MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
Conference Birding: Budapest October 2018
For this trip my flight timing worked well and I was able to enjoy a full day’s birding with Zsombor of Hungarian Birdwatching in the grasslands and fishponds less than an hour from the airport at Kiskunsag, and three trips to Gellert Park – a beautiful park set on a craggy hill above the west bank of the Danube made absolutely wonderful by the autumnal leaves and the fabulous view across the river and over Budapest.
We started well with a fine male Black Redstart even before leaving the airport carpark and a couple of flocks of Woodpigeons totally some 70 birds were heading determinedly south -clearly on migration. Other roadside birds on the way south to Kiskunsag included a couple of Great Egrets, a couple each of Common Buzzard and Kestrel, several Hooded Crows, and a Collared Dove.
We started our birding proper on a small hill overlooking a fishpond close to Bugyi with calling Eurasian Skylark and Crested Lark, flyover Red-throated Pipit, the first of many Chiffchaffs, and on the water Great Crested Grebe, Great Cormorant, a hundred or so Mallard and the first of eight Marsh Harriers on what turned out to be a very good day for raptors.
The big win here was finding a wonderful flock of 25 Stone Curlews in the fallow fields close to the hill. I thoroughly enjoyed them as my only previous sighting was a yellow eye in a tiny head about a kilometer away at Weeting Heath in 1988. They allowed a reasonably close approach and good scope views.
The grasslands on the other side of the pond held a scattering of Northern Lapwings, a loose flock of Eurasian Starlings, a distant Corn Bunting and the highlight bird of the day a distant group of eight Great Bustards, which eventually showed closer at the end of the day. More quality here included two White-tailed Eagles and an Imperial Eagle circling together, enabling a good comparison of their respective structures – neater and slender-looking wings on Imperial and more bulging inner primaries on White-tailed being easy to see when both birds were together. There were also four or five Buzzards, including a few that initially looked promising, but didn’t make the grade as Long-legged Buzzard. The most numerous raptor was Eurasian Kestrel – we must have seen fifteen or twenty during the day. We also had two Hen Harriers.
A little further south we found the first of three Great Grey Shrikes – newly arrived for the winter. It almost immediately swooped down from its perch and began wrestling with a large insect in the middle of the road in front of us – nice! Another watchpoint on a hill delivered two more distant Great Bustards as we had lunch, but not much else.
A post-lunch coffee stop in a wooded village provided a stakeout for Syrian Woodpecker, which performed excellently in response to playback – zipping overhead and perching in plain view allowing good views of the head pattern (no connecting black line under the ear coverts between the moustachial stripe and the nape) which provides the easiest differentiation from Great Spotted Woodpecker. Other birds here included a gang of Rooks in a roadside tree, several flyover European Jackdaws and a Northern Sparrowhawk.
Our final stop for the day was an area of fishponds and reed-filled channels. October is frankly not the best time here as the wonderful profusion of summer breeding species – among them Bee-eater, Roller, Little Bittern, Squacco Heron, Red-footed Falcon, Moustached, Great Reed, Barred and River Warblers had already left. There were several Stonechats still around and a single Whinchat – another bird I haven’t seen for a couple of decades.
There was however a range of waders including 60-odd Dunlin, a couple of Little Stint, Greenshank, Redshank, Spotshank, Green and Wood Sand, Little Ringed Plover twenty or so Common Snipe, half-a-dozen Grey Plovers and a solitary Ruff. Other birds included several Caspian Gulls, more Marsh Harriers, three Moorhen, a Coot, three Water Rails and seen from the tower hide, a couple of Greylag Goose on the deck, which gave much better views than the hundred or so migrating birds that had flown over in a couple of flocks earlier in the day. Other waterfowl included three Mute Swans a couple of feeding flocks of Shoveler, a few Common Teal and single Eurasian Wigeon and Tufted Duck.
My personal highlight here was a Sedge Warbler that I pished out of the reeds where it showed wonderfully for a minute or so, allowing Zsombor to confirm that it was not in fact the hoped-for Moustached Warbler – which has a darker head and a longer, almost locustella-like tail and generally richer brown upperparts compared to the clearly olive–toned Sedge Warbler. Other passerines included several Common Reed Buntings, Tree Sparrows and heard but sadly unseen, both Penduline Tit and Bearded Reedling. At the other end of the size scale were the herd of the wonderful Grey Cattle of the region.
On the way back the late afternoon light wonderfully illuminated a Great Bustard glowing rufous and white in a field of lush green alfalfa shoots. Even better were a flock of eight birds that were now much closer to the road and finally allowed a reasonable photograph – a fine finale to an excellent day.
Cheers
Mike
For this trip my flight timing worked well and I was able to enjoy a full day’s birding with Zsombor of Hungarian Birdwatching in the grasslands and fishponds less than an hour from the airport at Kiskunsag, and three trips to Gellert Park – a beautiful park set on a craggy hill above the west bank of the Danube made absolutely wonderful by the autumnal leaves and the fabulous view across the river and over Budapest.
We started well with a fine male Black Redstart even before leaving the airport carpark and a couple of flocks of Woodpigeons totally some 70 birds were heading determinedly south -clearly on migration. Other roadside birds on the way south to Kiskunsag included a couple of Great Egrets, a couple each of Common Buzzard and Kestrel, several Hooded Crows, and a Collared Dove.
We started our birding proper on a small hill overlooking a fishpond close to Bugyi with calling Eurasian Skylark and Crested Lark, flyover Red-throated Pipit, the first of many Chiffchaffs, and on the water Great Crested Grebe, Great Cormorant, a hundred or so Mallard and the first of eight Marsh Harriers on what turned out to be a very good day for raptors.
The big win here was finding a wonderful flock of 25 Stone Curlews in the fallow fields close to the hill. I thoroughly enjoyed them as my only previous sighting was a yellow eye in a tiny head about a kilometer away at Weeting Heath in 1988. They allowed a reasonably close approach and good scope views.
The grasslands on the other side of the pond held a scattering of Northern Lapwings, a loose flock of Eurasian Starlings, a distant Corn Bunting and the highlight bird of the day a distant group of eight Great Bustards, which eventually showed closer at the end of the day. More quality here included two White-tailed Eagles and an Imperial Eagle circling together, enabling a good comparison of their respective structures – neater and slender-looking wings on Imperial and more bulging inner primaries on White-tailed being easy to see when both birds were together. There were also four or five Buzzards, including a few that initially looked promising, but didn’t make the grade as Long-legged Buzzard. The most numerous raptor was Eurasian Kestrel – we must have seen fifteen or twenty during the day. We also had two Hen Harriers.
A little further south we found the first of three Great Grey Shrikes – newly arrived for the winter. It almost immediately swooped down from its perch and began wrestling with a large insect in the middle of the road in front of us – nice! Another watchpoint on a hill delivered two more distant Great Bustards as we had lunch, but not much else.
A post-lunch coffee stop in a wooded village provided a stakeout for Syrian Woodpecker, which performed excellently in response to playback – zipping overhead and perching in plain view allowing good views of the head pattern (no connecting black line under the ear coverts between the moustachial stripe and the nape) which provides the easiest differentiation from Great Spotted Woodpecker. Other birds here included a gang of Rooks in a roadside tree, several flyover European Jackdaws and a Northern Sparrowhawk.
Our final stop for the day was an area of fishponds and reed-filled channels. October is frankly not the best time here as the wonderful profusion of summer breeding species – among them Bee-eater, Roller, Little Bittern, Squacco Heron, Red-footed Falcon, Moustached, Great Reed, Barred and River Warblers had already left. There were several Stonechats still around and a single Whinchat – another bird I haven’t seen for a couple of decades.
There was however a range of waders including 60-odd Dunlin, a couple of Little Stint, Greenshank, Redshank, Spotshank, Green and Wood Sand, Little Ringed Plover twenty or so Common Snipe, half-a-dozen Grey Plovers and a solitary Ruff. Other birds included several Caspian Gulls, more Marsh Harriers, three Moorhen, a Coot, three Water Rails and seen from the tower hide, a couple of Greylag Goose on the deck, which gave much better views than the hundred or so migrating birds that had flown over in a couple of flocks earlier in the day. Other waterfowl included three Mute Swans a couple of feeding flocks of Shoveler, a few Common Teal and single Eurasian Wigeon and Tufted Duck.
My personal highlight here was a Sedge Warbler that I pished out of the reeds where it showed wonderfully for a minute or so, allowing Zsombor to confirm that it was not in fact the hoped-for Moustached Warbler – which has a darker head and a longer, almost locustella-like tail and generally richer brown upperparts compared to the clearly olive–toned Sedge Warbler. Other passerines included several Common Reed Buntings, Tree Sparrows and heard but sadly unseen, both Penduline Tit and Bearded Reedling. At the other end of the size scale were the herd of the wonderful Grey Cattle of the region.
On the way back the late afternoon light wonderfully illuminated a Great Bustard glowing rufous and white in a field of lush green alfalfa shoots. Even better were a flock of eight birds that were now much closer to the road and finally allowed a reasonable photograph – a fine finale to an excellent day.
Cheers
Mike
Steady on, you might make it to Vilnius next !
