romancitizen
Well-known member
Two colleagues and I have just returned from a brief sojourn in Hungary, guided by Gerard Gorman. We flew out from Bristol on Weds a.m., were picked up by Gerard in his Frontera and drove straight to the Bukk Hills, arriving around 3:30. One of my colleagues, whilst an experienced Somerset birder, has no previous experience of European birding: to his amazement he had 9 lifers before we reached the hotel, including Eastern Imperial Eagle (he finished up with 50 lifers). Symptomatic of our trip, as we walked out of the hotel for our first expedition a Black Woodpecker flew into the tree outside the front door. All species of woodie normally found locally were seen or heard in one and a half days in the Bukk, plus Ural Owl, Goshawk (fantastic view), a Bee-eater colony (where a good views were had of a Nightingale, a lifer for me, though I have heard it many times), plus a good variety of warblers and the highlight for all of us, after hearing it call repeatedly, a clear view of a Corncrake in flight.
On Friday morning we were due to transfer to a motel on the edge of the Hortobagy National Park, normally a journey of about an hour: over supper on the Thursday, Gerard asked if we fancied a detour to Tokaj to look for Eagle Owl: this was received enthusiastically, so in the morning off we went. After a journey through miserable weather, and two abortive visits to quarries, we finally found what we were looking for in a quarry outside of the town: all I can say is that this moment was one of the highlights of my birding life: what a fantastic bird, to describe it as a magnificent does not begin to do it justice. Needless to say this was a lifer for us all. After 20 minutes of uninterrupted viewing, we retired to a local inn for a celebratory lunch and glass of the local wine. A superb morning’s work.
Our final two days were spent touring the fish farms of Hortobagy, plus drives/ walks out into the Puszta (Steppe): after picking up most of the usual birds of the area (Golden Oriole, Roller, etc.) on the first day, we spent Sunday looking for specialities such as Aquatic Warbler*, Great Bustard*, both of which were found, and then picking off the ‘it would be great to see’ species such as Saker Falcon, White-winged Black Tern, Montagu’s Harrier, Penduline Tit plus a nice surprise for us all, Rose-coloured Starling.
Altogether we had 140 species in 4.5 days of stress-free birding, rounded off by Gerard taking a short detour from the Motorway on the way back to the airport, so that we could get closer views of the Imperial Eagle.
How to do it: all I did was to contact Gerard via his web site ** and then book him for the days we wanted (plus vehicle): I also asked him to arrange the hotels, as my Hungarian is a bit limited: obviously one has to pay for his hotel and meals as well, plus top up the Frontera when we got back to the airport. I had a fair idea of the itinerary we wanted, and he worked it out in detail before we arrived, but was flexible as the days went by, as evidenced by the Eagle Owl trip. We picked up all of the bills (obviously) having paid his fee in advance. The only other thing we had to do was to arrange personal insurance and book our flights.
Looking back I am amazed, but it really was that simple.
Whilst I am not going to disclose his fee (that is for you to discuss with him), split between us it was not expensive, even after adding in accommodation costs (a good meal can be had for a tenner out in the sticks in Hungary***): his vehicle will take four birders, and has the advantage over minibuses in being a genuine off-road vehicle. On the final day we ran into four other unguided UK birders in an observation tower: listening to their conversation, it became obvious to me that they had not seen half of the birds that we had seen, nor been to many of the sites that we had. This brought home the wisdom of using local knowledge.
There are only two drawbacks to using Gerard: as anyone who has been birding with him will tell you, he tells endless dreadful jokes, and constantly champions Everton FC – very annoying for a Spurs fan, but a small price to pay for access to some wonderful birds.
* these must be visited with a Park Warden, which Gerard arranged (again, not expensive)
** www.probirder.com www.birdinghungary.com
*** because we had arranged the trip privately we could eat a la carte, rather than the 'group' food one gets on organised tours: in particular, the second place we stayed has fantastic food.
On Friday morning we were due to transfer to a motel on the edge of the Hortobagy National Park, normally a journey of about an hour: over supper on the Thursday, Gerard asked if we fancied a detour to Tokaj to look for Eagle Owl: this was received enthusiastically, so in the morning off we went. After a journey through miserable weather, and two abortive visits to quarries, we finally found what we were looking for in a quarry outside of the town: all I can say is that this moment was one of the highlights of my birding life: what a fantastic bird, to describe it as a magnificent does not begin to do it justice. Needless to say this was a lifer for us all. After 20 minutes of uninterrupted viewing, we retired to a local inn for a celebratory lunch and glass of the local wine. A superb morning’s work.
Our final two days were spent touring the fish farms of Hortobagy, plus drives/ walks out into the Puszta (Steppe): after picking up most of the usual birds of the area (Golden Oriole, Roller, etc.) on the first day, we spent Sunday looking for specialities such as Aquatic Warbler*, Great Bustard*, both of which were found, and then picking off the ‘it would be great to see’ species such as Saker Falcon, White-winged Black Tern, Montagu’s Harrier, Penduline Tit plus a nice surprise for us all, Rose-coloured Starling.
Altogether we had 140 species in 4.5 days of stress-free birding, rounded off by Gerard taking a short detour from the Motorway on the way back to the airport, so that we could get closer views of the Imperial Eagle.
How to do it: all I did was to contact Gerard via his web site ** and then book him for the days we wanted (plus vehicle): I also asked him to arrange the hotels, as my Hungarian is a bit limited: obviously one has to pay for his hotel and meals as well, plus top up the Frontera when we got back to the airport. I had a fair idea of the itinerary we wanted, and he worked it out in detail before we arrived, but was flexible as the days went by, as evidenced by the Eagle Owl trip. We picked up all of the bills (obviously) having paid his fee in advance. The only other thing we had to do was to arrange personal insurance and book our flights.
Looking back I am amazed, but it really was that simple.
Whilst I am not going to disclose his fee (that is for you to discuss with him), split between us it was not expensive, even after adding in accommodation costs (a good meal can be had for a tenner out in the sticks in Hungary***): his vehicle will take four birders, and has the advantage over minibuses in being a genuine off-road vehicle. On the final day we ran into four other unguided UK birders in an observation tower: listening to their conversation, it became obvious to me that they had not seen half of the birds that we had seen, nor been to many of the sites that we had. This brought home the wisdom of using local knowledge.
There are only two drawbacks to using Gerard: as anyone who has been birding with him will tell you, he tells endless dreadful jokes, and constantly champions Everton FC – very annoying for a Spurs fan, but a small price to pay for access to some wonderful birds.
* these must be visited with a Park Warden, which Gerard arranged (again, not expensive)
** www.probirder.com www.birdinghungary.com
*** because we had arranged the trip privately we could eat a la carte, rather than the 'group' food one gets on organised tours: in particular, the second place we stayed has fantastic food.
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