The spring has arrived soon at the Hortobágy. The Great Bustard's lekking has begun sooner because of the unusual warm March. But the cool and windy first half of April has postponed it again so the best activity was at the end of April. Around our hide there were bustards regularly in late April. Here are some pictures by Ivo Paulik.

Sakertour Team

In April the birdwatching tours started! We have got very succesfull tours behind us! All tours in April managed to see excellent displaying Great Bustards, all nine species of woodpeckers possible in Hungary, Saker and Great Snipe on migration. It is not a particularly good owl year but Ural and Eagle Owls performed very well too.

The birdwatching tours which also cover the Carpathian mountains are just about to start in the coming days. Our annual scouting trips however were sucessfull so we are looking forward to a bird-filled May as well!

Great Snipe was seen on all tours in April (photo: János Oláh)

Moustached Warblers were also performing well (Photo: Gábor Simay)

Ural Owl (by tour leader David Tomlinson)

Three-toed Woodpecker in the Carpathians (Photo: Gábor Simay)

Sakertour team

The Sakertour website had reached one million visitor early this morning (4th April, 2015). This is certainly a milestone and hopefully with more and more new images we will be able to make it even more attractive for our visitors.

A great number of images were taken by our guests so we would like to say thank you for all our clients, visitors, supporters!

Sakertour team

Geese season have been always one of the highligts when it comes to birding in Hungray. However in the last few years it is getting even better and better year-by-year. Not only the sheer number of geese but also its species composition is getting more exciting. In this last fanatstaic season we experianced an unprecedented Red-breasted Goose influx (you can read about it in out former post). Also the records of Lesser White-fornted Goose is evidently increasing. While the regular, and highly endangered european flock stage and pass through Hungary both in autumn and spring, in the time between – usually in the huge flocks of  Gretaer White-fronetd Geese – Lesser Whitefronts turn up with an ever increasing certainty. These birds are from the siberian population – probably another sign of the westerly shift of the migration rout of some goose population. 

With great luck, recently we even manged to photograph an immature LWfG, which was in a flock which contained no less then seven species of geese! 

You can find another image of this fantastic bird here:

http://sakertour.com/world_bird_gallery.php?text=&typ=3&viewer=classic&cat=79

Lesser White-fronted Goose with Greater Whitefronts

A portrait of the same bird

Greater Whitefront

Big flock of Greater Whitefronts

Red-breasted Goose

(Photos: Simay Gábor)

Sakertour Team

Although the winter of 2014/2015 was not a particularly cold one on the Hortobágy, still it had been the best and the most successful season of the past few years. There were not many opportunities to shoot those ever popular pictures with the snow covered landscape, but the length of the season could compensate our many photo friends. The White-tailed Eagles were in great numbers, it was not rare to see 12-20 birds in front of our hides. The most was 36 eagles all at once! We could even see young Imperial Eagles (maximum of 2) many times. In other years, the season is usually over by the end of February, but even though the spring came early this year, 12-16 eagles were at the hides even on the 10th of March.

If you are interested in an exclusive eagle photography option, please ask for our tours for the next season:

http://sakertour.com/hungary-white-tailed-eagle-photography-tour.php

Photos: Gábor Simay

Photos: János Tar

Photos: Sándor Borza

Sakertour Team

Dear Photographers!

We have just uploaded the May dates for the 2016 season for our Danube Delta tours. As usual the group size limit is 4 person for the 8 days 'Danube Delta and Dobrudja Bird Photography Tour in Spring' and it will fill up quickly.

Please take a look at the tour itinerary and look at the galleries of the tour.

If you would like to book any of these tours, you can do it HERE.

Glossy Ibis in the Danube Delta in May 2014 by tour participant Richard Steel.

Fighting Common Terns in the Danube Delta in May 2014 by tour participant Richard Steel.

Sakertour team

It came as a great Valentine's Day suprise when the Birdline reported a Snowy Owl in western Hungary. The bird was found by Baráth Tamás in the village of Bóly as it was perched on a house. Later more birders has arrived to confirm the observation (the founder was not a birder – great thanks for him to report it to local birders) and then the news was broadcasted.

The bird flew off west from the original place and has been relocated by arriving birders on a different house on the edge of town. It was perched at this location until 17:20 when it was last seen to fly out of the settlement.

A handful of birders managed to arrive in time to see this much sough-after rarity. The last officially accepted record dates back to 1891. There were a few undocumented observations in the 20th century but lately none of these were accepted by the Hungarian Rarity Commitee. In the Carpathian Basin there are also several observations from Slovakia but none of those were documented either.

So all in all this is the first fully documented observation of the species in Hungary and the Carpathian Basin for 124 years.

No doubt it was a very special treat and a great luck to see this magnificent bird in Hungary.

Snowy Owl at Bóly, Hungary 14th of February 2015 (Photo:János Oláh).

Snowy Owl at Bóly, Hungary 14th of February 2015 (Photo:János Oláh).

Snowy Owl at Bóly, Hungary 14th of February 2015 (Photo:János Oláh).

János Oláh

The national eagle census of Hungary was conducted by Birdlife Hungary on the 16-18th of January, both national park employees and many volunteers were involved. Hortobágy has been the most popular wintering site of white tailed eagles for a long time due to the many wetlands and numerous waterbirds. This year 154 White-tailed Eagles, 8 Imperial Eagles and 1 Great Spotted Eagle had been counted on the area of the Hortobágy National Park and its surroundings (Nagykunság, Lake Tisza). During the census 50 White-tailed Eagles were counted at the hides.
The presence and activity of the eagles by the hides has been outstanding in January. On several occasions up to 30 eagles could be counted all at once, causing unforgettable moments (and thousands of shots) for the photographers.

Amazing old eagles in front of the hide (Photo: Tamás Mali)

Immature eagle come to the feeder (Photo: Tamás Mali)

'Singing' chorus (Photo: Márk Kovács)

'Eagle mafia' on the tree (Photo: Márk Kovács)

A nice old eagle walks next to the hide (Photo: Attila Szilágyi)

High competition for the food (Photo: Attila Szilágyi)

Sakertour Team

Our eagle photography season started on the 1st of December and despite the rather mild weather – almost spring like – we have had a very succesfull two weeks! We had eagles visiting our hides from the very beginning and the numbers are continously increasing. We had our partner Tatra Photography here in the first weekend of December and everybody had superb sessions with eagles. This weekend we had a workshop for a Hungarian nature photography school and up to 36 White-tailed Eagles were recorded at our hides. This is a very impressive number for early December so we are hopeful for the rest of the season! We are eagerly waiting for snow and proper winter conditions now!

If you interested we still have two places left of our February 2015 tour!

Portrait of an adult White-tailed Eagle from December 2014 (Photo: János Oláh).

White-tailed Eagle at dawn by our hides from December 2014(Photo: János Oláh).

Juvenile White-tailed Eagle in early morning frost from December 2014 (Photo: János Oláh).

Adult White-tailed Eagle arriving (Photo: János Oláh).

Juvenile White-tailed Egale arriving (Photo: János Oláh).

Magnificent adult bird from December 2014 (Photo: János Oláh).

Juvenile eagle flying towards hide in December 2014 (Photo: János Oláh).

Sakertour team