Another calendar to the waste bin

We wish you a birdy and joyful new year! Andi & Szimi

Bay of Pilismarót, Danube River, N Hungary

Traditionally the last day of every year I start with birding. Despite the ugly weather I decided to go out and visit a far birding spot along the river Danube east of my home. The site is just about 60 km away from my home city. My birding fellow was Peter Szeimann this time. We departed early enough to be able to find possible wintering and night roosting flock of wild geese. Despite the mass of the dirt around the edge of the ice we didn't see any flock. Only distant voices of Bean-Geese heard. On the ice-free areas Eurasian Coot was the dominant species. Species counted: Great Crested Grebe/Búbos vöcsök 25 Little Grebe/Kis vöcsök 4 Northern Harrier/Kékes rétihéja 1 male White-tailed Eagle/Rétisas 2 Mute Swan/Bütykös hattyú 160 Whooper Swan/Énekes hattyú 1 Mallard/Tőkés réce 40 Garganey/Kendermagos réce 70 Eurasian Wigeon/Fütyülő réce 25 Tufted Duck/Kontyos réce 60 Common Pochard/Barátréce 55 Greater Scaup/Hegyi réce 12 Common Goldeneye/Kerceréce 30 Smew/Kis bukó 15 White-winged Scoter/Füstös réce 2 Black Scoter/Fekete réce 1 female Eurasian Coot/Szárcsa 900 Northern Shrike/Nagy őrgébics 1 Brambling/Fenyőpinty 40 On the way home we drove cross the Gerecse Mountain where we spotted a flock of finch at Péliföld-Szentkereszt. While we saw mainly Linnets there were at least two Twite/Sárgacsőrű kenderike and a few European Goldfinch in the flock. The flock was chased many times by an immature Northern Harrier or was alarmed by the call of nearby Fieldfares.

I Wish To All Of My Visitors A Merry Christmas! Time to relax! :) ----- Minden Látogatómnak Boldog Karácsonyt Kívánok! Próbálj meg lazítani! :)

Öreg-tó, Tata - snowy morning

This Sunday I again went out for birding to the Old Lake of my home town with my children. The weather circumstances was nice however a large part of the lake has been frozen by the low temperature. It was a moderate snowfall last night which painted the landscape white. The wildfowl concentrated to a small ice free area. The quantity was a bit less than we counted last week-end or my friend counted a few days before. Besides the geese the biggest sensation was a presence of a single feeding Bar-tailed Godwit which is anyway an uncommon visitor in the migrating period. This time of the year it was a nice surprise to see a shorebird out of the 'shorebirds period'./Ma reggel ismét kimentünk az Öreg-tóra a gyermekeimmel. Az időjárási körülmények megfelelőek voltak bár a tó nagy része a napok óta tartó alacsony hőmérséklet miatt befagyott. Éjjel gyengén szállingózott a hó, mely ahhoz elég volt, hogy fehérre fesse a tájat. A vizimadarak egy kisebb jégmentes területre szorultak. A mennyiségek ennek megfelelően kissé visszaesetek az egy héttel ezelőtti, vagy a Musicz Laci által pár napja számoltakhoz képest. A ludak mellett a mai nap legnagyobb szenzációja egy táplálkozó kis goda jelenléte volt, mely amúgy is ritka vonuló a régióban. Az év ezen szakában tehát kellemes meglepetés volt partimadarat látni 'nem partimadaras' időszakban. Some species listed/Néhány kiemelt faj: Taiga Bean-Goose/Tajga vetési lúd 9000 Greylag Goose/Nyári lúd 30 Greater White-fronted Goose/Nagy lilik 8000 Barnacle Goose/Apácalúd 1 Red-breasted Goose/Vörösnyakú lúd 2 Mallard/Tőkés réce 500 Eurasian Teal/Csörgőréce 300 Bar-tailed Godwit/Kis goda 1

Öreg-tó, Tata - foggy morning

I have had some very bad luck with terrible or at least unpleasant weather conditions disabling birding on the available time. I finally gave up looking through the window in every morning and picked up my children to see some nice birds nearby my home at the Öreg-tó (local name) or for foreigners better known as Old Lake. For sure the weather was again too misty to be able to pick up anything from the crowd of wildgeese. The lake can be reached within some hundred meters from my house which is almost entirely surrounded by the town. It is a very important wintering site for wildfowl including thousands of goose and duck and gull species. This is a Ramsar Site together with the Ferencmajor fishponds and other in-between areas. The range of vision was limited but at least I could see some species on the ground and the water. There was about 22.000 geese with about equal share between Greater White-fronted Goose and the Taiga Bean Goose. While scanning the geese under a very bad light conditions I finally spotted 2 Red-breasted Goose. Two days before a Brant, a Barnacle and 7 Red-breasted Geese was seen by my friend. After leaving the lake we made a short trip to the Gerecse Mountains where we mainly enjoyed the scenic views with very nicely colored forests. The rusty dead leaves on the ground made the already grey forest beautiful. Almost no birds have been seen during the trip. Finally we found a nice flock of Fieldfares together with some other species feeding and bathing on the main road. Yellowhammers, Linnets and Eurasian Tree-Sparrows were also seen. Surprisingly still about 20 European Starlings was among them. The best species was a Redwing in this flock.