HORTOBÁGY – ZEMPLÉN AUTUMN TOUR
October in Hungary is something special! One of eastern Europe’s truly great bird areas, an autumn visit to the Hortobágy is hard to beat. In addition to its many scarce resident birds, the sweeping steppe grasslands and reed-fringed lakes of Hungary’s most famous National Park are a vital staging post for huge numbers of passage migrants and winter visitors streaming south to escape the iron grip of winter further north. The rare Lesser White-fronted Goose arrives at this time to be joined by as many as 100,000 Common Cranes! Raptors are abundant and October is an excellent month to look for them. Eastern Imperial and White-tailed Eagles, Long-legged and Rough-legged Buzzards, Northern Goshawk and Saker are all present at this time. As we search the steppes for them, we may well encounter Great Bustards, a late autumn gathering of Eurasian Stone-curlews or a flock of Eurasian Dotterels. Long-eared Owls will be gathering at favoured winter roosts in their hundreds! We will also visit the beautiful Zemplén Hills, where the autumnal forests, richly hued in golds, reds and browns, harbour Ural and Eurasian Eagle Owls, gangs of Hawfinches and up to eight different species of woodpecker, including the sought-after White-backed.

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HORTOBÁGY – ZEMPLÉN SPRING TOUR
Our spring tour of Hungary is a tried and tested, action-packed birding adventure, which combines the bird-rich grasslands and wetlands of the world famous Hortobágy National Park with the quiet woodlands of the pretty Zemplén Hills. A May visit always produces the longest bird list and our targets include: Eastern Imperial and White-tailed Eagles; Long-legged Buzzard; Red-footed Falcon; Saker; Eagle and Ural Owls; nine woodpecker species as well as a great selection of warblers (Barred, Savi’s, River, Moustached, Aquatic and Marsh). Other special birds we will be searching for are: Pygmy Cormorant, Great Bustard, Little Crake, Corncrake, Collared Pratincole and Collared Flycatcher. Hungary in spring is a wonderful birding experience and species, which have disappeared from much of Western Europe, such as Lesser Grey and Red-backed Shrikes, are still happily a common sight in the countryside here. Thanks to our extensive network of local contacts we will have the most up-to-date information on bird movements from day to day and quite simply, nobody knows our backyard better than us!

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HUNGARY, SLOVAKIA & TRANSYLVANIA GT
Join us for the classic Eastern European spring grand tour. Our journey across the Carpathian Basin will take us from the cool pine forests of Slovakia to the pretty Zemplén Hills. We will then descend to the bird-rich grasslands and wetlands of Hungary’s famous Hortobágy National Park and finally into Romania where we will explore spectacular limestone gorges and the dark mountain forests of Transylvania - the home of Brown Bears as well as the original Dracula! This amazing tour visits all the important bird habitats of the region and is hard to beat in terms of variety. The bird list is anticipated to be an impressive 200+ species and our targets include: Eastern Imperial, Golden and White-tailed Eagles; Long-legged Buzzard; Red-footed Falcon; Saker; Eagle, Ural, Pygmy, Tengmalm’s and Scops; all ten European woodpecker species and a great selection of warblers (Barred, Savi’s, River, Moustached, Aquatic and Marsh). Other special birds on our agenda are: Pygmy Cormorant, Great Bustard, Little Crake, Corncrake, Collared Pratincole, Alpine Swift, Wallcreeper, Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush, Thrush Nightingale, Red-breasted and Collared Flycatchers as well as Ortolan and Rock Buntings.

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