Piskory

Piskory is a forest nature reserve of about 203 hectares in Żyrzyn commune, Puławy County, in the Lublin Voivodeship. Established in 1998, it preserves a complex of aquatic, marsh and forest ecosystems of high biological diversity, centred on a lake that is slowly overgrowing^[1].

The reserve is a refuge for waterfowl and wetland birds, including the bittern, white-tailed eagle, lesser spotted eagle, white-winged tern, crane and greylag goose^[1]. The eagle owl is found in the nearby alder woods. The lake is also listed as habitat for many wetland birds in the Lublin region^[2].

Vegetation follows the water: the overgrowing lake, the marshes and wetlands around it, and the surrounding forest, with alder woods nearby^[1].

The reserve lies in the Lubartów Upland mesoregion^[1]. Its landform is a lake basin in forest, filling gradually with vegetation and silt.

The Lublin region has a temperate climate with colder winters than western Poland and warm summers. Water level and the freeze of the lake in winter shape the seasons for its breeding and migrating birds.

The reserve lies on forest land by Gołąb in Puławy area, where a tourist path from the Gołąb forest lodge crosses the Bonowskie meadows to the lake and returns through Las Bonowski^[2].

Piskory was established under a ministerial ordinance of 23 December 1998. It has no protection plan, but protection tasks were set by a regional ordinance in 2019, and it is under active protection^[1].

The Gołąb–Jezioro Piskory path, marked green and about 11 km long, runs from the Gołąb forest lodge through the Bonowskie meadows to Piskory Lake and back through Las Bonowski^[2]. The lake and its birds are the main attraction.

Visitors come on foot or by bike along the Gołąb path in Puławy commune. The regional tourism body Kraina Lessowych Wąwozów can be reached at 81 501 61 01 or info@kraina.org.pl for information^[2].

Active protection aims to keep the wetland and forest mosaic and the birds that nest on the lake. Overgrowth of the lake is a long-term process the reserve works with rather than against^[1].