Voyage ornithologique au Bélarus (Biélorussie) en mai 2009 (seconde partie)

Belarus covers an area of 207.600 km². Its northern part (the Lake District) is characterized by vast coniferous forests and numerous laks, bogs and rivers. The southern part of the country, known as Polesie, has a landscape made up of fens and transition mires, as well as broad-leafed forests traversed by plain rivers with waterlogged floodplains.
The natural, social and political conditions in Balerus have favorised the formation and the conservation of several ecosystems, animals and plants that are rare or threatened in Europe. Belarus has preserved vast natural landscapes, such as river floodplains (i.e. the Prypiat’s floodplain) and wetlands.
Large tracts of raised pine bogs, impressive mature mixed forests dominated by spruce, birch and aspen, all types of marshes and bogs, well-conserved floodplains (such as the one of the Prypiat river) offer numerous opportunities to watch several sought after-species like Terek Sandpiper, Great Snipe, Great Grey and Ural Owls, Lesser Spotted and Greater Spotted Eagles, Three-toed and White-backed Woodpeckers, Greenish Warbler, Aquatic Warbler (the main population in the World) and numerous oriental passerines, raptors and waders.
Brown Bear, Wolf and Lynx are representatives of the major carnivores; Raccoon Dog and Pine Marten are among small predators. European Bison, Beaver, Elk and Wild Boar are also well represented.
In May 2009, we participated in a tour organized by Branta-Tours and guided by Pavel Simeonov and local guides, visiting different natural areas from the north to the south of the country.
In this second part of our report, we present the visisted areas and the birds watched from the  18th to the 22nd of May.