We had another great trip to Ghana. It is always exciting to return to this fantastic and bird rich country. Birding lived up to our expectations again, we saw 371 species in 14 days with fantastic views of the top target, White-necked Picathartes. Trip highlights included African Finfoot, White-spotted Flufftail seen very well, Bronze-winged Courser, Rock Pratincole, Thick-billed Cuckoo, Black-throated Coucal, Fraser’s Eagle Owl, cracking views of Pel’s Fishing Owl, Narina Trogon, White-headed Woodhoopoe, Chocolate-backed Kingfisher, Black Bee-eater, Brown-cheeked Hornbill, African Piculet, Melancholy, Little Green and Fire-bellied Woodpecker, White-throated Blue Swallow, Bearded and Yellow-bearded Bulbul, Red-tailed Bristlebill, White-tailed Alethe, White-tailed Ant-thrush, Finsch’s Flycatcher-thrush, Gambaga Flycatcher, Spotted Creeper, Puvel’s Illadopsis, Copper-tailed Glossy Starling, Preuss’s Weaver, Black-faced Firefinch to name just a few.

Pel’s Fishing Owl in Mole National Park

Narina Trogon in Bobiri Forest

Red-vented Malimbe male building its nest

Exclamatory Paradise-Whydah in Mole

Hairy-breasted Barbet in Kakum

White-winged Snowfinch is a mostly resident species of high mountains breeding closest to Hungary in the Alps and the Dinari Mountains of Croatia and Serbia. There are no snowfinches breeding in the Carpathians.

There was an older record of White-winged Snowfinch in Hungary but it was recently deleted because it turned out from the original photographs that the plants on the picture are not occurring at the reported site in Hungary, so it was probably a falsified record.

On 29th December local birdwatchers observed and photographed a White-winged Snowfinch in the castle of Somoskő in Slovakia. After World War I the village of Somoskő with its medieval castle was given to Tchechoslovakia but after 2 years the village was reattached to Hungary due to the important road linking other villages in Hungary. The castle however remained on the other side of the border. The border now runs between the last houses of the village and the castle walls. The snowfinch was detected inside the castle walls and was observed again on 30th December in heavy fog. Although the bird flew shortly from the walls it didn’t reach Hungarian air space, so twitchers had to be content having close views of the bird in Slovakia.

The next day then the bird was seen flying into Hungary and returning to the castle. Thus it became a first for Hungary. It was since seen by many Hungarian and Slovakian birdwatchers and is still in the castle together with 1-2 Alpine Accentors.

White-winged Snowfinch can be seen on Ecotours’s tours to Slovenia and Montenegro.

Hungary is a major destination for butterfly enthusiasts boasting some 170 species and many sought-after ones among them. Our group on an Ecotours Butterfly holiday visited the Bükk Hills, Aggtelek National Park and the Hortobágy in July.

During 8 days we recorded an amazing 95 species including 18 species of fritillary, 24 blues and 10 skippers. We saw Safflower and Orbed Red-underwing Skipper, Berger’s and Eastern Pale Clouded Yellow, Alcon, Large, Iolas, Zephyr and Anomalous Blue, Purple and Lesser Purple Emperor, Common and Hungarian Glider, Pallas’s  Fritillary and Dusky Meadow Brown among others.

Dragonflies seen included Club-tailed Dragonfly, Small Pincertail and White-tailed Skimmer. Although bird activity was lower than in spring we still saw a nice array of birds including Grey-headed, Black, Middle Spotted and Syrian Woodpecker, Lesser Spotted, Eastern Imperial, White-tailed and Short-toed Eagle, Red-footed and Saker Falcon, Roller, Penduline and Bearded Tit, Lesser Grey Shrike and Golden Oriole to name but a few.

Sooty Copper

Hungarian Glider

Common Glider

Spotted Fritillary

In February we had another great birding tour to Ghana. We had a very succesful tour in both the number and quality of bird species observed. We saw 358 bird species and heard further 14 species. We recorded 8 Upper Guinea Forest endemics, among them 3 wonderful White-necked Picathartes seen very well.

Black-casqued Hornbill male and female in Kakum

Grey-headed Kingfisher in Mole

Pearl-spotted Owlet in Mole

Oriole Warbler in Mole

Immature Chocolate-backed Kingfisher in Atewa

In November 2008 we had a fabulous birding tour to Ethiopia. We visited the famus Rift Valley lakes, Bale Mountains National Park, two importanst sites in the south: Negele and Yabello, as well as the Central Highlands including Jemmu Gorge and Ankober.

We recorded 445 species of birds including 15 endemic and 11 near endemic birds. We had great views of Prince Ruspoli’s Turaco, Yellow-fronted Parrot, Sidamo Lark, White-tailed Swallow and Stresemann’s Bush-crow among many others.

Mammals were also well represented during the tour. We enjoyed a hunting Ethiopian Wolf for quite some time, we had close views of a troop of Gelada Baboons and even encountered a Spotted Hyena at Wondo Genet.

Below you can enjoy some pictures of endemic birds seen. Others will soon follow.

Yellow-fronted Parrot

Spot-breasted Lapwing

Prince Ruspoli’s Turaco

White-tailed Swallow

Stresemann’s Bush-crow

We had a 6-day short Crane Spectacular holiday  in Hungary based in the Hortobagy last week. We had a very good start as in the first 3 hours of the first day the group already enjoyed cracking views of Imperial Eagle, Saker Falcon, Peregrine, Long-legged and Rough-legged Buzzard, about 30 Hen Harriers, Great Bustards and Stone Curlews. The afternoon brought close views of the last flock of Dotterels and a Merlin.

The Long-eared Owl roost held more than 100 birds and we also had good views of Barn Owl. The returning Greater Spotted Eagle performed nicely for the group and a visit to the fishponds produced close views of Penduline and Bearded Tits and the usual numbers of water birds.

The evening crane spectacles were one of the many highlights of the holiday, when we enjoyed thousands of Common Cranes flying low overhead into their fishpond roosts.

Excursions to the Bukk Hills brought further wonderful sightings with 3 Wallcreepers chasing each other and a flock of 4-5 Alpine Accentors. We had incredible views of White-backed Woodpecker and enjoyed several Middle Spotted, Grey-headed and Syrian Woodpeckers. The group was lucky enough to see one of the Spotted Nutcrackers that invaded Hungary in the last weeks.

Last day we watched 4 Imperial Eagles, adults and immatures hunting for hares en route to the airport and ended an unforgettable holiday in Hungary.

We experienced beautiful weather and fabulous birding during last week’s Crane Spectacular tour. Highlights included Red-breasted Goose, Greater Spotted Eagle, Spotted Nutcracker and White-winged Crossbill.

Several stops during the drive from Budapest to the Hortobágy produced scope views of an immature White-tailed Eagle, 2 Imperial Eagles and a Saker Falcon.

We spent 4 days in the Hortobágy where we enjoyed great views of 8 Dotterels, 4 Stone Curlews and 10 Great Bustards on the first day. 3 Great Bitterns along a canal were a nice surprise some of them very close to our van.

We saw White-tailed Eagle each day on the Hortobágy, but had to work hard for Long-legged and Rough-legged Buzzard. An adult Great Spotted Eagle was a nice addition to the tour list and the area produced good views of 2 Black Woodpeckers and Bramblings.

A visit to the Hortobágy Fishponds was rewarding as ever. Flocks of Penduline and Bearded Tits entertained us while walking from hide to hide. We had good views of a flock of 33 Lesser White-fronted Geese and many Common Cranes on the biggest pond. The first Red-breasted Goose of the season mixed in a flock of Greater White-fronted Geese and ducks was a wonderful sight, as were 3 Water Rails and a juvenile Little Crake feeding on the edge of the reedbed.

We visited a roost of Long-eared Owls where we counted at least 60 birds some of them fairly low in the trees. The last day in the Hortobágy produced another surprise as we have found the sixth Spotted Nutcracker for the region. On the same day we succesfully twitched the fourth and fifth White-winged Crossbill for Hungary conveniently located en route to the Zemplén Hills.

As we reached the Zemplén Hills the weather changed to dull overcast. Still we had great birding with 2 White-backed Woodpeckers seen at two different sites. Middle-spotted Woodpecker was also located at two places and we had great views of Syrian Woodpecker as well. 2 adut and a subadult Golden Eagle crossing a valley were a great sight. Flocks of Common Crossbill, Fieldfare and Mistle Thrush were a common sight with a few Redwings present as well. We saw a nice female and an immature Goshawk hunting and a visit to a quarry produced a nice Eagle Owl.

A short visit to the Bükk Hills en route to the airport produced a very obliging Grey-headed Woodpecker and 3 Black Woodpeckers.

The Crane Spectacular holiday proved to be a great tour again. We also recorded other wildlife such as Souslik, Fire Salamander, Fire-bellied Toad and Large Copper.

There was a simultaneous count of gathering Red-footed Falcons conducted at the end of September in Hungary and Transylvania, Romania. It resulted in a record number of specimens in the Carpathian Basin and a record of specimens sleeping at one sight.

Members of the Red-footed Falcon project counted 5800 specimens in the Carpathian Basin and there were 1800 birds gathering at a single roosting site!

Since then most of the birds migrated south to Africa. The best way to see them is to join our Best Birding in Hungary tour in the spring or if you want to see flocks of Red-footed Falcons before migration then join the Raptor Special tour.

A detailed trip report is now available on the Ecotours birding Hungary and Eastern Europe website.

We had the first Bat watching holiday in Hungary and Slovakia this July. The holiday was a great success with 17 bat species recorded and many of them were seen in the hand of local bat experts who were conducting their yearly monitoring work. The list of bat species included Mediterranean Horseshoe, Particoloured, Schreiber’s, Lesser and Greater Mouse-eared and Geoffroy’s Bat.

Participants also recorded interesting birds among them Grey-headed and White-backed Woodpecker, Red-breasted Flycatcher and Lesser Spotted Eagle. There were some exciting butterflies seen during the tour. No wonder since Aggtelek in Hungary and the Slovak Karst belong to the most exciting sites for butterflies in the region. The long list included Hungarian Glider, Meleager’s Blue, Purple-shot Copper, Lesser Purple and Purple Emperor among others.