Autumn migration In Hungary – better than ever?
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As usual the Hortobágy National Park in the Autumn months is hosting large numbers of all kind of birds from thousands of Gadwalls and Green-winged (Eurasian) Teals through hundreds of shorebirds including – this year only several dozen – Eurasian Dotterels and of course the Common Cranes are just coming, their numbers already getting close to 50.000 in the area.
However, this year the National Park was hosting an astonishing number of Red-footed Falcons, whose numbers are usually carefully followed by the officials of the park and volunteers from the area. The census counts done every week, the mid September count producing an incredible result with over 8000 individuals staying around with a megaroost, where over 5000 Red-footed Falcons were coming together for the night forming the largest ever recorded single roost in the Carpathian Basin.
In the recent years numbers between 1000 and 2000 individuals were seen here, but this year’s numbers shooting out was a great surprise and of course fantastic experience to observe.
Autumn in the Hortobágy
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It has been a great autumn for birding in the Hortobágy region. The very spectacular Crane season, where more than 150.000 Common Cranes are staging inside the Hortobágy National Park was again providing some unforgettable experience for birders visiting the area with seeing them on their night roost being the highlight of every birding tour this time. Of course, other specialities of the area still present at the same time and probably this time of the year is the best to see as many Eastern Imperial Eagles as possible in the region if someone is mainly after the raptors, although Saker Falcon is usually harder this time we still have good chances of finding one.
The other spectacle later Autumn is when the huge numbers of wild geese arriving from Siberia are flooding the area giving a great chance to find the endangered Lesser White-fronted Goose and Red-breasted Goose in the seemingly endless flocks of Greater White-fronted Goose. However, this year the geese were a bit late, fortunately, it seems they arrived in good number by the second half of November and both endangered species are now presenting in good numbers inside the safe borders of the Hortobágy National Park.
