Eastern Hungary in Summer
With excellent pensions, superb scenery and wonderful birds, how can you go wrong with a visit to Hungary? The tour is timed with school summer holidays in mind. Day 1 - Fly into Budapest. Meet guide on arrival and head north-east by private bus (about 2 hours) to the Bukk Hills. This is one of the most scenic areas in Hungary with quiet villages, rolling meadows mown by hand, strip-fields ploughed by horse, dense forests and rocky limestone hillsides dotted with scrub and bushes. Common birds on route should be White Stork, Marsh Harrier, Common Buzzard, Golden Oriole, Serin and Red-backed Shrike amongst others. |
|
Days 2 & 3 - We’ll have two full days to explore the Bukk’s key habitats and to look for all of this upland region’s typical birds. We’ll explore the mixed oak, beech and hornbeam forests for Grey-headed, Lesser Spotted, White-backed and Black Woodpeckers. Syrian Woodpecker and Wryneck are usually seen in villages and old orchards. In particular the beechwoods here are good for Red-breasted Flycatcher, oakwoods for Collared Flycatcher and Middle Spotted Woodpecker and rocky areas for Rock Bunting. A special bird here is Ural Owl, numbers vary from year to year but at this time of year there should be some large fledged young and attendant adults about. Diurnal raptors Eastern Imperial, Lesser Spotted and Short-toed Eagles, Honey Buzzard, Hobby and Goshawk. Black Stork can also be expected. Other quite common birds include Hoopoe, Common Nightingale, Black Redstart, Woodlark, Barred Warbler and Hawfinch, all of which can be seen near our hotel. Warblers will be feeding young and include Barred, Marsh and River.
 |
Days 4 - Today we leave the Bukk. We may spend the morning in the area or set-off after breakfast depending on how successful our birding here has been. We will drive through wooded valleys, then open areas with vineyards where Bee-eaters are quite common and then enter the Great Hungarian Plain for a four night stay on the Hortobágy, arguably Hungary’s best bird area. As soon as we reach the plain we’ll soon encounter typical birds of the region such as Lesser Grey Shrike, Red-footed Falcon and Roller. The Red-footed Falcons nest in colonies and are particularly confiding and photogenic. |
Days 5-7 - Though we’ll have three full days in the Hortobagy area we will have many sites to visit here. Numerous fish-pond systems will be alive with breeding birds such as Pygmy Cormorant, Glossy Ibis, Red-necked Grebe, Great White and Little Egrets, Squacco, Night and Purple Herons, Common and Little Bitterns, Spoonbill, Whiskered Terns and Yellow-legged Gulls including a few "Caspian" gulls. Passerines include Bluethroats (the white-spotted race), Penduline and Bearded Tits and Icterine, Savi's and Great Reed Warblers. In the early evening there’s a good chance of hearing and seeing Little Crake. The grasslands of eastern Hungary, the puszta, are another key habitat. Great Bustards are here and we will spend a morning in search of these fine birds and no doubt encounter Tawny Pipit, Crested Lark, Corn Bunting, the Blue-headed race of Yellow Wagtail, Montagu’s Harrier, Little Owl, Common Crane, Stone Curlew, Black-tailed Godwit, Lesser Grey Shrike and more Red-footed Falcons, as we do so. Long-legged Buzzard and Saker hunt over the grasslands, too. Fresh-water marshes and smaller brackish lakes host Black-necked Grebe, Garganey, Ferruginous Duck, Black and White-winged Black Terns. Though rare we’ll also look for Collared Pratincole.
Day 8 - Departure after breakfast for Budapest. There should be time for some brief sight-seeing in the capital (if requested) before your return flight.