In the 3rd week of October a small group of nature photographers from Scotland spent a week in Hortobagy. This trip was designed to coincide with the peak of the European Crane passage through Eastern Hungary and this year over 100 000 individual stayed in this region!

Cranes still visited our drinking place daily and in a same time 30 000 individual roosted in front of our hide.

During this week they had chance to photograph birds from other different hides as well and to see the results please take a look here.

Cranes catching pink light (Photo: Eric MacCabe/Wildscotphotos)

White-tailed Eagle getting tail pulled by Hooded Crow (Photo: Eric MacCabe/Wildscotphotos)

Goshawk  (Photo: Eric MacCabe/Wildscotphotos)

Sakertour team

During this trip we will spent seven days on the Hortobágy. We will concentrate on mainly the migration and roosting of the Common Cranes and we will chase the just arriving big northern goose flocks for the rare specialties…

The autumn weather so far has been very nice with little rain and lot of sunshine. Hopefully the it will remain the same during the next week!

We will keep you updated about the tour!

Photo: Simay Gábor

Sakertour team

During the first week of October we visited the Hortobágy area and also the Zemplén Hills. The weather was stunning, sunny and warm. We recorded 8 species of woodpeckers, including White-backed and 5 species of owls, including scope views of an Ural Owl (three more were heard). In the Hortobágy no less then 74 Lesser White-fronted Geese, 45 Dotterels and 15 Great Bustards were seen. In the wet grasslands Red-throated Pipits were common, and a Jack Snipe was also seen. We had three encounters with Eastern Imperial Eagles and two with Saker Falcon and Long-legged Buzzards respectively. We were lucky enough to find some Red-footed Falcons as well on this mid-autumn date. 

In the Hortobágy, bigger and smaller flocks of Common Cranes were seen everywhere, but in the evenings huge flocks were flying towards their night roosts. At one place we saw more than 20.000 flying from all direction into their roost site.

Dotterel

Roosting Common Cranes

Hawfinchis were numerous in the woodlands

Long-eared Owl                   All photos: Simay Gábor

Sakertour team

Our fixed date tour started on the 1st October and our guests enjoying superb weather with some exciting birds. The tour started in the Hortobágy area and after the first two days such goodies were seen as 74 Lesser White-fronted Goose (record sized flock; the last such a group was seen in 90´s). They also had fantastic views of Dotterels, Imperial Eagle, Saker, Long-legged Buzzard and Great Bustard. This one-week long tour offers a wide selection of birds. Also this year we already have 60 000 Cranes so the Hortobágy is a real migration hotspot now!

Next year this tour will run from 6-12 October.

Juvenile Eurasian Dotterel                                                                                                       Photo: János Oláh

Sakertour team

In mid September the number of Common Cranes staging in the Hortobágy area starts to increase rapidly. Already there are several thousands which may reach a hundred thousand later in the season (at the moment as 26th od September about 17 000 birds present). 

The late summer and the autumn so far has been so warm and dry that the Cranes can hardly find any pools to drink from. Therefore the ditch in front of the hides attract sometimes even two hundred birds. These images were taken recently from this hide.

Our roosting Crane hide is also in operation soon!

Come and photograph Cranes with Sakertour!

All photos: Simay Gábor

Sakertour Team

Late August and early September is an excellent period to see waders in the Carpathian-basin, especially in the Hortobágy area. Many species migrates this time and among them some scarce species turn up every now and then. This is the period to see Broad-billed Sandpiper and Red-necked Phalarope as well. This year was excellent especially for the former, as they were present in the mudflats of the drained fishponds and swallow temporary waters. 

Broad-billed Sandpiper

Red-necked Phalarope

Wood Sandpiper is among the commonest migrants      All photos: Simay Gábor

Sakertour team

In certain dry years September can be a very productive time to photograph Cranes in the Hortobágy National Park. The numbers just starting to build up and only a few hundred Cranes present in the park yet but they regularly drink and bath around our hides in the warm weather. This weekend the temperature was around 30C still and although there is going to be a cold front next week it should not disturb the Cranes visiting the drinking and bathing places.

Come and photograph Cranes with us!

Adult and juvenile Crane drinking                                                                  Photo: János Oláh

During this one week long trip we recorded 175 bird species, among them 26 wader species. 

Weatherwise it was unusually warm, dry and sunny all week long.

We started our week in the Zemplén-hill which proved to be excellent for soaring birds. One day we saw more than 300 migrating White Stroks. Birds of pray were literally everywhere with several Eastern Imperial, Lesser Sptted, Short-toed and White-tailed Eagles and many Black Storks.

In the Hortobágy we concentrated on waterbirds for which the several drained fishponds and swallow ponds and marshes proved to be excellent. We recorded some scarcer migrants like Red-necked Phalarope and – in three occasions – Broad-billed Sandpipers. We had an excellent spot where we saw Little Crakes, Spotted Crakes and Water Rails together.

Beside these we saw Great Bustards, no less then 29 Dotterels (26 adult and three juveniles), Long-legged Buzzard and Saker Falcons. We visited a Red-footed Falcon roost site which was a memorable event with the nice summer sunset in the background.

Migrating White Storks

Lesser Spotted Eagle

Juvenile Eastern Imperial Eagle

Femail Monatgue´s Harrier

Icterine Warbler

Lesser Gray Shrike

Adult Dotterel                                                                              All photos: Gábor Simay

Sakertour team

On the 22nd July the breeding of Cattle Egret on the Hortobágy has been proved when the national park ranger János Tar has found two freshly out of the nest young birds in the company of 4 adults. The breeding was suspected throughout late May and June as adult birds were regularly seen around the Hortobágy Fishponds. Now we can say all European egrets breeding in the Hortobágy area.

Cattle Egret with freshly fledged young in th Hortobágy                                                             Photo: János Tar

Sakertour team

There is a fantastic E-book by one of our guest on his website under ´Parc National d´HORTOBAGY´ gallery please take a look here! Patrick Gallet was one of the participant of the Terres Oublies 2011 May group and he enjoyed photographing in the Hortobágy National Park!

Bee-eater                                                                      Photo: Patrick Gallet

Sakertour team