Year: 2013

The 2013/2014 eagle season has just started a few days ago. This weekend up to 7 eagles were photographed at one hide. The night temperature is down to -5C now but daytime weather is still not very cold.

There are still some limited places for January 2014!

We hope to see you in our eagle hides soon!

Adult White-tailed Eagle (Photo: Attila Szilágyi)

Adult White-tailed Eagle (Photo: János Tar)

Sakertour team

The Autumn season of birding tours has ended now and the only word to summarize the Autumn of 2013 is FANTASTIC!

The weather was very kind to most of our groups and throughout October it was sunny and hot (up to 24C). The Crane migration was superb and long-lasting (maximum was 106 950) and we were also delighted to hear that this ´golden October´ will be long remembered in the Tokaj World Heritage Area as well, because it looks like a superb year for the delicious Tokaji Aszú!

A few statistics to summerize the birding tours:

– all our groups have seen the globally threatened Lesser White-fronted Goose

– up to 44 Red-breatsed Goose were seen ( most of the early October tours had only 1)

– Crane roosting areas held 30 000 – 40 000 birds. What a sight!

– all our tours have seen many Great Bustards and the mighty SAKER!

– all our groups managed to see the enigmatic Ural Owl in the Zemplén Hills

– White-backed Woodpecker was also seen by all birding groups

– supporting cast included Eastern Imperial Eagle, Eagle Owl, Rough-legged Buzzard etc

– rarities such as 2 different Sociable Plovers, Long-billed Dowitcher, Greater Spotted Egales were seen

Hungary in October can be magical so why dont you join us for a week of great birding in 2014. Our autumn tour will run from 4-10 October 2014. For more details click HERE!

If you have been here and want to refresh your memory how the Cranes going to roost or if you have never been here to see the Cranes check out a video of the roost flight when 45 000 birds were gathering!

Ural Owl in the quiet autumn forest of the Zemplén (Photo: János Oláh)

Juvenile Sociable Plover found by Zoltán Ecsedi (Photo: János Oláh)

White-backed Woodpecker in the Zemplén Hills (Photo: János Oláh)

Sakertour team

A huge congratulation must go to Zoltán Gergely Nagy for his latest achivment on the European photography scene. He won the bird category on the GDT European Wildlife Photographer of the year 2013 bird category with his image from Bass Rock (see below). If you wish to see more images of the bird category just click here.

Zoli also has launched his new website where you can find more of his excellent work: Zoltan Nagy Photography

If you wish to do photography with Zoltán there will be chances as he will be leading some of our Danube Delta tours in future (fully booked for 2014). Sakertour also working with Zoli to launch some ´outdoor photography tours´ in the Wild Carpathians from 2015. Stayed tuned!

Dawn at Bass Rock by Zoltán Nagy

Sakertour team

The Crane migration in 2013 was / is (still happening) as spectacular as ever and the peak number was recorded on the 17th of October when 106 950 Cranes were counted in the Hortobágy National Park at four different roosting sites. The national park has a syncron count every Thursday at all the roosting places. Although this number was not the biggest ever number recorded at one time in the national park but a very impresive number indeed!

Flying Common Crane (Photo: János Oláh)

The Hortobágy National Park serves as one of the biggest (if not the biggest) gathering site for the Common Crane (Grus grus) in the World. The estimated number of birds passing through the park is about 120 000 – 140 000 individuals but now regularly over 100 000 birds staging in the park at one time.

Click here to watch the video of the Cranes going to roost at a roosting area which had 45 000 birds in 2013.

Gathering Cranes at a roosting site (Photo: János Oláh)

If you have never seen this spectacle do not hesitate to do so! Come and see the Cranes of the Hortobágy with Sakertour! We have custom and fixed tours as well! Please check out here!

Sakertour team

With our partner company, Limosa Holidays we had a very enjoyable and productive tour this Autumn where we recorded 170 species during 8 days of birding. Some species on our list are rare birds in Europe, such as Pallas´s Gull, Pied Wheatear or Paddyfield Warbler but we also encountered a great number of migrating birds as well, including masses of shorebirds, terns, raptors and passerines. The highlights species included Broad-billed Sandpiper, Terek Sandpiper, Marsh Sandpiper, Collared Pratincole, Little Tern, Gull-billed Tern, Caspian Tern, all the `marsh terns`, Lesser Spotted Eagle, Spotted Eagle, Levant Sparrowhawk and many many Red-backed Shrikes and Red-breasted Flycatcher…

You can read the detailed trip report here.

We stayed at some great hotels with welcoming and friendly people and enjoyed superb food and quality local wines. We are looking forward to seeing you here soon!

Juvenile Red-backed Shrike (Photo: Zoltán Baczó)

Autumn birding in the Danube Delta (Photo: Zoltán Baczó)

Sakertour team

Though the autumn forest is full of food for the Brown Bears, we had no less then five of them in two afternoons in front of our new hide (among them two cute cubs). They spent less time in front of us then they do in spring or summer, we still had the opportunity to take some nice images.

While not in the hide we had some time to do birwatching in the surrounding and despite of the unseasonally cold weather we had good activity with Wallcreeper, many Crested Tits and Nutcrackers which were buisy to collect food, especially nuts.

(Photos: Simay Gábor)

Sakertour team

We are delighted to announce that Zoltán Nagy our new photographer guide for some of our Romanian photo-tours managed to win the grand prize of 5 th. International „Milvus” Nature Photography Contest with his lovely image of a Waxwing in the winter forest of Transylvania (image name: winter visitor). Congratulation to Zoli! Please check out his current website for more information (though his new website is due to be launched soon).

´Winter visitor´ by Zoltán Nagy

There is a wide selection of possibilities for those who wish to photograph Cranes in Europe. No doubt the Hortobágy National Park – being the largest gathering place for Common Cranes anywhere in Europe or in the World – offers a wide variety of ´Crane´ subjects. Sakertour is based in the Hortobágy so naturally we know our area very well and wanted to offer Crane photography. It took us several years however to be able to present a ´Crane Photography Tour´ which is somewhat uniguqe on the market. Finally we came up with the idea of drinking and bathing Cranes! This is a special subject at the very beginning of the Crane migration when the numbers are still low but the weather is still good. This is how our early September Crane Tour was born. 2013 was the real test how much this tour can be sustainable on a yearly basis and we must say the test was successfull (participants and myself certainly had filled a few cards!)! Cranes are just amazing andif you are interested to see them close up do not hesitate to book a short tour with us – the 2014 tour dates now online!

Drinking Crane (Photo: János Oláh)

Crane in flight (Photo: János Oláh)

Drinking Crane (Photo: János Oláh)

Crane (Photo: János Oláh)

Sakertour team

2013 season was really fantastic in the Danube Delta and all of our guests went home satisfied with many superb images on their memory cards.  

We already uploaded several images to the gallery but now you can find an overview about May and June Photo Tours separately in our Delta Blog and a selection of best moments in frame as well. 

We would like to say a big thank you to everyone who made it possible to run all these tours in this superb place. See you next year!

Sakertour team

Photographers while working inside the photo boat (Photo: Zoltán Baczó)

White Pelican in focus (Photo: Joan Roca)

Another new tour has just been uploaded to our website! Please check out the itinerary HERE! This fantastic tour is a true mammal photography adventure where we will be photographing Carpathian BrownBears in Transylvania and then will try to capture Golden Jackals on our cards in the Danube Delta. This tour will only run once in 2014 from 22 to 29 March.

Our 8 days tour is running in cooperation with Skua Nature of Italy!

Golden Jackals in March 2012 in the Danube Delta (Carlo Galliani / image courtesy of Skua Nature). A dominant male in the front and a female in the background. You can see the scars on the male as early spring is the time of territorial fights!

Carpathian Brown Bear in March 2012 in Transylvania (Attila Szilágyi)

Sakertour team

Our leader Sándor Borza completed the report of his highly successful 2013 tour. This is our longest birdwatching tour covering all the basic habitats of the Carpathian Basin and visiting three countries! Please read the report!

Barred Warbler is a fantastic looking Sylvia warbler and readily seen on this tour (Photo: János Oláh).

Sakertour team

After two years of work and one year testing finally we launched our Brown Bear Hide-Photography tour. Please see the tour description!

Wild Carpathian Brown Bear (Photo: Gábor Simay)

We have two dates for 2014 online!

Sakertour team

Its been a long while we updated our website with any news as all of us has been very busy with Spring works!

Our spring birding tours in Hungary and Transylvania (and in Slovakia) were very successfull this year. Our main transect tours all have seen over 200 species and included lots of goodies like Ural Owl, Tengmalm´s owl, Eurasian Pygmy Owl, Three-toed and White-backed Woodpeckers, Capercaillie, Little Crake, Corncrake, Wallcreeper etc. The 31 days of May every year seem to fly away in a blink of an eye and it was the same in 2013. Lots of images and the fine memories remain…

A little selection of images from Spring 2013:

Capercaillie female in Transylvania (Photo: János Oláh)

Eurasian Pygmy Owl in Transylvania by tour participant (Photo: Nigel Moore)

Three-toed Woodpecker in Transylvania by tour participant (Photo: Nigel Moore)

Little Crake male (Photo: János Oláh)

Wallcreeper (Photo: János Oláh)

We will be updating our Hungary Photography Blog soon about May and June actions as the season is ending now. It was busy but rewarding spring in Hungary for bird-photography!

Our team in Romania is still working with photo-tours but no doubt a Danube Delta up-date is also coming up!

We also have an interesting selection of new tours coming up for 2014! So keep an eye on our website!

Sakertour team

We had a successful trip with a private group to the Delta with over 180 recorded species including Levant Sparrowhawk, Saker Falcon, Pied Wheater, Paddyfield Warbler, Woodchat Shrike, Sombre Tit.

You can see more images here:

http://birdwatchingdanubedelta.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/early-may-trip/

Male Levant Sparrowhawk

Sakertour team

We had our spring tour in the last days of April and first days of May when the weather was warm and sunny all week long. Though the weather was dry, plenty of temporary wetlands remained after the wet winter, which ensured us great birding in the Hortobágy. In this nice weather even most of the late arriving birds had already occupied their territories so we could record more then 170 species during the week!

We had great views of Ural Owls even one with a mouse prey in its beak, singing male Barred Warblers, Eastern Imperial Eagles and many woodpeckers in the foothills. In the lowlands we had a rather early migrant Broad-billed Sanpiper, singing Moustached Warblers, displaying Great Bustrads and great views of Saker Falcon.

Ural Owl (Photo: Gábor Simay)

Sakertour team

As usual Spring arrived fast and suddenly all the beauties of nature is available. Our photography tours has started and our photographers enjoying great opportunities from our hides! Please see our Hortobágy Photography blog for more images.

White-winged Terns are a great subject in 2013 (Photo: János Oláh)

Sakertour team

Some of our team members has spent the last weeks in the Danube Delta area to get as many information as possible about the state of the places and birds before our tours. The birding tours are due to start in a few days while the photography season will start in two weeks time!

You can see more images in our Danube Delta Photo and Birdwatching Blog.

We also have our 2014 tour dates online now for the birding tours as well as for the photography tours!

Citrine Wagtail is a rather scrace migrant but up to 4 were seen (Photo: Gábor Simay)

A male Woodchat Shrike – rare breeding bird – has been located recently (Photo: Gábor Simay)

Spring has arrived to the Danube Delta (Photo: Gábor Simay)

Sakertour team

In the last three weeks the Sakertour team was very busy in finalizing all works on the photo-hides both in Hungary (Hortobágy) and Romania (Danube Delta). The hard work was successful and most of the hides is full operation from this weekend. The first photographer of the season arrived on Wednesday and had a superb day in our Great Bustard Hide. This weekend the photography workshop of Imre Tamás´s photo school takes place and blessed with superb sunny weather!

The is also the very best time to prepare for all the birdwatching tours of the season. More and more species arriving back from the wintering grounds and / or starting the breeding. Our birding tours will start just about a week time!

Male Great Bustard starting to display in front of our hide in Mid April 2013  (Photo: Attila Végh)

Good number sof Red-footed Falcons arrived back by now – an immature male on the image (Photo: János Oláh)

This is the time when the rare White-backed Woodpecker starting to breed (Photo: János Oláh)

April is the best time to see Moustached Warbler as they are singing away all over the Hortobágy (Photo: János Oláh)

Sakertour team

Usually the end of February means the end of the eagle photography season too. The March started with an unusually warm weather, when the midday temperature rose even to 14 Celsius degree. Normally, the White-tailed Eagles from the northern populations, which had spent the winter in the Carpathian-basin, left the region by this time.

Well, this year was not like that. Till mid-March, eagles visited continuously the surrounding of the hides, creating excellent opportunities for the photographers. 30-40 eagles turned up daily, and sometimes no less, then 30 birds gathered in the very vicinity (40 meters) of the hides at the same time. The maximum number was 74 individuals around this spot during these days. Also, an immature Eastern Imperial Eagle spent a couple of days around, but, because of the dominating White-tailed Eagles, it seldom managed to get some food.

The warm weather in mid-March ended with an unusually cold, snowy weather. Though the snow melted quite quickly, it was still odd to take pictures with a snowy background this time of the year.

Now, we are preparing for the spring. Around the hides new species and opportunities are turning up quickly!

Sakertour team

Photos: Attila Szilágyi

Photos: János Tar

In 01.03.2013. an immature male Black-throated Thrush was found by Dániel Balla in Debrecen. It was in the well wooded area close to the University around the so called Békás-pond. The bird is still there and it has been seen at the same spot every day since it had been first observed, though it is elusive and often dissapears for hours, prefers to stay high or in the dens coniferous vegetation. (photo: Gábor Simay)

We had an international group of photographers from six different countries! The weather was extremely variable for the tour. On the arrival day it was difficult to drive even on the main roads because of the continuous snowing and gale forced wind. On the first two days there was snow cover on the ground and several excellent images were captured by the tour participants.

White-tailed Eagle calling! Photo: Marco Poggione

White-tailed Eagle catching fish. Photo: Marco Poggione

On the last two days the snow was gone but the eagle activity was just as good in front of the hides! In 2013 / 2014 winter we will run two different White-tailed Eagle photo-tours. Please check out the dates and the tour HERE!

Eagles in front of the hide. Photo: János Oláh

Portrait of a subadult bird. Photo: János Oláh

Sakertour team

The Hortobágy National Park (HNP) made an Eagle count in mid January 2013. During this event the rangers counted the wintering eagles all over national park directorate. The numbers were high with 193  White-tailed Eagle, 11 Eastern Imperial Eagles and one Greater Spotted Eagle. In the strictly speaking Hortobágy area 168 WtE were counted.

Activity at our hides continues to be good with 3-15 eagles visiting each hide daily. Please take a look of a video made from our hide a few days ago by our friend Csaba Lóki. For more images please visit his website as well!

White-tailed Eagles in the 2012/2013 season from our hides. Photo: Csaba Lóki

Sakertour team