: white tailed eagle, eagle owl, and crane, but also many other interesting species connected to the valley and bank-side forests, such as: tattler, kingfisher, goldeneye, and merganser. Among other mainstays of valuable bird populations are:
- Pustelnia area, where such species as white-tailed eagle and boreal owl were observed,
- northern part of Lake Płociczno (crane, marsh-harrier, kingfisher, merganser, and goldeneye)
- Lake Jamno area (white-tailed eagle, merganser, goldeneye, boreal owl, and teal)
- -ragments of the River Płociczna valley (mountain wagtail, kingfisher, goldeneye, merganser, tattler)
In the western part of the Park the most valuable place for the birds are the beech-woods (the Radęcin reserve with its surroundings) and the areas south of there and west of Drawa, up until the Moczele area. That’s where about 90% of the Park’s populations of small fly-catcher and stockdove are nesting. These species are characteristic to mature beech-woods. Also here are an active nest of osprey and many stations of rare birds, such as hazel grouse.
Also interesting is the entire River Drawa with its valley overgrown with meadows and beech-woods. Birds connected to this area are regularly present in its entire stretch. Because of the linear character of this ecosystem, there are no concentrations of rare species here, therefore it is impossible to single out the most valuable fragments. Only the overflow-arm of Drawa in the Moczele area can be counted as such. Many species rare in the Park but not endangered on the national scale concentrate here, but those populations aren’t crucial to the national population of those species. To keep this biotope in its present state would require resources potentially more costly than effective in their preservation applications, therefore this area has been left to its natural processes of overgrowing with willows, alders, and other trees.
In older forests, especially those with a presence of spruce, we can find interesting species such as: spruce crossbill, or bullfinch. Unfortunately, there aren’t many of such woods in the Park, and those in its western park are not dense.
Over 160 different bird species are present in the DNP area and most of them are protected