|
OUR TEAM Prof. János OLÁH János OLÁH Jr. Zoltán ECSEDI Gábor SIMAY Zoltán PETROVICS
Attila SZILÁGYI János TAR Tamás ZALAI Zoltán BACZÓ
LOCAL GUIDES Gábor KOVÁCS Bohumil MURIN Tamás NAGY Csaba PIGNICZKI |
|
OUR TEAM Prof. János OLÁH János OLÁH Jr. Zoltán ECSEDI Gábor SIMAY Zoltán PETROVICS
Attila SZILÁGYI János TAR Tamás ZALAI Zoltán BACZÓ
LOCAL GUIDES Gábor KOVÁCS Bohumil MURIN Tamás NAGY Csaba PIGNICZKI |
The leaders are the most important feature of all birding tours. Our leaders are professionally educated ornithologists, carrying out active field research in their own regions or on particular species or bird associations. Their field research activity is widely acknowledged. Sakertour is strongly committed to bird protection and nature conservation, we campaign for, plan and support habitat restoration projects. We have raised and are raising funds for bird community studies, as well as for the education and field training of our tour leaders. Sakertour keeps a close watch on environmental issues both in general and in the areas and habitats you visit during our tours. We are among the first to generate initiatives and to prepare project proposals, feasibility studies and restoration plans, and do everything we can to support local research and conservation efforts in protecting endangered habitats. This activity keeps the Sakertour group of young ornithologists professionally responsible for the bird habitats you visit during our organised tours.
One of the most experienced leaders and at present the managing director of Sakertour. He is a graduate of the University of Debrecen, Department of Ecology, and continues his PhD studies in Ecology. His thesis work was on Mineral cycling guilds of aquatic birds and the subject of his PhD study is The impact of grazing on breeding shorebirds in Pannonic grasslands. He has published several scientific papers. He was a co-author of the handbook titled The Birds of the Hortobágy. Now he is working (together with Zoli) on an even larger scale handbook, The Birds of the Carpathians. This book will share all knowledge on this biogeographical region, which is more or less the same area where Sakertour operates. He speaks and writes perfect English and is learning Spanish. He started birding when he was only 14 years old. In 1993 he spent six months in the Queens College, London, improving his English and studying the birds of the diverse habitats of the British Isles. He is fond of bird photography, and has travelled with a camera and a telescope in many countries of most continents. He is also a member of the Hungarian Rarity Committee and was the operator of the Hungarian Birdline in the late 1990s. In the last few years he has started guiding not only in his home ground in central and eastern Europe but also all over the world. At present, he is also a staff leader for 
Zoltán is one of the most experienced leaders of Sakertour. He graduated at the University of Debrecen, Department of Environmental Management. His thesis work was on The Ecology of Avocet in the Hortobágy. He speaks perfect English and began birding when he was only 13 years old. In the late 1980s he educated birders of his home town, Balmazújváros where a young generation of knowledgeable birders emerged with his help. His field ornithological work started on the steppes of the Hortobágy National Park and later he became acquainted with nearly all bird habitats in Hungary. Zoltán has also participated actively in several nature protection and habitat restoration projects. He is also the founder and leader of the Hortobágy Environmental Association, one of the recent activities of which has been to restore and create wetland habitats for shorebirds breeding in or migrating through the Hortobágy. He was a member of the Hungarian Rarity Committee. Zoltán started his birdwatching trips in 1992, and has visited Israel, Egypt, Morocco, France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, Scandinavia, Slovakia, Turkey, Romania, Serbia, Vietnam, Thailand, India, Venezuela, South-Africa, Namibia, Ethiopia, Borneo, Chile, Yemen and Indonesia. He became a regular tour leader in Hungary in 1993 and has led over a hundred tours for Sakertour ever since. In 1995 he founded the Hungarian Society of Field Ornithologists and they established the Hungarian Birdline. He is conducting research on the Hortobágy shorebirds and he is the author of seven scientific papers as well as editor and co-author of the handbook The Birds of the Hortobágy. He is also a co-editor with János to the forthcoming handbook The Birds of the Carpathians. Zoltán is married to Regina and has two young daughters named Ajsa and Aletta. They live in Debrecen.
He joined Sakertour in 2005 and has guided over twenty groups since then as a professional tour leader. He has been interested in birds and nature conservation since his first years in primary school. During his studies at the University of Debrecen he deepened his knowledge on birds, carried out research on ground-nesting birds of the Hortobágy National Park, spending most of his time in the field. His favourite area is the Bihar Plain and the Hortobágy. In 2008 he started to work for the Hortobágy National Park as a full time warden in the Bihar Plain area. He is also a member of the Hungarian Rarity Committee. He frequently visits other parts of Hungary as well as many sites of the Carpathian Basin to study birds. As a keen birdwatcher and photographer, he has visited several different Western Palearctic countries (e.g. Turkey, Spain, Egypt, Jordan), as well as Namibia, Mexico, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and India. He speaks perfect English and some German. Gábor is married to Tünde and has two young sons named Krisztián and Gábor. They live in Földes.
The most knowledgeable expert of the Zemplén Forest Reserves, where he has been birding for 30 years now. He used to work as a full time birdwatching guide but nowadays he is a warden of the southern Zemplén Hills, working for the Aggtelek National Park. He is, however, still one of the most important local guides for Sakertour who is based in the heart of the Zemplén Foothills. He has helped our work since 1994. He is frequently in the field and devotes his time to the protection of raptors, especially Eagle and Ural Owls by constructing and placing out artificial nest boxes for owls. His activity has made the birdlife of the Zemplén Foothills well known. He has particular ability to discover the eagles high in the sky and the owls hiding in the dense canopy, not to mention his superb skill of finding woodpeckers throughout the year, hence his nickname: “woodpeckerman”.
Attila joined Sakertour officially in 2007 when the hide photography section was launched, but has been helping our company since 1994. He has finished his studies at the University of Debrecen, Department of Environmental Management. His thesis work was written on the Red-footed Falcons of the Hortobágy. Also a member of the young birder generation from Balmazújváros where he was born. Nowadays he also teaches young birders just like Zoli taught him some twenty years ago. Attila has worked as a full time warden in the Hortobágy National Park since 2001. He has been photographing birds and landscape in the Hortobágy since the early 90’s and has an intimate knowledge of his local area where some of our hides can be found. He has also worked as a volunteer in several NGOs such as the Hortobágy Environmental Association and has assisted in research and several surveys. He regularly contributes to bird ringing projects like the Spoonbill, Pygmy Cormorant and Caspian Gull colour ringing programme. He has published several papers on birds and was a co-author of The Birds of the Hortobágy. Attila has widely travelled in the Western Palearctic to watch birds. He has been to the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, Turkey, Georgia and Tunisia. Attila is married to Dóri and has a young daughter named Anna Füzike. They live in a house in the centre of the Hortobágy National Park.
János has been guiding for Sakertour since 1994 in the Hortobágy area. He is also a member of the young birder generation from Balmazújváros who were educated by Zoli about twenty years ago. János is working as a full time warden in the Hortobágy National Park since 1995. He contributes to several LIFE projects but his personal ambition is to keep track of the Lesser White-fronted Geese on passage in the Hortobágy and he is a well-known expert of the species in Hungary. He is a keen photographer too and has an intimate knowledge of his local area where some of our hides can be found. He has done volunteer work for several NGOs such as the Hortobágy Environmental Association and assisted in many surveys. He contributes to bird ringing projects like the Spoonbill, Pygmy Cormorant and Caspian Gull colour ringing programme. He has published papers on various bird species and was a co-author of The Birds of the Hortobágy handbook. He is currently the top lister in Hungary with over 355 species and has found several new birds for Hungary and many more to the Hortobágy area. He is also a member of the Hungarian Rarity Committee. János has also travelled in the Western Palearctic to watch birds. He has been to the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Finland, Norway, Spain, Morocco, Greece, Turkey and Georgia. János is married to Izabella and has a young daughter and a son named Orsolya and Gergely. They live in Balmazújváros.
Tamás joined Sakertour officially in 2007 when the hide photography section was launched, but has been helping our company since 1994. He is a graduate of the University of Debrecen, Department of Ecology where he finished his studies in 1997. He wrote his graduate thesis on The monitoring and protection of the birdlife in the Heves region. He speaks perfect English and began birding when he was a child. After his university studies he worked for the Körös-Maros National Park and later moved to the Hortobágy National Park where he is currently working as a regional manager. His main research area is the Tisza Lake where he has led and participated in several projects related to birds and their protection. After the cyanide pollution hit the Tisza in 2000 he conducted several monitoring surveys to asses the damage. He has contributed to several LIFE projects (Imperial Eagle, Red-footed Falcon, Saker) but his main interest is to protect the breeding birds of the vast agricultural fields in his home patch (Heves Plain and Jászság). Tamás has an intimate knowledge of his local area where some of our hides can be found. He is a member of several conservationist NGOs and is currently the secretary of the Hungarian Rarity Committee. He has been one of the editors and authors of the recently published and most up-to-date Hungarian bird checklist titled An Annotated list of the Birds of Hungary. Tamás has also travelled in the Western Palearctic to watch birds. He has been to Slovakia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, Finland, Norway and Turkey. Meanwhile he also began to take an active interest in watching birds of more exotic places and since 2000 he has visited many Asian countries such as India, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia and New-Guinea. His trips abroad also took him to other parts of the world for example to Canada, Venezuela, Peru, South-Africa, Namibia, Ethiopia and Australia. Tamás is married to Henriett and has one daughter named Monique. They live in Szolnok.
Zoltán joined Sakertour officially in 2008 when the hide photography section was launched, but has been helping our company in the Transylvania region for many years (as he was working for our partner AvesTours previously). He speaks good English and began birding when he was 13 years old. He is based in Székelyudvarhely (Odorheiu Scuiesc) and his local patch is the Hargita Mountain and the various wetlands around his home town. Zoltán has an intimate knowledge of his local area but he has also travelled extensively in the Danube-delta area. He started his bird and nature protection work when he joined the Aves Foundaton in 1998 where he carried out surveys and monitoring works. He has been one of the authors of the Romanian bird checklist. Zoltán has also travelled in the Western Palearctic to watch birds. He has been to Slovakia, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey.
