Hungarian Sparrowhawk - on 16th December, 2010

My wife and I have just returned from a break in Hungary, based on Budapest. Our objective was the Christmas markets, and rides on a couple of special trains - one being a fine dining train one evening to the Danube Bend, and the other being a long day trip to Vienna for the Christmas markets there. I won't bore you with any more details, but because we had a very full trip planned, with no real possibilities for any birding, I did not take binoculars or the camera - just a tiny pocket Sony with a 28-100 zoom capability.

On our first full day in Hungary, we took a trip to Esztergom, north of Budapest. There is a very fine basilica here, with views over the Danube to Slovakia. For the whole of our stay, the countryside was covered in snow, with temperatures around -6 to -12. Everything appeared monochrome and identifying birds without bins in this light was nigh on impossible. At one point my wife was walking ahead of me, and called out that there was a flock of birds. These were just a small distant flock of (unidentified) geese, but I gently hissed at my wife to come back towards me, as I'd seen a bird on the wall behind her. It turned out to be a male Sparrowhawk. I started cursing the lack of camera, but got out the pocket Sony for a record shot. I then started a stealthy approach, and the bird stayed put.

Sparrowhawk - Slovakia in the background

The bird was intently looking over the ramparts of the basilica, and seemed to be oblivious to my approach, so I advanced a bit closer.

Still the bird took no notice of me, so I got closer, and closer, and closer! When I got to about three metres away, the bird still wasn't bothered by me. It just kept staring over the ramparts. Even when I made noises to try and get it to turn towards me it only half turned, with a look in its eye as if to say "sod off - can't you see I'm busy here!"

not the closest shot that I got, but the best!

It did eventually drop down over the ramparts (presumable after some prey), but only as I turned away, having taken my photos.

To Bosnia from 30th August to 7th September

At the end of August I did another of my brief spells of working abroad as a tour guide for a Hungarian company. This entailed taking a group over to Budapest, Hungary, and then taking a special train through Hungary and Croatia to Bosnia where a week was spent looking at railways (mainly industrial) before returning to Budapest via Croatia again. This particular tour left me with very little free time to look for birds and other wildlife, but I found that birds in Bosnia were a little thin on the ground to say the least, leading one other birder on the tour to speculate that maybe the wildlife had all been eaten by desperate people during the war.

One aspect that was rather limiting, as far as birding is concerned, was the warning that one should not stray from roads and made-up paths because of residual land-mines. Our local guide reckoned that there were still in excess of 5 million land-mines in Bosnia.

On arrival in Budapest I had a free afternoon and asked a local colleague if he had any recommendations for a nice countrified place for me to go and find some birds. He told me of a lake at the end of a tram line where he had seen many "big birds". In the event, this turned out to be little more than an elongated duck pond with water that stank, but which was lined with fishermen who seemed to be taking their catches home for tea. Other than some (dubious) Mallards, I saw only Tree Sparrows ! However, the insect life proved to be relatively interesting - a trend that continued throughout the tour. There were, however, a few treats in store birdwise during the tour.

These are the insects from Saturday 30th August:-

Great Banded Grayling

Beetles on wild hop plant

Bee mimicking a Hornet

The following day we took the train through Croatia to Bosnia. En-route we saw a few birds, including two flocks of Great Egrets. Some of my photos (one of which is below) showed two darker birds which I had not spotted when taking the photos. Suggestions from 'Birdguides' have included Glossy Ibis, Black Stork, Purple Heron - and a joker who suggested Black Heron and then Black Egret !!!!

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A visit to the railway of a coal mine (entirely worked by steam engines) at Bukinje, Bosnia, on 1st September resulted in several insects, a lizard, and a Black Redstart (not successfully photographed) being seen.

Unidentified moth at Bukinje

Cricket at Bukinje

Probable Green Lizard (juvenile) at Bukinje

We then moved on to the railway complex at Banovici (again using steam engines).

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Large Skipper at Banovici

Black Redstart at Banovici

The next morning (2nd September), after an early breakfast, I had a stroll round the undeveloped land round our hotel. This was not without some concerns for safety. However, I did see Whinchat and Stonechat (shown below) both of which were wrongly positioned for the sun - but I was not going to leave the path to try and go round them !!!

Whinchat (juvenile)

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Stonechat

Later in the day, I stopped to photograph a Hooded Crow (below) which was on a railway platform (huge numbers of Hooded Crow seen during the trip).

We overnighted in Zenica at a hotel next to the river, owned by the local steelworks. I took an early breakfast so that I could have a walk by the river. The river was full of junk, but a 'local' stopped me to tell me how, now that the river was clean, there were "so much birds". I must say that I was surprised to find several Little Grebe, and even a Kingfisher (as well as numerous Mallards), so I supect that the water was relatively clean.

After breakfast, we went to the Zenica steel works for a visit (they still use steam engines). Here I saw several Whinchats from the bus. As we left the bus, a Kestrel flew off the tall building beside the bus and headed out of sight, but on a decending path. I found this in the top of a low tree and took the safety shots before working my way round the other side of a building to take some closer shots from the other side which were with better light.

Wood White at Zenica Steel Works

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Kestrel at Zenica Steel works

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By now, our local guide had realised my interest in birds, and pointed out this Whinchat to me when we arrived at Kakanj.

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Whinchat at Kakanj

The following day (4th September) I photographed this Common Buzzard in Rajlovac railway goods yard.

Common Buzzard at Rajlovac

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That evening I took a tram out of the centre of Sarajevo and then took a taxi to Vrelo Bosna (the source of the Bosna river). This is a beautiful park, and I discovered where some of the birds in Bosnia had gone to. Here I had my first ever sighting of a Grey-headed Woodpecker - I confess to thinking it was a Green, until I had a closer look at the photos that I had taken in the dark evening shadows.

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Marsh Tit at Vrelo Bosna (near Sarajevo)

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Grey-Headed Woodpecker at Vrelo Bosna

The following day (5th September) we took our train to Ploce in Croatia (on the coast) for a short visit. No interesting birds were seen, but I did photograph a grasshopper and a dragonfly.

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Grasshopper at Ploce (Croatia)

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Dragonfly at Ploce

The return to Bosnia, and then to Zagreb (Croatia), with a run to Budapest from Zagreb on 7th September did not yield anything very exciting. In summary, I do not recommend going to Bosnia for 'independent' birding.

Budapest (Hungary) on 1st June 2008

We arrived in Budapest late morning. After a lunch-time meeting with the head of the Hungarian team we had a free afternoon until meeting up with the group at 6 p.m., and so my wife (who is not a birder) and I decided to spend a couple of hours visiting the park on Margit-sziget – an island in the Danube in the middle of the city. It was just a general visit, and little was seen in the way of birds at first. Suddenly I was struck by a very loud song in a dense clump of trees and shrubs beside me. It took me about 20 minutes to locate the songster, although I was able to walk round the clump and the bird was never more than 4 metres away. Eventually, by crouching down, I found a ‘tunnel’ through the foliage, and there was the Nightingale. There were also numerous Nuthatches on the island, with one family of 5 making a charming sight together.

Nightingale

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Nuthatch

Hidasnémeti (Hungary) on 4th June 2008

Having entered Hungary, we had a longish stop at Hidasnémeti station. Here there were nesting House Martins that were also actively hunting. Also there were Tree Sparrows, and the inevitable Black Redstarts. Later in our journey, in the vicinity of Szerencs, I managed another record shot through the train window. This time it was of a Common Buzzard. A later attempt at a large Egret (unidentified) in a field as we passed did not work at all although it does show yellow legs and bill, with some grey in the wings?

Tree Sparrow

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Bee on Flowers

House Martin

Deer

Common Buzzard

Egret (unidentified)

Lillafüred (Hungary) on 5th June 2008

Our overnight stop was at the amazing Hotel Palota in Lillafüred. In the morning I got up early so that I could explore a little. There was a lake, and a waterfall beside the hotel which was in a forested valley. As scenic as the surrounds were, the most productive area bird-wise was the hotel’s garden. Here there were Black Redstarts, a Nuthatch and, just as I thought I should go into breakfast, a Hawfinch flew down near me and slowly started making its way towards me. Unfortunately it stayed in the shade, although the majority of the garden was in sunshine, and my camera was set up for the sunshine. I was so mesmerised by my first sighting of this bird and also certain that it would fly before I took a shot that I just fired away without increasing the ISO (which is what was needed). The results, therefore are a little disappointing.

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Black Redstart

Nuthatch

Hawfinch