Year: 2016

We have designed a short break in 2014 to see two rare and globally threatened waterfowl in Hungray: the RED-BREASTED GOOSE and the LESSER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE. Hortobágy National Park in Hungary is probably the easiest place to see these two geese within one short tour. The Red-breasted Goose numbers are continously increasing in the last 20 years (sort of doubled in every 5 years) and nowadays it is easy and predictable to see them. We regularly have hundreds of these majestic birds! The supporting cast is also excellent with thousands of Cranes, Eastern Imperial, Greater Spotted and White-tailed Eagles, Long-legged Buzzard, Saker, Great Bustard and with an extension of a day or two you can see Ural Owl and woodpeckers in the nearby hills.

Our tour is running in late October and in March, please take a look at our tour calendar and select the most suitable dates for you! Come and see these rare geese with us! We also design custom tours for single travellers and friends!

We are staying in the newly opened Bíbic Nature Lodge and often both Red-breasted Goose and Lesser White-fronted Goose is a 'garden bird' here. Take a look of the images taken in the past two weeks from the lodge!

Red-breasted Geese by Tibor Juhász / Bíbic Nature Lodge

Lesser White-fronted Geese family by János Oláh

Red-breasted geese by Tibor Juhász / Bíbic Nature Lodge

Sakertour team

Sakertour is also a sponsor of the Saubermacher – The Wildlife Photographer Of The Year 2016  (Hungary) competition.

The special Sakertour prize was given to Tamás Pajor for the image named 'The king is landing'.

Congratulations to him!

Our Danube Delta and Dobrudja Autumn tour was a great trip again and we have seen so many great birds and had really nice experinece in all the three top birding destinations visited during the tour. Last week of August is one of the best time to witness bird migration in this region but also good to find some of the more interesting breeding birds before they heading to the wintering places. We encountered 187 birds pecies on this a week long tour with highlights like Dalmatian and White Pelicans, Greater Flamingo (rarity in the country) Little Bittern catching 3 frog in a row in front of our boat, Levant Sparrowhawk, Saker Falcon, 12 Little Crake in one lake, Stone Curlew, Broad-billed Sandpipers, a total of 176 Pallas`s Gull, Citrine Wagtail, Isabelline and Pied Wheatear, Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush, Paddyfield Warbler, Red-breasted and Collared Flycatcher and finished the tour with 28 Eurasian Dotterel. Also the sheer number of shorebirds and terns in the Danube Delta was astonishing!

Thanks for joing to this trip, detailed trip report will follow soon but until then the next year date is already online: 25 August to 1 September.

Come and join us for this fantastic tour in 2017!

One of the 59 Red-necked Phalarope seen during the week. Photo: Zoltán Baczó

Young Little Bittern with a frog. Photo: Zoltán Baczó

Group of Broad-billed Sandpipers and Dunlins at Sachalin bay, Danube Delta. Photo: Zoltán Baczó

Sakertour team

Please take a look at our Spring birdwatching tour reports! You can see and read our reports so you have an idea about our highly succesfull tours in May 2016.

Hungary, Slovakia & Transylvania GT 2016

Hortobágy – Zemplén Spring Tour (Hungary)

Danube Delta – Dobrudja Spring Tour (Romania)

Come and join us in 2017! Now we have all tour dates online in our BIRDING TOUR CALENDAR!

Male Red-footed Falcon on the Hortobágy (János Oláh)

Migrating European Honey Buzzards in Dobrudja, Romania (János Oláh)

The 'alpestris' race of Ring Ouzel in the Carpathian Mountains (János Oláh)

Sakertour team

Our longest and most popular birding tour, the Hungary, Slovakia  Transylvania GT has ended and yet again it was a remarkable tour with a lots of tour highlights and fantastic birding in Eastern Europe! The report will be available soon but do not hesitate to book your place on this amazing tour for 2017!

Trip highlights from the 2016 Grand Tour:

– 228 species recorded (including 3 heard-only)

– 10 species of woodpeckers (with White-backed and Three-toed as the highlights)

– 9 species of owls recorded (the Tengmalm's Owl was heard only)

– unforgettable mega views of Pygmy Owl

– 5 species of grebes (the Slavonian a scarce passage migrant in Hungary)

– 16 species of raptors (including the mighty Saker Falcon)

– magnicifent views of all the 3 marsh terns

– huge male Great Bustard

– 3 species of snipes in the same plot

– mega views of the shy Nutcracker

– 17 species of warblers

– Wallcreeper on the ground

– 4 species of flycatchers

– good selection of scarce birds (Broad-billed Sandpiper, Black-winged Pratincole, Gull-billed Tern, Red-rumped Swallow, Sombre Tit etc.)

Wallcreeper is allways a great bird to see (Photo: János Oláh).

Sombre Tit is now also possible on this tour (Photo: János Oláh).

Sakertour team

The Danube Delta photography season started and the first tour has just finished. The vegetation in the delta is usually not existing in the early May period but still there were magical encounters in the delta. This time it was wild cat as well as the usual Black-necked and Red-necked Grebes, pelicans, egrets, ibises. The Macin National Park was great with superb Rock Thrush, Ortolan Bunting and other goodies! There is a little selection from early May 2016 below. For more images see our FB page or the hide gallery!

We have 2 last place available for 2016. The date for this tour is 18-25 June. You can find more information here.

Wildcat in the Danube Delta gave us an amazing 30 minutes drive away view in May 2016 (Photo: Zoltán Nagy).

Rock Thrush male in front of our hide in May 2016 (Photo: János Oláh).

Red fox looking for food (Photo: János Oláh).

Ortolan Bunting in front of our hide in May 2016 (Photo: János Oláh).

Collared Pratincole is allways a favorite (Photo: Zoltán Nagy).

Sakertour team

Our eagle photography season of 2015/2016 winter has finished and now we looking into the busy spring photography! However we have decided to summerize the past 90 days which also give you information in case you have not been with us yet and planning an eagle photography tour to Hortobágy National Park in Hungary!

We use two main hides for the eagles and we primarily feed the eagles with fish. Our company operates two of the three eagle feeding stations of the national park. The weather has been very mild in the past years and it was pleasantly better in 2015/2016 as we have had daytime subzero temperatures from 27th December to 18th January. This was often paired with frost  or even snow on the ground (snow cover was 12 days – twice as much as in 2014/2015). At the same time the weather was extremly mild in February which is very unusual.

Our season was 88 days this year and we had information on the eagle activity every day. White-tailed Egales were present 88 days at one hide (100%) and 86 days at the other (cc 98%) which is an amazing result. Even our buzzard hide have had 24 eagle-days (27%). The numbers were variable but usually 5-12 White-taild Eagles were present, though occasionally only 2-3 showed up. Especially in February – with the mild weather – the activity was even stronger and the record number was 62 White-tailed Eagles at one hide, and 9 at the other hide plus 3 at buzzard hide in the same day. This is 74 White-tailed Eagles in one single day at our 3 raptor hides! This season was also very good for Eastern Imperial Eagle as we had 22 days when this species was seen and photographed from our hides. They occured at all three raptor hides. A total of minimum 5 different birds were photographed. This year we also had Golden Eagle on 3 days. Some lucky photographers have had three eagle species in one single day!

Our next eagle photography season is starting on the 1st of December 2016. If you still looking for a short photography tour in winter check out our dates for the 2016-2017 eagle season!

Eastern Imperial Eagle was regular in 2015-2016 eagle season (Photo: Paul Bestall)

White-tailed Eagles were daily visitors at our hides (Photo. Otto Samwald)

Adult White-tailed Eagle face to face with photographer (Photo: János Oláh)

Sakertour team

We have launched our new Transylvania Birding Tour. Please take a look and join us for this exciting birding adventure!

Transylvania's special birdlife is amazing and Sakertours have been visiting Transylvania since 1996! In 20 years we have built up a great knowledge of the best birding places, and after running an extension to this area for some years we realized the need of a proper tour to this magical place. Finally we have a tour on its own which can still be combined with our Danube Delta – Dobrudja Spring Tour offering a unique 15 days birding in Eastern Europe.

If you looking for a late spring birding tour, Transylvania is a fantastic place to visit!

Alpine Accentor is one of the many exciting birds we see on this tour (photo: János Oláh)

Sakertour Team

We have just uploaded tour dates for 2017 Danube Delta tours as well as for Hungary. Please check out the tour calendar for more details!

Ferruginous Duck in the Danube Delta (Photo: Richard Steel)

Sakertour Team

Our guest Richard Tyler managed to photograph three eagle species from our hide in a single day! This is certainly a record for us but I believe this is only possible in the Hortobágy NP in Europe!?If you know and other place please let us know!

He saw about 20 different White-tailed Eagles of all ages, a juvenile Eastern Imperial Eagle and a juvenile Golden Eagle. At one stage all three spceis was seen on a single tree together! This was certainly the highlight of 2015 regarding our egale photography!

Three eagle species in one tree (Eastern Imperial Eagle on the left, Golden Eagle in the middle and White-tailed Eagle on the right) is a special event! (Photo Richard Tyler).

Our hides are essentially for feeding the White-tailed Egales present in the Hortobágy National Park in winter. There are up 200 White-tailed Eagles wintering in this area and we regularly have Eastern Imperial Eagle too. In the last three winters they getting more and more regular in fornt of the hides as well. However the Golden Eagle is very rare and only been seen and photographed once beofre this special event (back in 2009).

Juvenile Eastern Imperial Eagle by Shetland Wildlife pho-tour leader Mick Durham.

Juvenile Golden Eagle. (Photo Richard Tyler).

The 2015/2016 winter season is well on its way and there are a limited few places left if you want to see these majestic creatures close up. It is a unique experience indeed! Please visit our tour calendar to see available places and dates!

Sakertour Team