The winter of 2011/2012 is a very mild one so far. We had 2 days of -8C in early December and then 2 days of -7C in mid January. Snow cover is almost non-existent though we had 8cm on the 22nd January but it was gone in a single day! The last weekend of January brought some wintry weather and apparently this will last a few days. We shall see!

Birding is slow but several thousands geese can be found and many Red-breasted Goose were seen in December and January. About 100 in the Hortobágy region (and up to 200 in the Buharugra region).

The vole population is very strong so Short-eared Owls, Hen Harriers and Rough-legged Buzzards are rather common this winter. Merlins are also plentyful.

Our eagle hides are operational and we will keep you posted about the Skua Nature group and also our own Sakertour January tour. The mid January eagle count in the Hortobágy region yielded 154 wintering White-tailed Eagles, one Eastern Imperial Eagle and two Greater Spotted Eagles.

Apart from the winter birds of the ´puszta´ we also have our bird feeding station where hundreds of tits and many woodpeckers can be seen daily. In some days up to 17 bird species were photographed from the hide by the feeding station in January.

Hen Harrier male (Photo: János Oláh)

Short-eared Owl (Photo: János Oláh)

Juvenile White-tailed Eagle enjoying the sunny, clear weather over the steppe (Photo: János Oláh).

Hawfinch is regular on the feeder is small numbers (Photo: János Oláh)

Middle-spotted Woodpecker is also daily visitor on the feeder

(Photo: János Oláh)

Sakertour team