Tower of the Birds of the Sky and Grabownica Pond

The Tower of the Birds of the Sky is a wooden observation tower built in 2008 (approx. 13 m high, with three viewing levels) on the south-western shore of Grabownica Pond, at the eastern edge of the village of Grabownica, about 8 km east of Milicz. A footpath leads to it from the Grabownica–Czatkowice road; admission is free. Mind your head at the entrance.

Grabownica (Grabownicki) Pond covers about 283 ha and is the largest pond in the Stawno complex; it lies entirely within the “Stawy Milickie” (Milicz Ponds) nature reserve, a Ramsar site. First mentioned in 1639, in the 17th century it was – according to the Barycz Valley Landscape Park – several times larger; it was later divided into two parts, and Upper Grabownica was drained in the 19th century (the village of Młodzianów stands there today). The pond is managed by the Stawno fish farm (Stawy Milickie SA), which raises mainly carp and tench; the fish harvest takes place in autumn.

Birds: in early spring, pochards, tufted ducks, wigeons and teals; in summer, greylag geese (more than 25 pairs) and pochards (more than 60 pairs) nest here, while the reeds hold great reed warblers, bearded reedlings, the bittern and the marsh harrier; in autumn come cranes, bean geese, swans (all three species), great egrets – sometimes more than a hundred – and white-tailed eagles. In 1947 Włodzimierz Puchalski filmed “On Bird Island” (Na ptasiej wyspie) on an island in this pond – the first full-length Polish nature film made after the war.

The “Around Grabownica Pond” nature trail circles the pond (approx. 7–8 km, 5 stops – including the historic Dragoński Weir and an avenue of old oaks along the dike). Grabownica is also the end point of the Ryszard Szurkowski cycle path, which follows the embankment of the former narrow-gauge railway from Milicz.

Reserve rules: stay on marked trails and keep off closed dikes, out of the water and out of the reed beds; dogs, drones, swimming, camping and campfires are not allowed.