Year: 2012

Sakertour team

The White-tailed Eagle photography season has started on the 1st of December. It is almost the end of the month now so high time to give you some insight of the past weeks. December 2012 was excellent so far at the Sakertour hides as we had eagles every day – 100% success rate! Well of course if it is misty or rainy it does not feel such a great success but looking from the eagle attendance at the hides it cannot get better. The numbers are continuously changing just as the weather does but we had up to 30 eagles at our hides at a single day. The biggest number was 17 White-tailed Eagle at one hide.

Juvenile White-tailed Eagle in flight Photo: Kevin Johnson

Most unusual was the observation of three different Eastern Imperial Eagles in December. One bird was seen only for a single day but the second bird is here for several days now and a third one joined in today (2 birds today).

Juvenile Eastern Imperial Eagle (the first unringed bird) Photo: Kevin Johnson

Juvenile Eastern Imperial Eagle (the second ringed bird) Photo: Will Nichols

There was a short spell of real winter with -12,5 lowest temperature but otherwise it is not cold here. January is coming and we still have some free places in our hides if you feel like some White-tailed Eagle photography in January 2013!

Sakertour team

The Hortobágy National Park had a geese-count where the main focus was to establish the number of the globally endangered Red-breasted Geese staging within the national park. The count was successful and 206 Red-breasted Geese were seen though the real number should be around 250-300 individuals as not all places can be surveyed in a single day!

Red-breasted Goose (Photo: Gábor Simay)

The trip report of Danube Delta and Black Sea coast Autumn tour now available on our website. This trip was organized in cooperation with Limosa Holidays and The Travelling Naturalist. 

You can read more about this successful tour here. Enjoy!

A total of 5 Little Bitterns were seen during the trip (photo by tour participant Gordon Small)

Sakertour team

This year´s Ornitholidays autumn tour was slightly later than usual, in early November. Due to the fine and relatively warm weather we could still record a fair number of species, including some unusual one  – like Great Northern Diver (together with Black and Red-throated), Kittiwake, Slavonian Grebe and Pectoral Sandpiper (probably the latest ever record of the species in Hungary).

Besides local rarities we had many of the more usual species. This year produced the biggest ever Crane assemblage – so we had opportunities to watch tens of thousands of Common Cranes in the evenings. Geese also had arrived probably in bigger numbers than usual, and in the huge flocks it was not difficult to find Red-breasted and Lesser White-fronted Geese. Saker Falcon, Imperial Eagle, Long-legged and several Rough-legged Buzzards and many White-tailed Eagles were all seen well during the week. We recorded Black, Syrian and Middle-spotted Woodpeckers and extremely good views of 32 Great Bustards separated to male and female flocks.

Female Syrian Woodpecker

Common Cranes

Sakertour team

Sakertour is also a sponsor of the GDF Suez – The Wildlife Photographer Of The Year 2012  (Hungary) competition.

The special Sakertour prize was given to Sándor Vadász for the image named ´resting´.

It was captured in the Bihar Mountains of Transylvania (Boga Valley).

Body: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: Nikkor 8/500 Reflex

Photo by Sándor Vadász

Sakertour team

Last week we gave a brief news about the maximum number of Cranes for 2012. This was based on the last 20 years of experience when the maximum was in mid October. This year however the maximum number was on the Crane count yesterday (1st of November).This was also the highest ever count of Cranes in the Hortobágy National Park at one particular time!

The count was 112 100 Cranes at 7 roosting areas! The biggest roosts were the Kondás pond with 50 650, Virágoskút Fishponds with 25 850 and Pente-zug 16 800.

Another 8925 were counted in Southern Hungary (these birds already left the Hortobágy). Cumulative total for Hungary: 121 275

Crane family in flight (Photo: János Oláh)

Sakertour team

On the 25th of October the number of Cranes were 95 400 individuals at 6 major roosting areas in the Hortobágy National Park. The largest numbers were counted on the Kondás pond of the Hortobágy Fishpond complex (43 700) and on the Virágoskúti Fishponds (26 100).

Cranes on the Hortobágy by János Oláh

Sakertour team

During this eight days tour we were extremely lucky weatherwise, as we had full sunshine all over the week and a nice, above the average temperature. We visited the Zemplén-hills as well as the Hortobágy, where we did see all the possible woodpeckers, including White-backed and many great views of Middle-spotted. We also saw 5 species of owls, like Ural and Eagle Owl. Thanks to the nice weather, Dotterels were still around and Great Bustards and Lesser White-fronted Geese were also seen extremely well. One of the main attraction of the season are the Cranes, which were present in huge numbers with more then 40.000 seen one evening flying to roost. We even recorded some local rarities, like Lesser Yellowlegs, Grey Phalaropes (2 different individuals – one found by the group) and Herring Gull.  

Ural Owl

Flock of male Great Bustards

Dotterels

Long-eared Owl roosting

Common Cranes flying to roost (Photos: Simay Gábor)

Sakertour team

The Crane migration is a great event in the Hortobágy National Park. Every year tens of thousands arrive and gather in this grassland park. The numbers are monitored with weekly counts on the roosting sites. Usually the highest count is in the middle of the month. A total of 80 200 Cranes were counted today evening (18th of October) at 7 different roosting areas. The biggest one is the Kondás pond in the Hortobágy-Fishpond complex with 46 200 birds present.

Cranes flying to roost in the Hortobágy National Park in October 2012 (Photo: János Oláh)

Following the very good breeding succes of the Lesser White-fronted Geese in 2011 we had a very promising count in 2012 Spring. We were somehow all secretly expecting an even higher number in 2012 autumn but it did not happen. The highest count of the autumn of 2012 was 43 (45) birds (9 juvenile). Although we all know that some of the unsuccessfull breeders would not take the same migration root. Also a few birds (12 ind) already arrived to Kerkini Lake when the highest count was on the Hortobágy so the autumn total is minimum 55 birds. If you want all the recent observations of this endangered geese please visit the LWfrG portal!

Lesser White-fronted Geese flock in the Hortobágy in October 2012 (Photo: János Oláh)

Sakertour team

Autumn birding in the Danube Delta always has it`s own, different feeling, especially in September when thousands of birds are on the way to wintering areas in Africa, India or Middle East. 

This year we have had again a very enjoyable and successful trip with our partner company, Limosa Holidays.

We have recorded 180 species whitin 9 days. Highlights were 18 raptor species among them Lesser Spotted Eagles, Booted Eagles, Saker Falcons, Lesser Kestrel, Red-footed Falcons, Levant Sparrowhawks; 29 wader species such as Broad-billed Sandpiper, Mars Sandpiper, Red-necked Phalaropes, Bar-tailed Godwits, Collared Pratincoles; lots of passerines amongst them plenty Red-breasted Flycatches;  Pied and Isabelline Wheatears in fresh, autumn plumage; nice selection of woodpeckers including fabulous, prolonged view of a Black-, Grey-headed and Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers; Arctic Skuas and a friendly, first year Great Black-headed or Pallas`s Gull.

The full trip report with more pictures will be available soon in our Danube Delta blog.

Sakertour team

Red-breasted Flycatchers migrates high number through Danube Delta (Photo: Zoltán Baczó)

First winter Pallas`s Gull  (Photo: Zoltán Baczó)

The trip report of our longest and most comprehensive tour is now available online in our ´trip reports´ section! It is an excellent value for money tour and covers most of the important habitats with a wide range of special birds!

You can read more about this fantastic tour here!

There is still available place for the 2013 tour. More info here!

Bearded Tit (Photo: János Oláh)

Sakertour team

The late summer tour in the Hortobágy National Park and the Zemplén Forest Reserve by Limosa was as action packed as usual! Tour highlights were four Ural Owls and two Eagle Owls in the Zemplén and a wide selection of raptors in the Hortobágy. This included the magnificent Saker Falcon and many Red-footed falcons. Seeing 1000 Redfoots coming to roost is an unforgettable sight! Report will be available soon. For next year Hungary dates please visit the Limosa website!

Saker Falcon (Photo: János Oláh)

Sakertour team

The trip report of Hungary and Transylvania spring tour with Ribble Bird Tours now available on our website. It was a very successful birding tour where we saw a great selection of special birds. W3e have also had good views of at least 2 adult and 3 young Carpathian Brown Bears in Transylvania!

You can read more about this fantastic tour here.

Breeding Eurasian Scops Owl in one of our nest box  (Photo: Brian Field/tour participant)

Sakertour team

In mid June, our partner company Wild Images had their first bird photography trip to the Danube Delta. It was a really enjoyable 8 day long holiday where more than 50 bird species were photographed by each participant! 

The Danube Delta´s birdlife was really eventful and with our custom built photo boat we had lots of nice subjects in the frame daily. Star species were the breeding plumaged Red-necked, Black-necked Grebes, Dalmatian and White Pelicans,  Black Terns, Kingfisher, friendly Squacco Herons, Night Herons, Little Bitterns, Glossy Ibises amongst many others.

In the Macin Mountain National Park area Sombre Tit and a Wryneck were the highlights at our drinking hide while at the lagoons of the Black Sea a wide variety of bird species gave us an excellent tour end. 

You can read the complete trip report under our Danube Delta Blog. 

Sakertour team

            Squacco Heron (Photo: Peter M. Beesley)

Sombre Tit (Photo: Fraser Symonds)

We had a fantastic 8 day long holiday guided by Chris Hall from NEW HORIZON.

Highlights in the Delta part was Dalmatian Pelicans, thousands of fishing White Pelicans, Grey-headed-, Black- and Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers, Thrush Nightingale while around the lagoons Red-breasted Flycatcher, Rosy Starlings, Broad-billed Sandpipers, Collared Pratincoles, Bluethroat, Saker Falcon and three Eastern Imperial Eagle!

Dalmatian Pelican in the Danube Delta  (Photo: János Oláh)

Sakertour team

The report of our 2012 Danube Delta Spring Tour is now available in the trip report section. This 9 day long birding holiday were organized together with our partner companies, Limosa Holidays and The Travelling Naturalist.

This spring we had again a very enjoyable visit with such star species observed like Great Black-headed Gull, Saker Falcon, Eastern Imperial Eagle, Levant Sparrowhawk, Dalmatian Pelicans, Paddyfield Warbler and so on. Read more about this tour here!

Paddyfield Warbler on the 2012 spring tour (Photo: Zoltán Baczó)

As the breeding season finishing around the Falcon Tower in 2012 we were thinking to give some statistics about this magnificent hide. The breeding success of Common Kestrels and Red-footed Falcons is remarkable for five consecutive years now. When we have built the tower (2008) we were just hoping that redfoots will use the artificial nest boxes placed close to the hide and it was a very pleasant surprise when the first arrival birds straight occupied a box by the tower in April 2008! In fact in 2009 we had one pair of redfoots actually breeding successfully on the tower itself which was the first ever record of the species breeding on artificial building (anywhere in the World – please let us know if you have heard any unpublished breeding record like this one)!

Juvenile Red-footed Falcons in the nest box (July 2012). Photo: János Oláh

Male Red-footed Falcon brings a Great Green Bush-Cricket (July 2012). Photo: János Oláh

Male handles the food to the female (July 2012). Photo: János Oláh

Breeding birds at the Sakertour´s Falcon Tower:

2012:

3 pairs of Common Kestrels successfully bred on the tower itself

3 pairs of Red-footed Falcons successfully bred around the tower (within 10m)

1 pair of Long-eared Owl successfully bred around the tower

plus 2 pairs of Starlings and 1 pair of Tree Sparrow

Already fledged juvenile (July 2012). Photo: János Oláh

2011:

2 pairs of Common Kestrels successfully bred on the tower itself

4 pairs of Red-footed Falcons successfully bred around the tower (within 10m)

1 pair of Roller successfully bred on the tower

plus 2 pairs of Starlings and 1 pair of Tree Sparrow

Female Red-footed Falcon (July 2012). Photo: János Oláh

2010:

2 pairs of Common Kestrels successfully bred on the tower itself

1 pair of Red-footed Falcon unsuccessfully bred on the tower itself

3 pairs of Red-footed falcons successfully bred around the tower (within 10m)

Female Red-footed Falcon in flight (July 2012). Photo: János Oláh

2009:

1 pairs of Common Kestrel successfully bred on the tower itself

1 pair of Red-footed Falcon successfully bred on the tower itself

2 pairs of Red-footed falcons successfully bred around the tower (within 10m)

Female Red-footed Falcon in orange (July 2012). Photo: János Oláh

2008:

1 pairs of Common Kestrel successfully bred on the tower itself

1 pair of Red-footed Falcon unsuccessfully bred on the tower itself

2 pairs of Red-footed falcons successfully bred around the tower (within 10m)

Lets hope we will have the same fantastic experience in the coming years as well. It is always delightful to see as many as 12 juvenile redfoots being raised right in front of our watchful eyes!

Come and visit our Falcon Tower which is truly a unique place as nowhere else in the World you can photograph Red-footed Falcons in such a setup!

Sakertour team

Congratulations to Michael Sothcott for winning the ´photo of the week´ on BirdGuides with a fantastic Collared Pratincole image taken on our late June Danube Delta tour!

Collared Pratincole Photo: Michael Southcott

Sakertour team

The report of our 2012 Hungary Spring tour is now available in the trip report section. This tour was lead by our expert leader Tamás Zalai and all the available specialties were seen. There were lots of woodpeckers and owls but scarce migrant waders included Broad-billed Sandpiper, Dotterel and Great Snipe. Read more about this tour  here!

This is a fantastic value for money tour and next year dates are 11-18 May, 2013.

Great Snipe was seen on the 2012 tour (Photo: János Oláh)

Sakertour team

Spring photo season in the Danube Delta soon reaches its end. We had again fantastic photo opportunities with different situation every week.  In June the main breeding took place for many species and more and more youngster’s appears every day. From mid June some northern migrants start their migration south. These are adult birds with still nice, breeding plumage!

Since we are soon in the end of the season we will prepare all the reports and made it available to you. 

 Black Tern (Photo: Zoltán Baczó)

Whiskered Tern is the commonest tern in the Danube Delta   (Photo: Zoltán Baczó)

White-winged Black Terns started to appear in the second half of June  (Photo: Zoltán Baczó)

Sakertour team

Our newly developed photo services in Romania had a very good start.  We already finished two photo trips in May and both were really successful and productive!  We can safely say our specially designed photo boat and drinking hide working excellently! With `Borzas` photo boat we approached birds very efficiently and all participants had plenty of moments to make good quality pictures. Our drinking hide also works well, but due to the extremely rainy May we haven’t experienced the best face of it, yet.

Soon we will made trip reports available in our Danube Delta blog, but until then enjoy a few pictures from the May trips here.  Reports from June tours coming soon too!

Dalmatian Pelican (Photo: Beat Rüegger)

Kingfisher (Photo: Beat Rüegger)

Barred Warbler from the drinking hide (Photo: Beat Rüegger)

Curlew Sandpiper from the lagoons of Black Sea  (Photo: Attila Szilágyi)

Sakertour team

During the last week of May we had wonderful birding in Hungary with the Travelling Naturalist group. The weather was nice and not too hot, but often too windy. 

The trip coincided with the influx of the Rose-colored Starlings which lasted only for a couple of days. During this we were lucky enough to find two flocks of this superb species. We also had many great views of the nine different species of woodpeckers, raptors like Long-legged Buzzard, Saker Falcon or Eastern Imperial Eagle. We had great views of Stone Curlews and we saw the breathtaking display of a leking male Great Bustard!

White-backed Woodpecker

River Warbler

Bee-eater        (Photos: Simay Gábor)

Sakertour team

We had two back to back Wild Images photo-tours in the Hortobágy in May. Generally the weather was poor for the first four days with mainly overcast and with some rain. Some of the hides are not very good in such conditions – mostly the waterbirds hides – but the experience was still very good. Other hides like the falcon tower, Hoopoe and Roller were very good. The following days sun finally arrived and the drinking hides were gradually better and better, producing up to 25 species a day. The egret hide was fantastic though continuously changing. In the first few days Spoonbills stole the show with up to 30! feeding in front of the hides while Black Storks appeared only on the last days. All in all it was an action packed photo-tour and a as soon as we have time we will publish lots of images and also a report.

If you want to make any bookings with Wild Images for 2013 please visit their website – free places running out quickly…

Hoopoe by tour participant Steven Knell

Red-footed Falcon male by tour participant David Mercer

Sakertour team