Strandman
Well-known member
Just back from my annual outing to E Europe- I must be getting old, because I couldn't quite face the long flog east from Warsaw to Biebrza or the wait on the border with Belarus, so opted for Kiskunsag in Hungary for a few days. A report would be OTT, but here's some notes.
Logistics and timing: Getting in and out was a doddle- evening flights to and fro Budapest, and its only a 45 mins drive between the airport and the top end of Kiskunsag.
I was out there for a long weekend 25th to 28th May, but a week earlier would land you more squarely in migration season. A couple of organised groups I bumped into were scratching about a bit for new entertainment, by their last day. So if repeats of Redfoots, Rollers etc. don't do it for you, then you might want to combine with Bukk Hills etc.
Do you need a local guide? Well no, not essential and it's fun to find your own birds. But on trips like this I like to hook up with a guide for a first day or so, to provide a bit of up-to-date gen and engage with the local scene. Anyway, Dan Bastaja via Attila Steiner was great and very good company to boot. As for accommodation, Kondor Eco-lodge about 15 mins. drive south east of Szabadszallas was perfect for purpose, with birding on the doorstep and various bird tours using it.
Birding was just fine from the public roads, paths and there seemed to be no need to get into the restricted areas. (Blue sign = road is entering park. Blue + red wording= road is entering park, but restricted access, so don't go down it.) Weather was good over the weekend- if wet, some of the bumpier farm roads would soon turn undriveable in a 2WD.
Birding, top half of park, from Bugyi south and west to Apaj: Excellent roadside birding throughout. Great Bustards at distance, but still magnificent. No one special spot for them- just keep scanning all open habitat. Several males in near-full display in arable fields, females popping up here and there in the grass meadows. About 25 seen over the weekend, including a drove of 14 males on my last day. Fields full of Lapwings and Black-tailed Godwits with fledged young, a pair of Stone Curlew and found 2 pairs of Collared Pratincoles apparently fresh-in, also on arable. (I don't know that there have been any Black-winged Pratincoles breeding here over the last few years.) White Storks and parties of Black-headed and Mediterannean Gulls catching insects, including three White-winged Black Terns hawking rather surreally over a gigantic wheatfield, miles from water.
Hedgerows dotted with Tree Sparrow, Yellow Wagtail, Corn Bunting, Lesser Grey Shrike, Red-backed Shrike (although R-b Shrikes seemed a little thin on the ground to me, by E European standards).
Fishponds had decent numbers (10s) of Red-crested Pochard and Ferruginous Duck. No Pygmy Cormorant that I noticed. Fringes and wet ditches full of warblers, Great Reed Warbler noisy and frequent. But also plenty of Savi's and some great views of singing Moustached Warbler, nest-building Penduline Tit. Highlight was Bluethroat- several singing and song-flighting males, including two contesting the same dead bush and singing their heads off in the heat of the noonday sun.
I was expecting (in my ignorance of the area) to bump into more eagles- but maybe its a bit dry for Lesser Spotted Eagle and Eastern Imperial Eagle hasn't recolonised the immediate area yet, though it probably will. So I had to 'make do' on the raptor front with loads of Marsh Harriers and Common Buzzards and the traditional E Europe experience of watching Sakers at long range on pylons (two boxes full of very well-grown chicks). But I did see the female of one pair force a White Stork to the ground when it flapped too close to the nest, which was a grand spectacle. One female-type Pallid Harrier west of Apaj.
Birding, bottom half of park, west and south-west of Szabadszallas: Steppe with scattered bushes and trees, arable mixed in. Roadside birding again, with Rollers frequent and obvious and Red-footed Falcons. I don't know if there are any big Redfoot colonies here, but it was easy enough to find scattered pairs close to the unrestricted roads south and west of Szabadszallas, including one fine clump of poplars with recently fledged Hooded Crows top left, Kestrel nesting in bottom right and two pairs of Red-foots in the middle. So spent hours enjoying the endless calling, skirmishing and general toiing and froing. Plus Bee-eaters fresh-in, still digging nest holes.
2012 had been a very dry spring, so where usually there would be the distraction of flooded meadows, this year there were often dusty bowls. Great White Egret, Purple Heron, Bittern all seen, but the last two not profuse. The main salt lakes were still wet, but parched: Black-winged Stilt, Avocet, Garganey, small numbers of plovers and other waders.
A twitch: I'd promised myself I would spend time with Redfoots and all, rather than race about the place, but there was news of a summer plumaged Grey Phalarope joined by a Semipalmated Sandpiper in a two-for-one offer at Czaj-to fishponds, an hour to the south. It would have been rude to refuse, so whizzed down there (journey enlivened by 12 Rose-coloured Starlings in formation alongside the car). Lists are dull reading, but how about this, all at one drained pond:
Semipalmated Sandpiper 1 [fsp]
Grey Phalarope 1 [fsp] (A male, so I still need that trip to Iceland or somewhere...)
Broad-billed Sandpiper 1 [fsp] (A much rarer bird in Hungary than I had realised.)
Curlew Sandpiper 2 [fsp]
Little Stint 12 [fsp]
Turnstone 1
Marsh Sandpiper
Dunlin, Black-tailed Godwit, Redshank, Avocet etc.etc.
Mammals: Abundant Brown Hares, plenty of Roe Deer, Sousliks in a few places, Muskrat, Stoat. One run-over Hamster, one being swallowed by a Grey Heron. Very impressive grey Hungarian cattle.
Pics: I'm also getting too old/tired/lazy to lug a big lens around, so confined myself to unskilled digiscoping and some desultory sketching. But here's a few record shots and hopefully a painting or two to follow.
Logistics and timing: Getting in and out was a doddle- evening flights to and fro Budapest, and its only a 45 mins drive between the airport and the top end of Kiskunsag.
I was out there for a long weekend 25th to 28th May, but a week earlier would land you more squarely in migration season. A couple of organised groups I bumped into were scratching about a bit for new entertainment, by their last day. So if repeats of Redfoots, Rollers etc. don't do it for you, then you might want to combine with Bukk Hills etc.
Do you need a local guide? Well no, not essential and it's fun to find your own birds. But on trips like this I like to hook up with a guide for a first day or so, to provide a bit of up-to-date gen and engage with the local scene. Anyway, Dan Bastaja via Attila Steiner was great and very good company to boot. As for accommodation, Kondor Eco-lodge about 15 mins. drive south east of Szabadszallas was perfect for purpose, with birding on the doorstep and various bird tours using it.
Birding was just fine from the public roads, paths and there seemed to be no need to get into the restricted areas. (Blue sign = road is entering park. Blue + red wording= road is entering park, but restricted access, so don't go down it.) Weather was good over the weekend- if wet, some of the bumpier farm roads would soon turn undriveable in a 2WD.
Birding, top half of park, from Bugyi south and west to Apaj: Excellent roadside birding throughout. Great Bustards at distance, but still magnificent. No one special spot for them- just keep scanning all open habitat. Several males in near-full display in arable fields, females popping up here and there in the grass meadows. About 25 seen over the weekend, including a drove of 14 males on my last day. Fields full of Lapwings and Black-tailed Godwits with fledged young, a pair of Stone Curlew and found 2 pairs of Collared Pratincoles apparently fresh-in, also on arable. (I don't know that there have been any Black-winged Pratincoles breeding here over the last few years.) White Storks and parties of Black-headed and Mediterannean Gulls catching insects, including three White-winged Black Terns hawking rather surreally over a gigantic wheatfield, miles from water.
Hedgerows dotted with Tree Sparrow, Yellow Wagtail, Corn Bunting, Lesser Grey Shrike, Red-backed Shrike (although R-b Shrikes seemed a little thin on the ground to me, by E European standards).
Fishponds had decent numbers (10s) of Red-crested Pochard and Ferruginous Duck. No Pygmy Cormorant that I noticed. Fringes and wet ditches full of warblers, Great Reed Warbler noisy and frequent. But also plenty of Savi's and some great views of singing Moustached Warbler, nest-building Penduline Tit. Highlight was Bluethroat- several singing and song-flighting males, including two contesting the same dead bush and singing their heads off in the heat of the noonday sun.
I was expecting (in my ignorance of the area) to bump into more eagles- but maybe its a bit dry for Lesser Spotted Eagle and Eastern Imperial Eagle hasn't recolonised the immediate area yet, though it probably will. So I had to 'make do' on the raptor front with loads of Marsh Harriers and Common Buzzards and the traditional E Europe experience of watching Sakers at long range on pylons (two boxes full of very well-grown chicks). But I did see the female of one pair force a White Stork to the ground when it flapped too close to the nest, which was a grand spectacle. One female-type Pallid Harrier west of Apaj.
Birding, bottom half of park, west and south-west of Szabadszallas: Steppe with scattered bushes and trees, arable mixed in. Roadside birding again, with Rollers frequent and obvious and Red-footed Falcons. I don't know if there are any big Redfoot colonies here, but it was easy enough to find scattered pairs close to the unrestricted roads south and west of Szabadszallas, including one fine clump of poplars with recently fledged Hooded Crows top left, Kestrel nesting in bottom right and two pairs of Red-foots in the middle. So spent hours enjoying the endless calling, skirmishing and general toiing and froing. Plus Bee-eaters fresh-in, still digging nest holes.
2012 had been a very dry spring, so where usually there would be the distraction of flooded meadows, this year there were often dusty bowls. Great White Egret, Purple Heron, Bittern all seen, but the last two not profuse. The main salt lakes were still wet, but parched: Black-winged Stilt, Avocet, Garganey, small numbers of plovers and other waders.
A twitch: I'd promised myself I would spend time with Redfoots and all, rather than race about the place, but there was news of a summer plumaged Grey Phalarope joined by a Semipalmated Sandpiper in a two-for-one offer at Czaj-to fishponds, an hour to the south. It would have been rude to refuse, so whizzed down there (journey enlivened by 12 Rose-coloured Starlings in formation alongside the car). Lists are dull reading, but how about this, all at one drained pond:
Semipalmated Sandpiper 1 [fsp]
Grey Phalarope 1 [fsp] (A male, so I still need that trip to Iceland or somewhere...)
Broad-billed Sandpiper 1 [fsp] (A much rarer bird in Hungary than I had realised.)
Curlew Sandpiper 2 [fsp]
Little Stint 12 [fsp]
Turnstone 1
Marsh Sandpiper
Dunlin, Black-tailed Godwit, Redshank, Avocet etc.etc.
Mammals: Abundant Brown Hares, plenty of Roe Deer, Sousliks in a few places, Muskrat, Stoat. One run-over Hamster, one being swallowed by a Grey Heron. Very impressive grey Hungarian cattle.
Pics: I'm also getting too old/tired/lazy to lug a big lens around, so confined myself to unskilled digiscoping and some desultory sketching. But here's a few record shots and hopefully a painting or two to follow.
