Wildlife of marshes - BiebrzaThe sight of endless spring floodwaters of the Biebrza - natural, unchanelled, and swampy river - is simply breathtaking. The bird’s eye-view of the Biebrza reveals a tangle of waterways, meanders and old riverbeds, overgrown with bulrushes and dotted with meadows. The Biebrza floodwaters are vast but they do not occupy the whole of its valley. The remaining area of the valley is covered with gigantic expanses of marshes. Some of them are flat, overgrown with mud sedge, bog mosses, and dwarf-shrub, very similar to shrub-heath tundra. In places wet leafy forests are visible, composed mostly of alder, birch and ash-trees. In the middle of the Biebrza valley - where the Red Quagmire reserve is located - spreads an old, dwarf, marshy coniferous forest of pine trees. The marshes are dotted with sandy hillocks, known as grzedy, forming long chains of elevations. The marshlands are home to elk which managed to survive here the times of World War II, and the river with its tributaries and wild canals became a sanctuary for beaver. Both species, after being exterminated by men, were reintroduced into the Biebrza habitat. The Biebrza valley is Europe’s most valuable refuge of mud and water birds (approx. 250 species), and is one of the most important water fowl sanctuaries in Eastern Europe. The most characteristic breeding species include ruff, great snipe, curlew, crane, and aquatic warbler. There are also endangered mud species such as common snipe, black-tailed godwit, marsh harrier, hen harrier, and short-eared owl. The Biebrza landscape is captivating in all seasons. In spring, the shallow water reservoirs are full of yellow king-cups, while in summer time, the meadows abound in tufts of irises and milfoils, emanating delicate fragrance. The Biebrza valley is protected by the boundaries of the Biebrza National Park and by the Ramsar International Convention on the protection of wetlands. |
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