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