The winter of 2011/2012 is a very mild one so far. We had 2 days of -8C in early December and then 2 days of -7C in mid January. Snow cover is almost non-existent though we had 8cm on the 22nd January but it was gone in a single day! The last weekend of January brought some wintry weather and apparently this will last a few days. We shall see!

Birding is slow but several thousands geese can be found and many Red-breasted Goose were seen in December and January. About 100 in the Hortobágy region (and up to 200 in the Buharugra region).

The vole population is very strong so Short-eared Owls, Hen Harriers and Rough-legged Buzzards are rather common this winter. Merlins are also plentyful.

Our eagle hides are operational and we will keep you posted about the Skua Nature group and also our own Sakertour January tour. The mid January eagle count in the Hortobágy region yielded 154 wintering White-tailed Eagles, one Eastern Imperial Eagle and two Greater Spotted Eagles.

Apart from the winter birds of the ´puszta´ we also have our bird feeding station where hundreds of tits and many woodpeckers can be seen daily. In some days up to 17 bird species were photographed from the hide by the feeding station in January.

Hen Harrier male (Photo: János Oláh)

Short-eared Owl (Photo: János Oláh)

Juvenile White-tailed Eagle enjoying the sunny, clear weather over the steppe (Photo: János Oláh).

Hawfinch is regular on the feeder is small numbers (Photo: János Oláh)

Middle-spotted Woodpecker is also daily visitor on the feeder

(Photo: János Oláh)

Sakertour team

Although it was our first eagle photo-tour of the season the images came just recently from the tour with our partner in December 2012. They have enjoyed a terrific time yet again in the Hortobágy National Park with White-tailed Eagles, Long-eared Owls and woodpeckers. They will be back in February for a second tour!

White-tailed Eagle in action                                           Photo: Erwan Balanca / Terres Oubliees

We still hope to see many images from our participants. Our partner tour with SKUA Nature in Italy is just running and we will keep you posted about the success!

White-tailed Eagle in action II.                                        Photo: Erwan Balanca / Terres Oubliees

Meanwhile 2012 January did finally produced a bit of snow today but we are not sure how long it will last. The eagle activity is surprisingly good however considering the very mild winter and in the first days of January there were up to 15 White-tailed Eagles seen from the hides.

White-tailed Eagle in action III.                                       Photo: Erwan Balanca / Terres Oubliees

Sakertour Team

We are continuously uploading the changes on our website in January 2012. Our Danube Delta operation will start in full swing. You will find more birding and photo tours, more hides and more information! We plan to have all up-dates online by the end of January.

Juvenile White-tailed Eagle in dawn light                                                        Photo: Csaba Lóki

Unfortunately after 3 years we had to amend our prices according to increased petrol and service prices. You can find our new prices on the website. ALL booking made in 2011 will not be effected by the price change!

Adult Sparrowhawk                                                                           Photo: Johannes Ferdinand

We wish you all a successful and bird-filled New Year!

Sakertour team

Our partner Wild Images had his first ´eagle tour´ of the 2011/2012 season from 9-13 December. You can find more info and dates of their second tour in February here. Although the weather was not wintry at all with daytime temperature up to 11C the activity was good. Partly because of the mild weather there are still hordes of geese in the Hortobágy region and the eagles are a little bit unpredictable at the hides. All the hides have regular eagle visitors but one day can be very different from another. It is easy to get no eagles one day and then several the next day at the same spot. Tour participants had a special last day with 11 White-tailed Eagles around them for hours!

White-tailed Eagles                                                                             Photo: Pauline Thompson

Juvenile White-tailed Eagle                                                                            Photo: James Brier

Adult White-tailed Eagle                                                                      Photo: Pauline Thompson

We still have not received any images from our French partners but hopefully they will come soon as well and we add a few eagle images to the galleries!

Sakertour team

Sakertour is committed to nature conservation and we yearly dispose several nest boxes for owls. This winter we have made 25 Ural Owl boxes. Half of these will be for the Zemplén Hills, the other half for Transylvania. The owl boxes were created by Zoltán Petrovics our famous local guide (known as the ´woodpecker man´). Each of them weigh about 6kg and made out of oak so they will last for up to 12 years. We also have a small mirror to help the survey work without actually disturbing the breeding owls. These type of boxes proved to be very popular for the owls over the last 20 years. This winter Sakertour spent 800 euros on the owl box project.

Ural Owl nest boxes ready for put-out                                                    Photograph: János Oláh

Sakertour team

Gábor just uploaded the latest Ornitholidays tour report to our trip report gallery. You can find it here.

Bearded Tit                                                                                      Photographer: Gábor Simay

Sakertour team

Our partner tour with Terres Oublies has started today and we hope for some nice images of raptors and woodpeckers in the next week! The weather will be rainy in the first two days but hopefully the second part of the tour will be cold and sunny. At the moment eagles and buzzards regularly visit our hides and sometimes even the scarce Rough-legged Buzzard puts up an appearance. We will keep you posted of the first tour of the 2011/2012 Season.

Rough-legged Buzzard (female)                                                                     Photo: János Oláh

Sakertour team

The 2011/2012 eagle season is just starting from 1st December 2011. There are many White-tailed Eagles around the Hortobágy at the moment as still lots of geese present. The night temperature is down to -5C now but daytime weather is still not cold. We hope to see you in our eagle hides soon!

White-tailed Eagle                                                                                           Photo: János Oláh

Sakertour team

Late Autumn was lovely dry and sunny in Hungary and there were some fantastic possibilities for photography. Our drinking hides are still in full operation and in 2011/2012 winter we will try for the first time to keep some drinking water at the hide throughout the coldest periods as well (heating).

Although we have subzero temperatures now every night the drinking pool attracts many birds in daytime. Thrushes, woodpeckers, tits, finches are abundant!

Slowly the superb colours of October and November are disappearing but it is not far now for the eagle season! Look out for raptor images on our website and hope to see you in Hungary this winter!

Mistle Thrush

Eurasian Sparrowhawk

Eurasian Jay

Black Woodpecker

All photos by János Oláh

Sakertour team