Baggins on the Loose: Short break to Hungary

The opportunity to spend some extended quality time with my son, a budding birdwatcher himself, presented itself around the turn of the year only to be thwarted by an unwelcome hospital investigation. Much ado about nothing in the end (my end that is😂), so we rearranged and booked a short break in Hungary.

Why Hungary? Well we both wanted eastern Europe, I've always wanted to see Budapest, and it was just a good destination with birding opportunities that fitted our limited time frame of 5 days. Cheap flights, accommodation and car hire helped too of course!

We had 1 night and most of the next day in Budapest, and I was mightily impressed by the city. It's actually a city of 2 distinct halves - Buda, the older, hillier side and across the mighty Danube, Pest - the bustling modern half.

Our hotel was just on the Pest side of the Margit Bridge and we walked across into Buda for a couple of beers and the next day a good tramp around the old city - we ended up walking just shy of 10 miles! Great vibe about the place, magnificent architecture, little traffic and really peaceful up in the castle district which is packed full of historic buildings.

Szechenyi Chain Bridge, Budapest, 26/03/23

Budapest & the Danube, looking North from the Castle district

The Hungarian parliament building that dominates many of the skyline cityscapes in Hungary is a sight to behold close up but actually not that old (1902), everyone takes a picture of it and why not, but I was more taken with the older buildings and churches in the Castle district, and we were both taken by some of the less obvious old communist style blocks still in evidence.

Hungarian parliament building, Budapest, 26/03/23

Old communist building, Budapest, 26/03/23

Matyas Templom, Budapest, 26/03/23

Magdelene or Buda Tower (13th century), 26/03/23

Yep, great city and with hindsight another day or so to explore would have been good but our plan entailed a taxi back to the airport to pick up a hire car and onward across country to one of Hungary's top birding sites Hortabagyi. We cut it fine after loosing our bearings a bit and the taxi was already waiting back at the hotel but by late afternoon and after the usual car hire scare tactic shenanigans, we were on our way east on the E71 autobahn.

Got to our apartment in Hortobagyi village at dusk and were very happy that the host had left us 4 cans of lager in the fridge. Nice one Nandor!

The weather gods were against us for most of the next day with constant showers and blustery cold winds, but the morning was ok and we were lucky to have the significant wetland area of Borsosi-to Lake to tramp around within half a kilometer of our apartment. Dreadfully overcast though and spitting with rain on and off. Plenty of birds about though. White Storks were apparent from the off, with several already nesting in the village, 2 House Martins, and 4 Barn Swallows were good omens but the best bird of the morning was a Sea Eagle that drifted over one of the lakes mid morning. Other highlights included close on 30 Marsh Harriers, 20ish Great White Egrets, a flock of about 30 Common Cranes over, 2 Penduline Tits, and plenty of ducks on the lake, the majority of which were Pochard.

Snail species, Hortobagyi, 27/03/23

I took a picture of a large snail that was crossing one of the muddy tracks and joked that with the skies so dark it might be the only picture I took all day - I was nearly right!

The heavens opened after lunch and a drive around in the rain and a brisk northerly was the only option. We drove east out of the village with flooded fields on both sides - spotted some possible Bean Geese from the car along with 50 plus Ruff.

Ruff, Hortobagyi, 27/03/23

2nd best bird of the day was a rubbish view of a red letter bird.We turned off down a likely looking track that in the end ended in a dead end and whilst maneuvering the car around we managed to flush a ringtail Hen Harrier out of the middle of a stubble field. It was gone before I could get the camera out but it was certainly a moment!

Halasto map

Next day under much brighter skies we headed a few kilometers down the road to Halasto, birding central for Hortobagyi and had a good 3 hours before the skies darkened yet again. Halasto is a big nature reserve (over 2,000 hecatres) so we only scratched the surface but we got some good birds and the reserve itself is a mightily impressive wetland area with some massive lakes.

Halasto, Hortabagyi, 28/03/23

The place was thronging with wildlife with some fantastic wetland birds on show, many more duck / geese species - Shoveler, Gadwall, Teal, a splendid group of 6 migrating Garganey and two big flocks of White-fronted Geese.

White-fronted Geese, Halasto, 28/03/23

The numerous Great White Egrets and Grey Herons were joined by smaller wading birds, mainly Ruff but also Black Tailed Godwit, Curlew and Lapwing. All too distant for pics but did grab a passing Pygmy Cormorant - not the sexiest of birds for sure but before I saw one fly down the Danube a couple of days ago, a bird that was embarrassingly absent from my Europe list!

Pygmy Cormorant, Halasto, 28/03/23

Lesser Spotted Eagle, Halasto, 28/03/23

Standing on one of the raised platforms with a splendid view of the reserve we had a bit of birding purple patch. Whilst trying to grab a picture of a newly arrived Sedge Warbler a pair of Penduline Tits came into the frame to be joined a moment later by a nice looking male Bearded Tit. And then we spotted 2 big raptors in the distance, definitely an eagles, and they were heading our way. One of them only flew right over our heads! Too early for Greater Spotted Eagle according to one of the rangers we spoke to later, so Lesser Spotted, another Europe tick for me. Get in! 😎

Lesser Spotted Eagle, Halasto, 28/03/23

Bearded Tit, Halasto, 28/03/23

Penduline Tit, Halasto, 28/03/23

Roe Deer, Halasto, 28/03/23

Amazingly we saw not another soul all the time we were there, had the place to ourselves and the lack of disturbance of any kind maybe accounted for several close encounters with deer, some of which we could hear crashing and splashing through the reeds. Looked different to me but think they were just Roe Deer. We properly spooked this one!

Roe Deer, Halasto, 28/03/23

Shortly after the Spotted Eagles went over the skies darkened again and with no shelter we had to beat it back to the visitor centre before a heavy snow shower called time on our visit. Another eagle overhead in the gloom turned out to be a lone Sea Eagle and a Bluethroat on the single gauge railway line that runs through the reserve was a fitting end to a fantastic few hours birding.

Sea Eagle, Halasto, 28/03/23

Bluethroat, Halasto, 28/03/23

We went to find something to eat, Jack fancied some traditional Hungarian fare but we ended up with chicken and chips at an isolated bar in the middle of nowhere. On the way back I stopped to take a weather pic - its so flat here (all part of the Carpathian Basin) you can see for miles!

Plains nr Hortabagyi, 28/03/2023

The gathering clouds in the above pic were laden with more snow which duly fell a bit later, thick and heavy for an hour or so, and then abating to leave a pleasant evening for a stroll around the edges of the village.

A couple of woodpeckers looked good for Syrian to me but didn't have the camera to hand and they were gone by the time I went back. Several Black Redstarts, a yaffling Green Woodpecker and several flocks of Spoonbill at dusk were the highlights.

Spoonbills, Hortabagyi village, 28/03/2023

Next day was set off back to the airport, shame, could have done with at least another couple of days here to explore the rest of this part of the world. On the way back we stopped on the bridge at Lake Tisza. Added Sand Martin and Linnet to the birdlist but not much else there apart from more Marsh Harriers including this smart looking male.

Marsh Harrier, Lake Tisza, 29/03/2023

It was a great trip, not even marred by missing the baggage retrieval on the 2nd leg of our return flight from Stanstead to Edinburgh (less said about that the better!), and I'd certainly go back for more -having now seen Budapest I'd probably fly into Debrecan next time though, its much closer to Hortabagyi. Here's a few other pics from the trip -