The Wild Images tour had fantastic weather and a great selection birds from our hide network. About 93 species were seen from the hides and a good portion were captured on memory cards too! Favorites were mating Rollers and Red-footed Falcons, Hoopoe flight shots, Bee-eaters, a wide range of waterbirds and woodpeckers (Black and Middle Spotted)!

The gallery is coming to our Facebook page soon but a few images can already be seen in our hide gallery and below!

There is one or two places left for the 2012 tour!

Ferruginous Duck  Photo: János Oláh

Red-footed Falcon Photo: János Oláh

Pygmy Cormorant Photo: János Oláh

Hoopoe Photo: János Oláh

Sakertour team

Our Wild Images partner photo-tour from U.K is well underway. It started with a rainy day but ever since it has been fantastic and so have all the hides and birds!

A gallery of the tour will be soon available on our Facebook page!

Bee-eater is a great photo subject in May and June                                       Photo: János Oláh

Sakertour team

Our friend and client Richard Smith has been back to the Zemplén Hills for a few days before he starts his photo-tour with us later this May. He had a wonderful time yet again and you can read more about his experience here.

Amongst the many highlights was a stunning Ural Owl. It is probably the worst breeding year for the species in the last 25 years so it has been very difficult to see. It is still possible with Sakertour though!

Ural Owl in the Zemplén Hills 2011 May (courtesy of Richard Smith)

Sakertour team

Our friends at Shetland Wildlife have just finished their pho-tour and now back with a birding group! This is a week birding in the World Heritage Hortobágy National Park and the World Heritage Tokaj Region of Hungary (Zemplén Hills).

Check out the tour itinerary here.

Watch this space to see how it went!

Black-necked Grebe in the Hortobágy in May 2011!   Photographer: János Oláh

Sakertour team

Our friend Roger Barnes returned for a Hungary & Transylvania tour in May 2011. This is one of our classic tours nowadays with a wide range of interesting birds and also Brown Bears in the Carpathian mountains. This year tour was no exception, the group had a wonderful time and lots of birds! Great Bustard, Wallcreeper, Rock Thrush and Ural Owl was just a few of the highlights!

Please visit the BirdHolidays webpage for their next tour to Hungary!

Wallcreeper in Transylvania                                                                        Photo: Gabriella Tóth

Sakertour Team

Our friend Hugh Harrop took a devoted group of bird photographers to Hungary in 2011. The weather was perfect and the activity around the hides was brilliant! They even managed to break the total number of species in a single day at our drinking hide with an outstanding 32 species seen & photographed in a single day! The Red-footed Falcon and the shorebird hides were also very popular!

For a selection of images from the tour click here. If you like to join Hugh next year book early!

Male Red-footed Falcon

Breeding-plumaged male Ruff!

Drake Ferruginous Duck

Nightingale

All images by Hugh Harrop!

Sakertour team

During the last week of April we had a memorable three days in the Translylvanian mountains. The main aim of this trip was to take photos of Brown Bears. In two evenings we saw and photograhed no less than five bears – some big males and some smaller youngsters as well. Some of them were only a few dozen meters away, which was an unforgetable experience. 

Brown Bear in the Carpatians                                                                      Photo: Simay Gábor

Beside the bears there were a lot of birds to watch, such as Lesser Spotted and Golden Eagles, Marsh Sandpipers, Thrush Nightingale, Rock Bunting and a beautiful pair of Rufous-tailed Rock Thrushes.

Female Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush                                                              Photo: Simay Gábor

Sakertour team

Our hide system was ready by the end of April and the first photo tour was a group of Swiss and Austrian photographers led by our old friend Beat Rüegger. Following the record breaking precipitation in 2010 the 2011 spring started with perfect dry and sunny weather. Luckily this continued all the way through the photo tour and our participants enjoyed some great moments.

Black-winged Stilts mating                                                                          Photo: Beat Rüegger

This week was deliberately positioned to be able to try for the shy Great Bustard and also to coincide with the arrival of the Red-footed Falcons. The group was lucky as they had experiences with both species. As soon as the Red-footed Falcons arrived they were busily into territorial fights and mating!

Red-footed Falcons mating                                                                        Photo: Beat Rüegger

The drinking pool hide was also very popular with up to 26 species per day(!) including several woodpeckers! The Shorebird hide with breeding plumages Ruffs and Black-winged Stilt was much appriciated too. One of the star attractions was the a confiding singing male Moustached Warbler right by our Pygmy Cormorant hide.

Moustached Warbler singing                                                                      Photo: Beat Rüegger

Some of the team managed to get some great images of Stone-curlew     Photo: Beat Rüegger

Sakertour Team

With Piero Venturi and his friends we spent three days in the Hortobágy and the surrounding area. Within this three days the weather was perfect: suny and warm, indeed a bit too warm for the season.

Alkaline grassland                                                     Photo: Simay Gábor

In this nice spring weather we saw Great Bustards displaying, Saker Falcons mating and we observed a family party of Moustached Warblers. Around the temporary ponds and marshes, which remaind after the heavy rains of the last year, thousands of waterbirds were feeding. Breeding plumaged (and even displaying) Ruffs in the biggest numbers, but we also seen a few Mars Sandpipers and the first Curlew Sanpipers of the season. All three species of marsh terns were around in good numbers, Black-necked and Red-necked Grebes were building their nests, Bitterns were displaying in the open and Ferruginous Ducks were numerous. We even managed to read the code of a coloreringed Mediterranian Gull.

Syrian Woodpecker was buisy to carry food to its nesthole, while in the forest we saw Black, Middle Spotted and Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers along with Short-toed Treecreeper and Collared Flycatcher.

Male Syrian Woodpecker                                          Photo: Simay Gábor

Male Black Woodpecker                                           Photo: Simay Gábor

Sakertour team

We have terrific spring weather since 15th of April and new birds arriving day by day! There are still 54 Lesser White-fronted Geese on the Hortobágy and the Marsh Sandpiper migration was peaking too (up to 23 in a flock in the Hortobágy).

Gábor Simay has found a breeding plumaged female Wilson´s Phalarope which is the undoubted star bird of April yet. More info here.

Last weekend was the start of both the birdwatching and the photography tours! We had Richard Smith with us for a long-weekend and you can read his experience here.

White-backed Woodpecker in the Zemplén Hills (courtesy of Richard Smith)

Our partner from Switzerland started a week long hide photography holiday on the 18th and we shall be updating on the success of the tour. The hides are ready and the activity is fantastic!

Sakertour team