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record of the species breeding on artificial building (anywhere in the World – please let us know if you have heard any unpublished breeding record like this one)!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

Our newly developed photo services in Romania had a very good start.  We already finished two photo trips in May and both were really successful and productive!  We can safely say our specially designed photo boat and drinking hide working excellently! With `Borzas` photo boat we approached birds very efficiently and all participants had plenty of moments to make good quality pictures. Our drinking hide also works well, but due to the extremely rainy May we haven’t experienced the best face of it, yet.

Soon we will made trip reports available in our Danube Delta blog, but until then enjoy a few pictures from the May trips here.  Reports from June tours coming soon too!

Dalmatian Pelican (Photo: Beat Rüegger)

Kingfisher (Photo: Beat Rüegger)

Barred Warbler from the drinking hide (Photo: Beat Rüegger)

Curlew Sandpiper from the lagoons of Black Sea  (Photo: Attila Szilágyi)

Sakertour team

During the last week of May we had wonderful birding in Hungary with the Travelling Naturalist group. The weather was nice and not too hot, but often too windy. 

The trip coincided with the influx of the Rose-colored Starlings which lasted only for a couple of days. During this we were lucky enough to find two flocks of this superb species. We also had many great views of the nine different species of woodpeckers, raptors like Long-legged Buzzard, Saker Falcon or Eastern Imperial Eagle. We had great views of Stone Curlews and we saw the breathtaking display of a leking male Great Bustard!

White-backed Woodpecker

River Warbler

Bee-eater        (Photos: Simay Gábor)

Sakertour team

We had two back to back Wild Images photo-tours in the Hortobágy in May. Generally the weather was poor for the first four days with mainly overcast and with some rain. Some of the hides are not very good in such conditions – mostly the waterbirds hides – but the experience was still very good. Other hides like the falcon tower, Hoopoe and Roller were very good. The following days sun finally arrived and the drinking hides were gradually better and better, producing up to 25 species a day. The egret hide was fantastic though continuously changing. In the first few days Spoonbills stole the show with up to 30! feeding in front of the hides while Black Storks appeared only on the last days. All in all it was an action packed photo-tour and a as soon as we have time we will publish lots of images and also a report.

If you want to make any bookings with Wild Images for 2013 please visit their website – free places running out quickly…

Hoopoe by tour participant Steven Knell

Red-footed Falcon male by tour participant David Mercer

Sakertour team

In the second week of May we had a successful and memorable birding trip again with our partner company Limosa Holidays. During this very enjoyable 9 day holiday we observed masses of birds, among them such highlights as Saker Falcon, Eastern Imperial Eagle,  Levant Sparrowhawk while hunting/eating lizard, close Booted Eagle, Honey Buzzards, 6 Pallas`s Gulls, colony of Whiskered Terns with Black-necked Grebes, hundreds of White Pelicans, tame Dalmatian Pelicans, Little Bitterns etc.

The detailed trip report with more pictures will be available soon in our Danube Delta blog and on the Limosa Holidays website too.

Pale morph of Booted Eagle over Dobrudja (Photo: Zoltán Baczó)

Skulking Little Bittern in the Danube Delta (Photo: Zoltán Baczó)

Dalmatian Pelican  (Photo: Zoltán Baczó)

Sakertour team

We spent a successful 9 days with our Swiss group visiting the Zemplén Hills, the Érc Mountains in Slovakia and the Hortobágy. Despite we had two rainy and a windy days we saw an impressive range of species, including Pigmy, Ural and Eagle Owls, very good views of Lesser Spotted, Golden and Eastern Imperial Eagles (latter was seen six times during the trip), Saker Falcon, displaying Great Bustards and even a Great Snipe. We also managed to see 9 species of woodpeckers – the rare White-backed was seen not less then three times!

Ural Owl (Photo: Simay Gábor)

Black Stork in the Zemplén Hills (Photo: Simay Gábor)

Sakertour team

Our friends from Shetland Wildlife had a wonderful time in our hides in Hungary (World Heritage Hortobágy National Park) in 2012 again. The weather was simply excellent so as all of our hides. The 2013 tour has only have 2 free places left – so if you want to come to Hungary with Hugh Harrop please do not hesitate to book!

Red-footed Falcon male preening (Photo: Hugh Harrop / Shetland Wildlife)

Hoopoe (Photo: Hugh Harrop / Shetland Wildlife)

Sakertour team