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.