Birding in Hungary X

Wednesday 17 July 2024

Sarud

On Wednesday morning, my dad and I woke up early again to go for a walk around Sarud again. On the way we heard the Turtle doves again and saw many Red-backed Shrikes. Soaring overhead, we saw a Raven with a few Hooded Crows. After about twenty minuets I heard a faint call some kind of bird in the grass in the fields nearby. We stopped for a bit until it started calling again and we could confirm my lifer Quail! Apart from a couple Kestrels and a small flock of Corn Buntings, we did not see to much after that so we walked back home.

https://ebird.org/checklist/S187345756

Hortobagy Nemzeti Park - Hortobagyi Halastó

Once we said goodbye to our family, we started driving east towards the Horotobagyi Fishponds. Just as we got out of the car we noted a Hoopoe and a soaring White-tailed Eagle, a nice start to an amazing session. After paying a hefty entry fee of nearly £18 (8,300HUF), we started walking along the lakes. We soon noticed the large amounts of Whiskered terns, which I had only gotten on my life list yesterday. unfortunately the first hide was closed so we walked a bit further to scan the birds on some smaller pools along the main trail. Using my scope I found Lapwings, Little Egrets, Squacco Herons, Curlews, Great White Egrets and my lifer Spotted Redshank! As we continued we got very close to many Squacco Herons and tried to get pictures of the many Whiskered Terns. On the way to the first tower, we saw Green Sandpiper and Wood Sandpiper both good surprises as well as a few Snipe in the distance we saw a Black-winged Stilt in some muddy pools we saw a Greenshank, and a couple Common Sandpipers, a Ruff, 3 Black-tailed Godwits and my lifer Glossy Ibis! At the watch tower we saw many Pygmy Cormorants and Whiskered Terns. We also got glimpses of Bearded Tit, Great Reed Warbler and Savi's Warbler. Later we met a local birder named Istvan who told us about some of the birds here and where to find them. After we had lunch and had a Kingfisher fly past us, my mum and I walked towards the next tower to join Istvan while my sisters, who wanted to go home would go with my dad back to the car. After waiting out the storm we started scanning the flocks finding a few Great Crested Grebes and many Mallards. After talking for a bit Istvan pointed a Ferruginous Duck and a Hungarian rarity, the Caspian Tern, both lifers! Later after scanning a huge flock of birds that had arrived, Istvan also found my lifer Whimbrel (I don't know why this was still a lifer)! On the way back we saw a Black Stork and had a Swallow land on a wire only a metre away from us.

https://ebird.org/checklist/S187433839

Hortobagy Nemzeti Park - Falcon Lookout Tower

Back at the car, we drove towards Debrecen and the Falcon Lookout Tower, where we were hoping to find Red-footed Falcon. Arriving in the car park we already had a Kestrel hovering in the grassland. Within a few minutes, we had Red-footed Falcons flying right over our heads, my 7th lifer of the day! After photographing them for about 20 minuets we got back in the car and called it a day - not just any day, a day I will remember for the rest of my life - Wednesday the seventeenth of July two-thousand and twenty-four.

https://ebird.org/checklist/S187485607