I spent the week 7-13 November 2008 birdwatching with the Japanese group, when the unusually long Indian summer still persisted. This is why, in spite of the short periods of daylight, we had an action-packed birdwatching tour. In the first morning we could take pleasure in the sight of 10 Great Bustards, with Hen Harriers and Rough-legged Buzzards hunting nearby. Before lunch we went to see the Great Spotted Eagle wintering here regularly. During the short afternoon, we found a wild goose flock grazing in a wheat field, with a Red-breasted and a Lesser White-fronted Goose among them. The group applauded the sighting of a flock of 400 Stock Doves. We spent the evening watching the nearly 10,000 Cranes flying to their roosting area.

During the next few days, in an unhurried way, we collected all Hortobágy species special for Japanese birdwatchers, such as  Merlin, Saker, Penduline Tit, Bearded Tit, Pygmy Cormorant, Dotterel, Little Owl, Shelduck, Ruff, Snow Bunting, Meadow Pipit, Peregrine Falcon, Long-eared Owl, Great Grey Shrike, Blue Tit, Brambling, Fieldfare, Ferruginous Duck, etc. We also had the time to go and see the two “star” species, Great Bustard and Red-breasted Goose again.

We saw the first woodland species (such as Middle Spotted Woodpecker, Short-toed Treecreeper, Hawfinch, Mistle Thrush, Redwing, Black Woodpecker and Marsh Tit) in the Great Forest of Debrecen, and continued collecting them in the Zemplén Hills (Black Redstart, Syrian Woodpecker, Green and Grey-headed Woodpecker, Bullfinch, Coal Tit and Tawny Owl). We crowned the tour with the sight of an adult Imperial Eagle perching on a tree by the main road.

Bird of the tour: Red-breasted Goose.

Zoltán Ecsedi

Hi!

Though the autumn Ornitholidays tour started a couple days later than usual, we experinced a fantastic, warm, sunny and dry weather and had only one foggy day.

During the first day we saw no less than five Imperial Eagles. Thanks to the nice weather, we saw many raptors during the following days, such Great Spotted Eagle, White-tailed Eagle, Long-legged Buzzard, Rough-legged Buzzard, Merlin and excellent, close views of Saker Falcon. Beside the raptors we found Great Bustards, 12 Dotterels, 2 Stone Curlew, an out of season Squacco´s Heron, Ferruginous Ducks, Bearded and Penduline Tits. We visited three different Crane roosting areas and around the biggest one we saw at least 30.000 individuals. Cranes were virtually everywhere and we met several thousands feeding birds every day. 

After the vast grasslands and wetlands we visitid some old forest patches and urban areas where we found Black, Middle Spotted, Lesser Spotted and Syrian Woodpeckers and also a Short-toed Treecreeper. In a small town we counted 52 Long-eared Owl in a roost area and to our surprise a Barn Owl in a different village.

The first big flocks of geese also arrived, so we could find two of our main target birds: Red-breasted Geese in two occaisons and two beautiful adult Lesser Whitefronts.

Gábor Simay

Dear Sakertour Guest!

Thank you for visiting our new website!

This activity blog gives all kinds of field news related to our birdwatching and bird photography tours.

Hope you will visit this fantastic region with us soon!

Kindest regards,

János Oláh

Managing director

Hi!

The Ornitholidays tour just started today and Gábor is leading from the Sakertour side. The main targets are Red-breasted and Lesser White-fronted Goose, Saker, Great Bustard and Eastern Imperial Eagle. Check out the itinerary: http://www.ornitholidays.co.uk/details.asp?id=85

Will keep you updated about the tour!

Also more crane photographs of our guests were uploaded to our Crane Hide No 2. gallery:http://www.sakertour.com/hidegallery.php?hide=16

Photo: Ágoston Paksz

Sakertour team

Hi!

On the 23rd of October I was lucky enough to find Hungary´s fifth and sixrh (a pair) Two-barred Crossbills just in my parents´ garden, in Miskolc town. The birds were recorded till the 29th of October, and more than a 100 birdwatchers saw them.

As we are experiencing an extramely heavy Common Crossbill influx (together with a huge Nutcracker influx), the appearence of the species was forseen by some birwatchers. Yet, it was still a very nice surprise finding them by the little pool in the garden…

Gábor Simay

Photo: Gábor Simay

Photo: János Oláh

Photo: Gábor Simay

Photo: János Oláh

Dear Photographers!

A few more Crane shots were uploaded to our Crane Hide No. 1 gallery: http://www.sakertour.com/hidegallery.php?hide=15

The photographer was János Perényi, one of our regular guests!

Please take a look!

Photo: János Perényi

Sakertour team

Dear Photographers!

Photo: Tamás Imre

The Crane photography has been excellent from our mobile hides in the last few days! Please take a look at our hide gallery for more pics: http://www.sakertour.com/hidegallery.php?hide=16

This juvenile color-ringed bird below was photographed on the 21st of October, 2008. We do not know its origin yet but will keep you updated!

Photo: János Perényi

Sakertour team

David and his friends spent 6 days (24 Sept- 29 Sept) birdwatching in the Hortobágy and the Zemplén Hills. On the first morning 14 Lesser White-fronted Geese were seen at a close distance, and later we found a new flock of 19 birds, with the bird ringed bird called Finn. Then, with clockwork precision, all of the Hortobágy specialist species arrived such as Red-footed Falcon, Long-legged Buzzard, Saker, Long-eared Owl, Syrian Woodpecker, Short-toed Eagle, Stone Curlew, Red-throated Pipit, Little Bittern, Black Stork, Dotterel, Great Bustard, Penduline Tit, Pygmy Cormorant and of course the unforgettable and multitudinous flocks of Cranes (25 000). In the Zemplén Hills, we were lucky again: in the afternoon when we arrived, we saw in excellent light an Eagle Owl that had just set off to hunt. The next day, the half an hour birdwatching before breakfast brought us five woodpecker species (Great Spotted, Syrian, Black, Grey-headed and Green). During the day there was an extremely active woodpecker movement in the forest, and besides the species already seen in the morning we saw Middle Spotted, Lesser Spotted and White-backed as well. While searching for the woodpeckers, we noticed a pair of Ural Owls just above our head. Our pleasure was enhanced even further, when, while we were having our packed lunch, a male Imperial Eagle came to circle above us then to display for a juvenile female.

It was a great trip with lots of fun!

Zoltán Ecsedi

All pictures taken by Andy Deighton

Breaking up their holiday in Budapest, Iain and his son (from Singapore) came to the Hortobágy to clean their European list (6th to 9th October). Due to intense bird activity and perfect weather, all of their missing species were seen one after another: We had a close view of Long-legged Buzzard, Saker, Great Bustard (21 ind.), Dotterel, Golden Plover, Red-footed Falcon, Jack Snipe, Lesser White-fronted Goose, Penduline Tit, Bearded Tit, Black-throated Diver, Pygmy Cormorant and Syrian Woodpecker. For a short day, we had a trip in Zemplén, where all of the four wanted species were sighted, such as Lesser-spotted Woodpecker, Ural Owl, Tawny Owl and Eagle Owl. Iain had never had three new owl species in a day before!

Zoltán Ecsedi

The report of my Sumatra 2008 tour with Birdquest just been uploaded and available at:

www.birdquest.co.uk/tripreports.cfm?trip=420

János Oláh