The Barycz valley nature park, part II

Part I of this review is to be found here.

Now, you have to appreciate that the area we were in was, until 1945, in Germany.  We were in Lower Silesia, a place where many ethnic groups have had dominated over time (the Celts, Bohemians, Poles, Germanic people, the French, Germans and finally Poles again).  One can notice the fact that different people live here now than used to by looking at this Christian statue:

It was produced after 1945.  Of course, while Lower Silesia has had a majority of Roman Catholics for a few centuries now, Poles were in the minority here before 1945.  This statue owes its existence to the changes of borders in 1945.

Moving on into Uchiechów, however, we saw a statue that pre-dated the war.  We had moved into Greater Poland (Wielkapolska.  One can see that on this map), in other words, to the part of Poland that had been In Poland before 1945, and therefore we had moved across the old German-Polish border.  A local woman informed us that a nice town to visit would be Sulmierzyce in the north, which was a 'nice Prussian town'. ( I am now confusing you, no doubt.  See the next day to see what she meant.)  She also spoke negatively of another town about 40 kilometres to the east, a town which while being ethnically Polish for centuries had been part of the Poland which was partitioned by Russia (rather than Prussia) and Poles, like this woman often look down on the part of Poland that was occupied by Russians till during the WWI, as the area did not develop as much as the parts of Poland which had been under Prussian and Austrian occupation, and to this day one can see that the houses there are of a lesser standard.  Bear in mind that this woman was younger than myself (she was in her 20's) and still, she had a prejudice against a part of Poland that stopped being under Russian occupation in 1917!

Cycling back to our apartment we crossed the 'Border bridge' (Most granicy) , i.e back into Lower Silesia.

The former border

Cycling south with the sun on our faces and skylarks in stereo around us, a look at this memorial showed us to be back in Wielkapolska

Notice the date

 Built in 1931

destroyed in 1941

Rebuilt in 1946

What happened here?  I am a bit stuck, to tell the truth.  That it happened during the war is clear.  That the date 1941 and the location means that only German troops were here is also clear, so I guess the blame can be put on the Wehrmacht.  But why would they destroy a statue?  I am aware of churches been raided for valuables in Poland (the same happened in synagogues, though other motives there led to the destruction of the synagogues, of course), but the descuction of Christian symbols?  I know that the Nazis had the policy of getting rid of signs of Polishness, and Roman Catholicism was one sign of Polishness, but I have not come across stories of statues being destroyed.  But in 1941?  I would understand 1939 more.  Then again, the 8th army of the Wehrmacht were probably more interested in pushing towards attacking the 'Poznań army' to the north west of Łódż to do such things.  The standard policy was for the Wehrmacht to secure the front and be followed by the Einsatzgruppen and/or other SS units 'securing the rear', an action that becomes more apparent in the next village I shall mention, Bogdaj.

Whatever the reason, being here showed me something: That this house was very close to the German border, and the occupants of this house would have been one of the first Poles to have been affected by the German invasion in the evening of September the 1st 1939.  It struck me, that finally I was to see evidence of WWII not through memorials, museums, streetnames or bullet holes in buildings in cities, but in a place which WWII affected, rural areas.

Moving south into Bogdaj we were to see further evidence of the effects of WWII:

While this graveyard, written on the map as 'Ewangelicki'  showed graves for Germans and pre-dated the war.  Bear in mind, that this graveyard predates the modern configuration of Poland (i.e. These graves were for Germans who were living in the pre-1939 borders of Poland).*

The above photo shows a rage that was directed against Germans after the war  That flowers have been placed there however shows that respect towards this and other graves is apparent.

Moving on into the village of Bogdaj, we saw this church.

So far, so standard.

Then I saw this painting, showing St. Maximilian Kolbe

This memorial, however, took me back to a place where I used to work:

Priest Antoni Tomiński

Died in Dachau on the 27th of August 1944

aged 39

 I used to do tours in the memorial site in Dachau and nearly always stood by where barracks 36, 38 (and later also 40) held Priests and Pastors, including a large number of RC Priests from Poland (a total of 2,720 clergy were in Dachau, of whom 1,870 were from Poland) Priests from Poland were treated worse than Priests and Pastors from Germany and the west, shown through them receiving harder and more dangerous work, less food; being more crowded in their barrack.  Of the total of 2,720 clergymen in Dachau 1,034 died (38%).  864 of the Polish Priests died (48.6%).  That means that 83.55% of the clergymen who died in the Dachau concentration camp were Polish Priests.

Part III can be seen here.

The Barycz valley nature park, part I

Here is as promised the review of this amazing place that not only provides the nature lover and bird watcher with a paradise, but also provides touchable insights into the history of the region, including the effects of WWII.

As you can see, the park consists of many lakes and forests, and there are plenty birds there.

Now, bird watching is ace.  I don't understand why not a lot of people do it.  It's so.....life-afirming.  In other words: Bird watch, or die.  The Baryczy valley nature park is more than a place where one can see loads of birds, though, one can simply chill in a quiet place, have some good food, go for walks in woods and by lakes and see some interesting places of historical significance.  To learn more, read on.

Generally, central Europe offers the bird watcher with the chance to see birds and animals that one would either see seldomly or not at all in places like GB, and prices for the moment remain quite decent.

This review shall take the form of a diary.

Tuesday

We were staying in a very nice wooden converted stables in Wrobliniec (you can see the name underneath and to the right of Odolanów on the map above), a small village about 18 miles east of the nearest biggish town, Milicz.  The place we were staying in can see seen here and is a place I would recommend.  The house was right next to a wood, so I could simply birdwatch from the porch in front of the building.  

Within a few hours after our arrival (I saw some grey partridges along the way) I saw a flash of bright red in the trees ahead of me.  It didn't make the agitated-cat-with-a-sore-throat-and-a-grievance sound of a jay, and in any case the orange was too bright for it to be a jay, and it was smaller.  I can only conclude that what I saw was none other than a hoopoe.

Unfortunately I had forgotten that hoopoes are called as such due to their call, so didn't think to note the sound they make.  Of course, birds make more than one sort of call, such as warning, alarm and check-me-out-lass calls.

Liverpool fans may be amused to learn that the Polish name for the hoopoe is 'Dudek'.

Also that first evening we saw some greylag geese in a field close to the house, some actual jays, a marsh tit (for the first time in my life) as well as a few skylarks.  Not bad for a start.

Wednesday

The renting of the apartment included the use of bikes, so all four of us who were adults could go on rides and we decided to go to the wood around the 'Jan lake' not too far away.  We went along a cycle/horse path and were alone the entire time we were there (which surprised me, as this was the Easter week).  That day, we saw a red-backed shrike, great crested grebes, grey herons, cormorants, mallards, coots and also heard cuckoos.  I was later to go on further with my bike to the lakes north of Grabownica and saw, to begin with, a greater spotted woodpecker.  Moving on, I saw a bird that I had hoped to see while I was there, a white-tailed eagle:

By the end of the week I was to see loads of them; probably about twenty in all.  They are splendid birds.  They can be seen soaring above in the sky with a wingspan of 2 metres, great big massive black things, with 'finger-type' ends to their wings.  Even without seeing their yellow beak or feet they are still identifiable.

If that wasn't enough, I was to see a female tufted duck, a bird which I had seen in GB, but hadn't seen for years.  The female has a nice chocolate colour and a yellow eye.  Strangely enough, it was to be the members of the duck family that gave me more joy than the more spectacular white-tailed eagles, due I believe to the fact that I hadn't expected to see them.

The bike ride back was long and tiring (largely due to the many holes in the roads) but I allowed myself to have a break upon seeing a brownish bird soaring with spread wings in a V-shape ahead of me.  The fork of its tail gave away that it was a kite, and that it had red on its wings and back showed it to be a red kite.  Seeing as I was still about 15 miles away from home and was exhausted, this managed to energise me to get back home.

Thursday

I didn't want to cycle this day and was quite saddle-sore, and in any case the others wanted to visit Milicz, so a car ride it was.  Milicz is a fairly small place which contains a nice (from the outside) Gnadenkirche (Church of mercy, founded due to the end of the 30 years war).

and a former palace which is now a school for foresters

Milicz also has a relatively nice town centre.

On the way back we stopped by the lakes I had visited the day before, and fairly quickly saw some great-egrets (interestingly, though perhaps only for me, the literal translation from the Polish czapla biała is 'White Heron', which reminds one that Egrets are in the heron family)  Wherever they are (unless they were to go mad and migrate to the artic) they stand out due to the brilliance of their white.  We also saw white herons, fieldfares, lapwings (a bird I have found interesting for years and must write about some day) and a marsh harrier.

A later visit to a massive hide (about four stories high) brought us sights of many white-tailed eagles.

Back home after supper we saw some yellowhammers (I was trying to teach my mother-in-law that we say in English that they make a sound like 'A-little-bit-of-bread-and-no-cheese', which in Polish 'Trochy-chleba-bez-sera' doesn't make any sense whatsoever).  I also saw a reed bunting and (for the first time in my life) a nightingale. 

All in all, a good bird-watching's day, topped off by the excellent food at the hunter's lodge close to our apartment, 

where one got excellent Polish food (barszcz, potato soup with cream and mustard, potato pancakes with mushroom sauce) as well as fish and potatoes; all washed down with different compotes.

Friday

This was to be an unexpecedly interesting day, for reasons other than birds.

We decided to go on our bikes north via Bartniki.  I found Bartniki to be an interesting place.

While most of the villages Wrobliniec were not so much villages rather were hovels, Bartniki stood out by having a shop, a shop that served to be the local centre of meeting, as there was no church in the village.

As can happen in Poland, such shops have benches and a table outside of them and therefore offer a place for people to sit and drink vodka.  I have rarely seen this in Poland but here one can see it.  Effectively, this table is the bar of Bartniki.

(We were drinking Oranżade, a Polonised form of the English word 'Orangeade', by the way; though this particular Oranżade had a raspberry flavour.)

Part two continues here.