28th May. A friend (Fanky70) and I flew from Liverpool to Budapest for a few days birding. We arrived in Budapest early Evening, our first bird was a Black Kite at the airport. It was cold and raining when we left Liverpool, but we arrived in Budapest to clear skies and 28 degrees. After checking into our hotel, we headed out to the park across the road. We had been told it may not be safe walking through this park in the evening, so we left our binoculars in the hotel. We still found Nightingale, Nuthatch, Hooded Crow, Magpie, Wood Pigeon, House Sparrow, Great Tit, Starling and a Woodpecker that seemed to have an all black tail, but without bins it was impossible to say whether it was Syrian or just a Great spotted.
29th May. We were picked up by our guide at 7am and we headed out of Budapest to find Saker Falcon. Our guide told us it hasn’t been a good year for Sakers in Hungary. There was only one nest box that he knew of, that had been used this year, so we headed for it, even though it was a bit out of our way. We soon picked up two Sakers sitting on pylons. While we waited for them to fly we also saw Marsh Harrier, Buzzard, Cuckoo and Black Stork. Then one of the Sakers took off and stooped into a crop field, pulled up and stooped in again, it did this four or five times before soaring right over our heads, gaining height and circling off into the distance.
Our next stop was a service’s on the M3 motorway. As we pulled into the car park there were Crested Lark, Yellow and White Wagtail on the grass, Marsh Harriers and Common Buzzard hunted the fields around and about. On the fence around the services there were Red-Backed and Lesser Grey Shrike. We then spotted our target in the distance, a pair of Imperial Eagles.
On the way to our hotel in the Bukk Hills, we stopped at a lake to have a bit of a scan. There was a Golden Oriole singing from poplars next to the road and in the fields were Corn Bunting, Red-Backed Shrike and Crested Lark. From the vantage point at the end of a dam we picked out another distant pair of Imperial Eagles, a Black Stork, Little and Great White Egret, Black Redstart and Wheatear. As we walked back to the car an Imperial Eagle flew low right over our heads, then soared back towards us as it gained height giving us fantastic views of this awesome bird. We next stopped on a farm track just outside of Nosvaj to have a scan for raptors. Soon we picked up a Lesser Spotted Eagle coming out of a small valley close to where we had parked, giving superb views as it circled off into the hills.
After checking in to the Nomad Hotel in Nosvaj, we headed out into the forest. A couple of walks and a drive through the forest failed to produce our targets of Ural Owl, White-Backed and Grey-Headed Woodpecker, although we did hear a Grey-Headed. Though we did see Collared Flycatcher, Rock Bunting, Hawfinch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Wood Warbler, River Warbler, Honey Buzzard and yet another Imperial Eagle. A quick stop at the site where we saw the Lesser Spotted Eagle earlier produced four Turtle Dove, singing Corn Bunting, Tree Sparrow and Crested Lark.
Our last location of the day was a Black Woodpecker nest, next to the road near Nosvaj itself. We had only been out of the car a couple of minutes when the male Black Woodpecker flew in from behind us and landed on a tree giving superb views. Despite dipping on three of our main targets, it had been a superb day.