An extract from my report on Hungary, the rest can be found on my Flickr site: Sometimes there are birding days that just stick in the memory forever, and we had one of these days on this trip. We drove to the fields behind the fishponds, Tibi, our driver just managing to negotiate the muddy track. As we watched a small flock of sheep being driven towards us, a Greater Spotted Eagle being mobbed by a Rook. We saw this bird coming toward us and had enough time to get out of the bus to get an incredible view as it flew low over our heads and then bank round to sit in a tree. It then made its way off across the fields as we watched Bullfinch and Fieldfare together and spirals of Buzzards caught up in the thermals on migration, as many as 16 birds together. We then went to a small village which had up to 300 Long-eared Owls roosting in the trees along the streets, just feet from where we stood. We ended up the garden of this little old lady who didn’t mind us walking over her less than well tended ground, finding 16 of these Owls sitting in just one tree. It was here that we also saw a Goshawk mobbing a White-tailed Sea Eagle above our heads, amazing to see the difference in the size of the two birds – all this before moving onto another part of the Hortobagyi where we had a fly-past of the white headed Long-tailed Tits. These birds are beautiful and more common in Scandinavia, but looked great here in the bright sunshine. The end of this day was to be a walk to the end of the Elep fishponds. The air was still, the sun was dropping over the still water sending golden, red reflections and in the distance the only sound to be heard was that of the Cranes as they made their journey towards us and their nightly roosting place. As we stood there the air was filled with the vision and sound of up to 20,000 Cranes, it will be a memory that will live with me.
An extract from my report on Hungary, the rest can be found on my Flickr site: Sometimes there are birding days that just stick in the memory forever, and we had one of these days on this trip. We drove to the fields behind the fishponds, Tibi, our driver just managing to negotiate the muddy track. As we watched a small flock of sheep being driven towards us, a Greater Spotted Eagle being mobbed by a Rook. We saw this bird coming toward us and had enough time to get out of the bus to get an incredible view as it flew low over our heads and then bank round to sit in a tree. It then made its way off across the fields as we watched Bullfinch and Fieldfare together and spirals of Buzzards caught up in the thermals on migration, as many as 16 birds together. We then went to a small village which had up to 300 Long-eared Owls roosting in the trees along the streets, just feet from where we stood. We ended up the garden of this little old lady who didn’t mind us walking over her less than well tended ground, finding 16 of these Owls sitting in just one tree. It was here that we also saw a Goshawk mobbing a White-tailed Sea Eagle above our heads, amazing to see the difference in the size of the two birds – all this before moving onto another part of the Hortobagyi where we had a fly-past of the white headed Long-tailed Tits. These birds are beautiful and more common in Scandinavia, but looked great here in the bright sunshine. The end of this day was to be a walk to the end of the Elep fishponds. The air was still, the sun was dropping over the still water sending golden, red reflections and in the distance the only sound to be heard was that of the Cranes as they made their journey towards us and their nightly roosting place. As we stood there the air was filled with the vision and sound of up to 20,000 Cranes, it will be a memory that will live with me.
