Tag: Transylvania

Seeing a wild Eurasian Lynx in daytime is dream for mammalwatchers! Most of us just dream about such an encounter and it never happens but sometimes dreams come true for some! We were lucky to encounter a Lynx on a fresh kill in September 2024. Our guide Szabolcs Kovács has been exploring the Hargita Mountains with clients when they spotted a fresh Roe Deer carcas. Szabolcs realized it was freshly killed by a Lynx, you need to know what you see! As an experiment we positioned a mobile hide in a safe distance and waited if the Lynx would come back. And not only she did come back but brought along her two Lynx cubs. They had been visiting the carcas several times in the next 46 hours. The Roe Deer was finished in less then two days. They were mostly visiting in the early hours of the day and also in the afternoon. Those 2 days were very special and we are happy that most of our team who is involved with our mammal tours or Lynx tours managed to see this beautiful animal. Even some very lucky clients could enjoy it. Thanks for all to make it happen but especially for Szabolcs!

We regularly encounter wild Eurasian Lynx on our early spring Eurasian Lynx Tour but especially the Lynx Photography Tours led by our expert Lynx tracker Ferenc Alpár Gothárd. It is not something we can guarantee but every time we definitely try hard to find one!

We finished our annual GT the first time excluding Slovakia from the itinerary, thus being one day shorter and visiting Hungary and Transylvania (Romania) only during the tour.
Our expectations were exceeded as we managed to record more species during the tour as on any previous one and broke the ‘record’ standing for 10 years as we managed to put down 234 bird species on our list.

Luckily all major highlights were seen, including 10 woodpecker and 9 owl species with the tricky Three-toed Woodpecker, the scarce White-backed Woodpecker included as well as the sought-after Ural Owl and Tengmalm’s Owl.
We birded the lowlands in Hungary with great wetlands giving us such great birds as Broad-billed Sandpiper and Great Snipe, while reaching higher altitude zones in the Carpathian Mountains in Romania where we saw Western Capercaillie, Eurasian Pygmy Owl and ‘Carpathian’ Brown Bears. The most scenic parts in Transylvania were the Békás Gorge where Wallcreeper was a dream bird for many of us to see and the Torockó Valley which held some trickier to see species like Sombre Tit and Common Rock Thrush.

Click here for the report of the tour with all the details and images give a concise reading what happened in 11 days of birding in Central Europe.

We have just finished the inaugural Transylvania Butterfly Tour with Mariposa Nature Tours. This tour was designed to see the rare Danube Clouded Yellow. We had a great time and the weather was also very cooperative. Not only we managed to find several Danube Clouded Yellows but we also had Violet Copper, Woodland Brown, the rare Spinose Skipper, a really early Poplar Admiral and many many Large Coppers and both Scarce and Marsh Fritillaries. A wonderful butterfly tour topped with great sightings of Brown Bears from our hides in Hargita and some wonderful scenery and home-made food.

Male and female Danube Clouded Yellows in flight. Image by Janos Olah