Long-legged buzzard!

Today I went to check the rice fields, becouse last week it was raining here, so we waiting for the dry soil condition, that we can carry on the work. The soil is too muddy to work, but good for the birds: yellow wagtails, paid wagtais, great white egrets, black storks and a few green sandpipers were there. In the sky skylarks were singing and a few raptors: buzzard...buzzard...buzzard and ohhh a Long-legged buzzard! It is a beautiful bird! Later I saw a few marsh harriers, hen harriers and a imperial eagle. Bound for home I saw a few other species: black-necked grebes, robins, black redstarts, weatears, stonechat, icterine warbler. The white storks mate and repair the their nest at the end of my lane.

Osprey's invasion!

Weather was being terrible previous days

but today the sun shone and there was no wind so I cycled towards Gyalpár. Birds enjoyed this beautiful weather as well, Buzzards, Lapwings, Meadow Pipits, Skylarks were there. When I arrived my first stage There was a big raptor on a pylon. I saw the bird with my binoculars: Osprey! This species is run over every spring and autumn in our region. Behind our first Osprey I attended another one. On the other side of the road there were other pylons. I checked those and I obserwed two other Ospreys there as well. This afternoon I saw four Ospreys from the place, where I was staying. It was amazing experience!

Spoonbills

Today I went to birdwatch to the nearest fishponds, where I saw in the morning hundreds of gulls. The gulls were there in the afternoon as well: black-headed gulls, common gulls, caspian gulls and yellow-legged gulls looked for some food. On the mudflats I coud observe a few other species too: spoonbills, great white egrets, white stork, garganeys, mallards, lapwings, dunlins, ruffs, snipes, black-tailed godwits, spoted redshanks, redshanks, greenshanks.

The spring on Telekhalma

On Friday Ákos and Me went to the Telekhalmi-fishponds because there was a completely good weather and we wanted to make a little birdringing-action in spring. We put out the nets but the birds weren't going. While Ákos was doing the birdringing I went to birdwatch along the fishpond-parts.

The wind was blowing strongly but there were a lots of birds, mainly ducks: thousands of mallars, wigeons, a few Ferrugineous Ducks, Gadwalls, Teals, Garganeys, Shovelers, Red-crested Pochards, Pochards, Tufted ducks, and last but not least, 3 Goldeneyes. On the little-fishponds there were emty, only a few Black-headed Gulls and Coots were there. But all day there were a lots of water pipit. The first Osprey of 2008 was observed above the last little-fishpond. And the best: I found a Black-tailed Godwit which had some coloured rings.

In the afternoon the weather was being completely terrible so we packed up our equipment and started to go home. Above the biggest part of fishponds we observed a pair of Imperial eagles .

My first white and black storks in this year

Today we went on doing the work at the rice fields.The weather, like yesterday was beautiful sunny. The weather was absolutely perfect to see the migrants. The common cranes came in a few big flocks (100-200 bird / flocks) all day, the buzzards and harriers moved like yesterday. On the cultivated field in the morning I could see my first white stork in this year. It is a beutiful bird and here in Hungary, this bird is a symbol: here is the Spring. A few minutes later I could observe the other stork species: in the sky a huge flock of black stork was moving towards north. I could count 47 birds. It was amazing. With this experience I was very happy, but the day has something in store for me: long eared owls and a lapland bunting. The owls roosted between the old rice-stalks. The lapland bunting came before me, when I was spending my lunchtime. This day was amazing. If you want read more about the Hungarian spring birding, click here: http://www.hungarobirds.com/tavasz.htm

Raptors at the rice fields

Yesterday was a good day for the raptor watching: nice warm spring day, when the birds migrate to the north or just circle in the sky. I was all day at the ricefields, becouse we began the first tillage for the rice, so I could see the birds. My daylist was included: white-taild eagle (2), imperial eagle (1), marsh harrier (6), hen harrier (14), rough-legged buzzard (2), buzzard (25), sparrowhawk (3), kestrel (2). If you want more information about the Hungarian spring birdwatching, please check our website: http://www.hungarobirds.com/

Rarities of Sundays

On 9 of March I went to birdwatch with Ákos to the Kecskeri Reservoir. When we arrived I noticed about 3 thousand geese which were feeding on a lown.
We looked over that flock od geese, but there weren’t any interest geese-species. But! This one flock wasn’t the only one!There were even ten or eleven thousand geese behind this flock. Ákos found two Red-breasted geese which were in left side of the flock. While I looked over the flocks Ákos was asking me :Could you check-up that tree please?. There was one bird on the three: a Reed Bunting and another… Lapland Bunting! A male bird which was singing. A few photo was taken about the Bunting because it flew towards Dévaványa. It was a greatful experience!

At Csivag-fishponds one lake was flooded, so there were a lot of shorebirds and gulls, for example: the first Godwits, Ruffs, Redshanks of this year. The Spring was arrived!
If you would like to go our goosewathing tours you click here: www.hungarobirds.com

Yellow-bellied toads, tree frogs and crested newts on the ricefields

Today was a quite warm day on the ricefields: sunny and calm. This weather was perfect for our amphibians: the toads and newts came out from thier lurking-places. This season the yellow-bellied toads look for any dub and sumps, so the ditches and irrigation canals on the ricefields had a heavy day. I saw thousands of toads today. The newts feel the spring too, because I could observ a few crested newts to sunbathe on the dams. When I arrived at home on the hedge a tree frog was calling his girlfriend...

Waders in the muddy bed of the fishpond

Today I visited the locak fishpond, which has a muddy bed now. There were thousends of waders and many other birds: Great Crested Grebe, Great White Egrets, Grey Herons, Wigeons, Teals, Mallards, White-tailed Eagle, Hen Harriers, Sparrowhawk, Buzzards, Kestrel, Coot, Common cranes, Little Ringed Plovers (30-35!!), Ringed Plover, Lapwings, Dunlins, Ruffes, Black-tailed Godwits (700), Spotted Redshanks, Redshanks, Black-headed Gulls, Skylarks, Pied Wagtails and in the wood nearby the fishpond a Great Grey Shrike.
I think, that this is just the biginning... http://www.hungarobirds.com/tavasz.htm

My first biger flocks of waders in this season

Yesterday we started to restore our ricefields. It is a huge work and sometimes hard and difficult. There are many sluices and levees, which are to old, so they need a renovation. We were all day on the fields and worked for the birds, becouse it is a great feeding and resting place for those species that are closely connected to the wetlands. During the work we observed many birdspecieses. There were about 2000 golden plovers, 1500 lapwings and we saw a few greylag geese, great white egrets, hen harriers, marsh harriers, but there were the common specieses as well: starlings, reed buntings, corn buntings, mallards, sparrowhawk, kestler, sky lark, Pheasant, common crane, black-headed gull...
After the work we went to see the nearest fishpond, which is muddy now. On the mud were thousand of waders: little ringed-, ringed plovers, lapwings, ruffes, black-tailed godwits.
This day was hard on the ricefields, but the end compensated us for the many trauble. If you want to see this birds with us, please make a tailor made tour with our company: http://www.hungarobirds.com/csinald.htm

Common cranes above my garden

This afternoon I worked in my garden when on the sky 47 common cranes were flying to north. In this season the cranes aren't rare birds in Hungary, becouse their sky route to north crosses the Hungarian Plan.

Hawfinches in my curtilage

Today I worked in my garden, when something was twittering on the cherrytree. It was a hawfinch. This bird was only one from the flock of finches, becouse on my fruittrees I could observ about 30 birds: 22 hawfinches, chaffinches and goldfinches. This birds looked for some food in the garden. In my birdtable the gold and chaffinches are common birds and sometimes I could see Hawfinch as well, but today I was very happy to see this big flock of finches.

Golden Eagle, Lesser-White Fronted Goose, Bad Weather

Today Ákos and me went to visit some lawn-area in the Nagykunság. We checked a few eagle-nests, because there was a big storm on Saturday. When we were going above a fishpond we observed an adult white-tailed eagle. There was a Goshawk which agitated an other eagle: a juvenile Golden eagle! This is a fairly rare genera with us so we were very happy.

The weather was terrible but There were a lot of birds which species of a spring yet.
We observed a hundred of Lapwings, Starlings, Golden Plovers ewerywhere, but there were a few Great-grey Shrikes, Fieldfares etc. We had another really good observation.
On the grassland, which is nearby the fishponds about 400 geese were. We started to scrutinise them. About 15 minutes later we found a couple of Lesser White-Fronted Geese, Two beautiful adults.
The weather was really worthless but I think it was an amazing day because we found two species, which are fairy rare in our region. If you would like to find for example Lesser White-Fronted Goose with us, click here: http://www.hungarobirds.com/

Rain, mud, cold

My friend Ádám has got a serial bad birding-tour operations. If he had an idea to go to birdwatch somewhere the last few times those trips were absolutely birdless tours. But we like him, and we know, that everybody can have bad days...
Yesterday he rang me up, that he knew where the thousands of gulls were roosting. Oh, it was a great news, so we went to observe this "thousands" birds. Along the way to the fishponds we saw a great grey shrike but on the fishponds the gulls weren't there. Only a few great white egrets, mallards, teals and grey herons were looking for something to eat. On the top of this during this excellent observation it was raining and cold, so by that time we got home we were all wet and muddy...