Hungary - Cranes Spectacular

23rd - 30th October 2010  

This two centre holiday has a main focus on the spectacular migration of Common Cranes through the Hortobagy National Park in eastern Hungary. Each autumn up to 100,000 of these elegant birds from Fenno-Scandia, the Baltic States and elsewhere in northern Europe congregate here. We will see them flying to their roosts at dusk in vast skeins and feeding by day in crop fields. In addition to the cranes there are also some special resident birds of prey and numerous flocks of wildfowl will be present. Our tour takes in the best of Hungary’s cuisine, landscapes, habitats and autumn birds.

In local guide Gerard Gorman we have the best birdwatching guide in Hungary having written several books on here and on Eastern Europe in general.

Day 1 :- Arrive into Budapest. where we will be met by our very experienced local guide before departing by road for the Bukk Hills, which is around two hours drive from the capital. Here we have a 3 night stay in our well located family-run hotel with many birds often seen in the garden including Hawfinch, Black Redstart and Middle Spotted Woodpecker. Three Nights in Noszvaj.

Day 4 :- Today we leave the hills and forests and head onto the Great Plain and after less than one hour's drive we’ll stop in the Heves grasslands and see some of our first lowland birds of the tour as we may locate our first Saker Falcon or Great Bustard of the week. Finches and buntings are beginning to gather into their Winter flocks in late October and Great Grey Shrikes can be seen on roadside wires or tree-tops. Later we’ll scan the vast waters of Lake Tisza for herons, gulls, grebes and wildfowl. Syrian Woodpecker is often around our hotel. Four Nights in Tiszafured.

Days 5 6 & 7 :- During these days we will spend most of our time birdwatching in the famous Hortobagy National Park. Habitats here include fish-pond systems where wildfowl and Common Cranes roost along with hunting Marsh Harriers and White-tailed Eagles. At the numerous drained ponds we will find a host of passage waders and around the reedbeds we may find Penduline & Bearded Tits. The grasslands of Hortobagy are hunting grounds for raptors such as Saker, Merlin, Long-legged, Rough-legged & Common Buzzards plus flocks of Great Bustards and Stone Curlew also reside here in small groups. Little Owls are quite common and Long-eared Owls are often starting to roost in numbers in this season. Dotterel spend their autumn here in the world’s largest known trips with over 100 together not unusual in traditional places on the drier Hortobagy steppe, and these same areas sometimes host parties of Lapland Bunting. We will also explore the flood-plain & woods along the River Tisza for songbirds and woodpeckers.

But arguably the main event of our stay will be the cranes. Each evening we’ll wait just before dusk at key spots to see the arrival of the noisy flocks of these birds which come in from feeding fields to roost. This event is without doubt one of Europe’s great bird spectacles. We can expect to see and hear many thousands both in the air in family parties of three and in lines of many hundreds, and in trumpeting groups in surrounding fields.

Day 8 :- After breakfast we make our way back to Budapest and if the flight times allow we will take a sightseeing tour of this attractive city before heading to the airport

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