Kępa Wykowska

Kępa Wykowska is a faunistic nature reserve of the bird type on the Vistula River in the Płock County of the Masovian Voivodeship. It covers islands, sandbars and stretches of open river water, and was set up to protect nesting sites of rare and declining Polish waders: gulls, terns and little ringed plovers^[1]. The reserve is about 353 hectares and has a buffer zone of roughly 231 hectares.

The reserve exists for river-island birds. Its stated purpose is to preserve, for scientific and educational reasons, the nesting sites of gulls, terns and little ringed plovers, species that are rare and have declined in Poland^[1]. These birds nest on bare sandbars and islands that the river builds and reshapes. It lies within the Middle Vistula Valley Natura 2000 bird area^[1].

The protected habitat is the river itself: islands, sandy bars and the water of the Vistula^[1]. Such shifting sandbars are open, lightly vegetated ground, which is what the ground-nesting waders and terns need. The reserve also lies inside the Kampinos Vistula Valley Natura 2000 habitat area^[1].

The reserve sits in the Warsaw Basin mesoregion, on the floodplain and channel of the Vistula^[1]. Its islands and sandbars are river deposits that are built up and reworked by the changing flow of the river.

The Vistula valley in central Masovia has a temperate climate with cold winters and warm summers. River level is the main seasonal factor for the reserve, since high water covers sandbars and low summer water exposes them.

The reserve lies along a stretch of the Vistula used by kayakers between Wyszogród and Płock. The villages of Michowice and Świniary stand on the left bank nearby, and were badly damaged when a flood defence embankment broke in 2010^[2].

The reserve was established by a ministerial order of 2 November 1994, when it covered 248 hectares; it has since been measured at about 353 hectares. A protection plan was adopted in 2018, and it is overseen by the Regional Environmental Protection Directorate in Warsaw^[1]. It borders the Wyspy Białobrzeskie and Ławice Troszyńskie reserves along the river^[1].

There are no walking trails here. The reserve is seen from the water: the boundary follows the river between river kilometres 612.1 and 616.6, and it is one of several bird reserves passed on the Wyszogród to Płock canoe trip^[2]. Because the birds nest on open sandbars, viewing is best done from a boat or the bank at a distance.

The reserve is in the gminas of Gąbin, Słubice, Bodzanów and Słupno, in Płock County^[1]. It is reached by river on the Wyszogród to Płock kayak route rather than by any road or path. No visitor facilities are listed for it.

Protection is aimed at the nesting colonies of waders on the sandbars. The reserve is part of a chain of bird reserves on the Vistula, lies within the Nadwiślański Landscape Protected Area and two Natura 2000 sites, and is covered by a management plan adopted in 2018^[1].