There is a (White-winged) Snowfinch at Somoskő Castle, a few meters inside Slovakia (the village in Hungary, the castle in Slovakia), which is the first ever twitchable in the Carpathian Basin. Most of the previous observations are from present Slovakia but there are no records since 1968. Also it is not clear how many of the XIXth and XXth Century records are offically accepted.

This superb bird was found by Tímea Szederjesi and Eszter Angyal on the 29th of December so our great thanks goes to them!!!

A few images of the bird:

(White-winged) Snowfinch Photo: János Oláh

Sakertour team

We have made the video of the 2001 Slender-billed Curlew available for anyone to view! It is now viewable from the link (banner) on the SAKERTOUR front page (bottom of the page).

Or you can click on this: http://www.sakertour.com/slender-billed_curlew.php

Sakertour team

Although we had a short spell of ´proper´ winter with -20C temperatures and lots of snow, the geese still hold on in the Hortobágy in tens of thousands! In two days the temperature increased to +12 and we had rain all the way through Christmas (32C difference in 36 hours!). Still several large flocks of Red-breasted Geese and a few Lesser White-fronted Geese can be found among the hordes of Greater White-fronted Geese.

Red-breasted Geese adult and juvenile (on the right) Photo: János Oláh

Sakertour team

In the last few weeks White-tailed Eagles have been regular visitors to our eagle hides. Also Common Buzzards are daily guests in good numbers.

Fighting Common Buzzards Photo: Miroslav Zítek

Three days ago the Hortobágy got snow-covered so the eagle photography likely to be even better now. Two days ago there were 12 White-tailed Eagles in front of eagle hide II.

Adult White-tailed Eagle Photo: János Perényi

For more images from these hides recently please visit our hide gallery:

http://www.sakertour.com/hidegallery.php?hide=1&author=&text=

http://www.sakertour.com/hidegallery.php?hide=19

Sakertour team

We have just uploaded a few new images to our ever growing Awards archive. This time a regular guest and friend Csaba Lóki shared a few more of his 2009 winning images from our hides. Please check them out: http://www.sakertour.com/awards.php

Cranes at night Photo: Csaba Lóki

Sakertour Team

We spent a week in the Hortobágy from the 31st of October, and luckily we had splendid weather almost every day.We had also luck with the birds, especially geese, as we saw almost 100 Red-breasted Geese, 64 in one flock, just 150 meters away… This flock contained 3 Lesser White-fronted Geese too. During the week we saw 16 Great Bustards, 3 Imperial Eagles, many White-Tailed Eagles, 3 Sakers, Jack Snipe, 2 Snow Bunting, Ferruginous Ducks, a late Whiskered Tern, Black, Lesser Spotted, Middle-spotted and Syrian Woodpeckers and many more.

Cranes were still presented in good numbers and we saw many thousands flying to the roosting area two evenings. 

Huge flocks of Great Whitefronts have arrived in the Hortobágy Photo:Simay Gábor

Geese attracted many White-tailed Eagles Photo:Simay Gábor

Cranes flying to roost Photo:Simay Gábor

Cranes and geese together on a sea lavendar field Photo:János Oláh

Red-breasted Geese in flight Photo: János Oláh

A long-term partner of Sakertour our Japanese friends came along for the annual geese-watching this year again! One of the most precious target is the ´ao-gan´ or in translation ´blue goose´ which is commonly known for us as Red-breasted Goose. November is also good to see some of the leftover Cranes, many eagles and massive number of Long-eared Owls.

Other targets include the impressive ´no-gan´ or ´field-goose´or as we know it: Great Bustard.

We shall see the final results in a week time!

Sakertour team

Our friends from Ornitholidays (http://www.ornitholidays.co.uk/) arrived on the 31st of October with Mike Witherick as leader.

They arrived at the very best time for some geese watching as unprecedented number of Red-breatsed Geese arrived to the Hortobágy Plains this autumn! Flocks of 30-80 have been seen and the total number of redbreasts estimated to be over 300 in the region! So it was not surprising that already on the arrival day on the way from the airport to the Hortobágy the group had 11 Red-breasted Geese in the fading afternoon light. The leader from Sakertour side was Gábor Simay and he shall give details of this tour soon!

Crane portrait Photo: János Oláh

Sakertour team

The annual Crane week (17-24 October) for Limosa Holidays was once again a great event with many birds seen. Check out their full itinerary here: http://www.limosaholidays.co.uk/. The tour started in the Zemplén Hills with Ural Owl, White-backed Woodpecker, a fine Alpine Accentor and Rock Bunting. All the usual goodies were seen on the Hortobágy (Lesser White-fronted Goose, Great Bustard, Saker etc.) plus some unexpected bonus like a Dalmatian Pelican.

The tour also coincided with the zenith of the cranes which was 101,500 (a new record for Hortobágy!) this autumn so surely there were enough birds around to see….

Sakertour team