Forest reserve "Przyłęk"

It was established in 1952 as the first nature reserve in the Nysa commune and the Opolskie Voivodeship, near the village of Markowice. It covers an area of ​​0.94 ha, although the founding act mentions 0.8 ha. It was created to preserve, for scientific and didactic reasons, a small fragment of a deciduous mixed forest with natural features. The reserve area is covered with fresh forest, belonging to the Central European oak-hornbeam forest complex. The stand consists of: English oak, small-leaved lime 160-220 years old, hornbeam, sycamore, Norway maple, Norway spruce, and occasional common ash. In the rich undercoat there is mainly elderberry. 125 species of vascular plants have been found here, and 4 of them are under species protection, they are: hepatica, lily of the valley, common ivy and guelder rose. Due to its small area, the reserve cannot be a refuge for larger animals. On the other hand, we can find a very large variety of songbirds, especially hollows, among which the following should be mentioned: the nuthatch, which always narrows the mouth of the hollow by covering it with a layer of clay around it, or the tortuous bird - a bird from the woodpecker family, with an interesting behavior that will not be in danger. he runs away but raises the feathers and twists his head. This behavior became his second species name "kręciszyja". His chicks, in case of danger, emit a voice resembling the hiss of a snake. In addition to the above-mentioned woodpecker, the great and black woodpeckers (the largest among our woodpeckers) and the middle woodpecker, strongly associated with old oaks, also nest here. Another bird species from the reserve is the finch, one of our most common birds (it is interesting that their singing changes not only depending on the subspecies, but may also differ within one of them, which means that a short distance and a separate region influence what song he sings to us). An interesting species occurring in the reserve is also the grosbeak, whose jaws can generate a pressure of approx. 70 kilograms, needed to split the hard seeds of bird cherry and shrub.