These are a few pix from a trip to Eastern Poland in May. This was a springtime bird watching holiday with Wildwings (leader Dick Filby).

We stayed in Bialowieza village for most of the time, which is surrounded by the well-known forest and then onto the Biebrza marsh for the last two days.

There were many birds species to be seen, although a x40 scope was useful to optimise the viewing potential. My x18 Finepix wasn't really viable for bird photography here.
We did track a number of mammals. There was lots of evidence of recent bison and wild boar activity in the form of dung and wallows. Sightings, however, were few and far between.
Of the 200 odd bison in the forest, we only saw two, both together amongst the trees at 5am, so my shutter speed was down to about a tenth of a second... not good for sharp wildlife shots.
We also saw some wild boar, but again around twilight when my the lighting was low.
Beavers were even more elusive, despite spending two evenings flat on our faces near their "lodge" (hole in the bank), we only managed glimpses of them...and one tail-slapping.
There were plenty of sighting of both roe and red deer, but again in amongst the trees, I couldn't get a decent shot of them.

Elk ("moose" to Americans) abounded at the Biebrza marshes. Only a couple came close enough to even consider photographing... but I still failed miserably to get any pix!

The food, beer and vodka were wonderful, though!

All pix were taken using a Fujifilm Finepix s8000fd,

click to link to the Ealing and Hampshire House PhotoSoc. All images are © Robbie Hildred 2009