Month: July 2009

We made a short visit to the southern border of the Carpathian Basin into Krassó-Szörény county in Romania. We had a wonderful morning seeing not less then five species of bunting species within a few hours. These were: Black-headed Bunting, Cirl Bunting, Ortolan Bunting, Rock Bunting and Yellowhammer.

The Black-headed Bunting is a rare breeding bird of the Carpathian Basin. As a fairly new colonizer it started to breed close to the Fruska Gora Mountains in Serbia. There is a small population there in the last 9 years. In Romania however it is a fairly common breeding bird outside the Carpathian Basin in the east. In the west the breeding has never been confirmed yet. A few years ago (2005) we saw two singing males just about two kilometer from the Romanian border. This year however we found this singing male well into Romania.

Black-headed Bunting (Emberiza melanocephala) is a rare bird in Transylvania

Photo: János Oláh

We also had several other interesting birds in this single day birding like Short-toed Eagle, Levant Sparrohawk, Red-rumped Swallow, Alpine Swift and Spansih Sparrow. The Red-rumped Swallow and the Levant Sparrowhawk are both scarce but regular breeding birds along the Danube River in Krassó-Szörény. This is the only regular breeding area for these species in the Carpathian Basin.

The Spanish Sparrow is also among the rarest of the breeding species of the Carpathian Basin. There are about 3-4 colonies known and they seem to change places after a few years. There is a decrease in the population in Serbia. In Krassó-Szörény we know two breeding locality.

Red-rumped Swallow (Hirundo daurica) is a regular but scarce breeder along the Danube in Transylvania

  Photo: János Oláh

For more images visit our Transylvania blog: http://birdwatchingtransylvania.wordpress.com/

Sakertour Team

The visiting team from naturArt managed to take some really nice images from our hides!

You can check thir selection here: http://www.naturart.hu/hortobagyi-hetvege

Sakertour Team

On the 11th and 12th of July the most well known Hungarian nature-photo organization naturArt (http://www.naturart.hu) has a weekend in our hides.

Sakertour is a sponsore of the The Wildlife Photographer Of The Year (naturArt) competition in 2009 and also offers a weekend for all the members of the naturArt group in our hides.

More will follow with images!

Sakertour team

It is really summer now with temperature up to 35C and the photo season is ending. Since mid April we had many photographers in our hides from all over Europe. Everybody enjoyed the photo themes and we shall be uploading many pictures to our galleries in the coming month!

Visiting photographers in the heron flight tower  Photo: János Oláh

One of our most popular hide was the Red-footed Falcon Tower which is still active and the last falcon chicks will probably fledge around the 20th of July. Take a look at a few image from this hide: http://www.sakertour.com/hidegallery.php?hide=3

Many photographers had excellent time in our Passerine Drinking Hide too where 47 species was recorded this Spring including goodies like Black Woodpecker, Middle Spotted Woodpecker (daily), Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Collared Flycatcher (daily) and many others. Take a look at a few image from this hide: http://www.sakertour.com/hidegallery.php?hide=24&author=&text=

The Pygmy Cormorant Hide was excellent throughout the Spring with a different face every day. At the moment it is still very good with many herons and egrets visiting it. Images: http://www.sakertour.com/hidegallery.php?hide=5&author=&text=

The Panorama Hide was only good for about a month as we had a very dry Spring so the shallow wetlands quickly dried out. The latest images will be uploaded soon.

Rollers were great this Spring too. We had different locations and at the moment one hide still operating until about 10 July, Take a look at a few images: http://www.sakertour.com/hidegallery.php?hide=26&author=&text=

Also we used a few mobile hides and blindes. Mainly for Avocet mating and then later for Hoopoe. A few nice image were taken. Take a look: http://www.sakertour.com/hidegallery.php?hide=25&author=&text=

The Heron Flight Tower is not an actual hide but a few hours were spent here on most tours and it was very popular!

Pygmy Cormorant     Photo: János Oláh

Night Heron    Photo: János Oláh