Wednesday, September 10, 2008 - Raptor special holiday in Hungary

This year's holiday was really raptor special as we saw 19 species of raptors. There were many memorable moments and sights during the tour and we saw many good birds, butterflies, dragonflies and other wildlife.

On the first day a roadside stop produced a Long-legged Buzzard and a male Pallid Harrier, while the next stop a Short-toed Eagle and several Red-footed Falcons. We saw 2 adult Imperial Eagles and a Saker at a site within 5 minutes. At another place in the Little Hortobágy we watched 3 immature White-tailed Eagles, a juvenile Imperial Eagle and 3 juvenile Montague's Harriers. The Zemplen Hills were productive too with 2 Golden and 3 Lesser Spotted Eagles, a white phase Booted Eagle, Goshawk, Hobby and Peregrine. The number of raptors was also amazing. We counted over 40 Marsh Harriers during a day in the Hortobágy, but Common Buzzard, Kestrel and Red-footed Falcon was also numerous.

Other interesting species included 26 Dotterels in the Hortobágy, most of them still in breeding plumage. In the Kiskunság we observed 10 Great Bustards feeding on a meadow. The 10 Long-eared Owls roosting in a tree were a nice surprise for everybody, as was the Eagle Owl discovered in a quarry at daylight. It was nice to watch a juvenile Little Crake walking on the floating vegetation of a canal picking insects. We enjoyed a similar rare sight when a Water Rail was walking on the edge of a drained fishpond disturbing a Squacco Heron. Of the early migrants there were still many Rollers and Bee-eaters around and we found a juvenile Lesser Grey Shrike too. The Hortobágy and Csécs Fishponds were very productive with many Pygmy Cormorants, Ferruginous Ducks, Cranes, 26 Black Storks and other waterbirds.

Typically for a Raptor special holiday the last bird species we saw during the tour was Imperial Eagle and Raven at a motorway stop en route to the airport, where we watched 3 juvenile Imperial Eagles landing on the field in front us and one of them feeding on its prey.