Hi!

Though the autumn Ornitholidays tour started a couple days later than usual, we experinced a fantastic, warm, sunny and dry weather and had only one foggy day.

During the first day we saw no less than five Imperial Eagles. Thanks to the nice weather, we saw many raptors during the following days, such Great Spotted Eagle, White-tailed Eagle, Long-legged Buzzard, Rough-legged Buzzard, Merlin and excellent, close views of Saker Falcon. Beside the raptors we found Great Bustards, 12 Dotterels, 2 Stone Curlew, an out of season Squacco´s Heron, Ferruginous Ducks, Bearded and Penduline Tits. We visited three different Crane roosting areas and around the biggest one we saw at least 30.000 individuals. Cranes were virtually everywhere and we met several thousands feeding birds every day. 

After the vast grasslands and wetlands we visitid some old forest patches and urban areas where we found Black, Middle Spotted, Lesser Spotted and Syrian Woodpeckers and also a Short-toed Treecreeper. In a small town we counted 52 Long-eared Owl in a roost area and to our surprise a Barn Owl in a different village.

The first big flocks of geese also arrived, so we could find two of our main target birds: Red-breasted Geese in two occaisons and two beautiful adult Lesser Whitefronts.

Gábor Simay