Month: April 2009

Spring is in full swing with more and more birds arriving now to the Carpathian Basin!

Our tour in co-operation with Liberty Bird ended succesfully. This tour was covering the Hortobágy in Hungary and Transylvania in Romania.

We had fantastic weather throughout the tour and recorded 195 species plus seen 6 Brown Bears in the dark Carpathian pine forest!

Photo: Carl´Antonio Balzari /Birdlife Switzerland

There were several highlights on this tour from the displaying Great Bustards to the displaying Wallcreepers.

Our full report will be available on our partners website (www.liberty-bird.com)!

Three-toed Woodpecker; Photo: Zoltán Baczó

Southern Festoon; Photo: Carl´Antonio Balzari/Birdlife Switzerland

Sakertour team

From 14th to 19th of April, 2009 our friend Jack Clark was back to Hungary for the 3rd time. His main aim was to photograph Great Bustard, Ural Owl and White-backed Woodpecker.

The action packed few days were spent mostly in different hides for Great Bustard and stalking Ural Owl and WbW.

As things were going very well there was chance for some extras like visiting our Pygmy Cormorant Hide and also two visits to our Passerine Drinking Hide where 22 species was photographed. Best birds Jack was able to take good pictures were Ferruginous Duck, Middle Spotted Woodpecker, Collared Flycatcher and Hawfinch.

Photographs: Attila Szilágyi

Attila Szilágyi

During a short, three and a half days trip in the weekend of Easter, the main aims were to see White-backed Woodpecker and the lekking of the Great Bustrad.

In the Zemplén Hills we managed to see no less then three of these woodpeckers with excellent walkaway views. On the same spot we also saw Gray-headed, Middle Spotted and Black Woodpeckers. During this day we also saw 3 Lesser Spotted Eagles, 2 Eagle Owls and a Ural Owl.

In the Hoertobágy we saw a spectacular, action full early morning Great Bustrad lekking with seven males involved. We also had several superb views of Ferruginous Duscks, while we also saw a Saker Falcon, a pair of Stone Curlew and some Mars Sandpipers in different locations, while Moustached Warblers were realy active and surprisingly easy to see. We also had time to twich a recently (the day before) found Dalmatian Peican, which is a real local rarity (see below).

On the last day we went to a forest patch near Debrecen to find Collard Flycatcher. We saw two singing males together with some femails.

The weather was nice and sunny during the whole trip and the temperature stayed usualy over 20 Celsius degree.

Gábor Simay

On the 11th of April one of our partner tours is starting. This is a special early Spring tour in the Hortobágy and Transylvania. Focusing on Great Bustard display, Lesser White-fronted Goose and Brown Bears.

Check out the tour itinerary: http://www.liberty-bird.com/index.php?language=de&menu=destinationen&submenu=destinationendetails&dest_id=78

Will keep you updated about the tour!

the Sakertour team

Dalmatian Pelican is a rare vagrant in Hungary with the last record dates back to 1998. Since 1857 there were only 10 accepted records to date. The last twitchable was in 1997 so this Spring invasion was a very welcome event for the young birder generation!

Following the strong southerly winds of March 27th afternoon the first bird appeared at Csaj Lake on the 28th of March. The following day another breeding plumaged bird was found on the Hortobágy. Both birds were last seen on the 31st March. Then one was reported at Rétszilas Fishponds on the 1st of April and a few hours later another was seen in flight at Marcali near Lake Balaton. The bird at Rétszilas was seen again on the 3rd of April and then on the 4th of April one but probably two were seen in flight over the Gerecse Hills as they were flying west.

It is not clear yet how many birds were involved in all the sightings (at least two). The Hungarian RC will take care to sort out these records. One thing is for sure: it was a superb week for this very rare bird in Hungary. Especially as they were all in wonderful breeding plumage!

Photo: Csaj Lake, 29th March, 2009 by János Oláh