2007 Tour Narrative
Having departed London’s Gatwick at about 1:30 pm, we were met in Budapest by Safi, our Hungarian host. We made a quick stop outside the airport to get views of the ground squirrels known as Sousliks before heading southeast towards the Hortobágy Puszta. A distant Imperial Eagle was seen from the minibus just before our roadside lunch, which we enjoyed in the company of several Crested Larks and Stonechats. We also looked around Lake Tisza, seeing Purple, Gray, and Squacco Herons, and Common Bluetail and Small Redeye damselflies.
Sunday, our first full day, began at the Hortobágy fishponds with good views of Golden Oriole, Syrian Woodpecker, and Penduline Tit. Lesser Emperors and Green-eyed or Norfolk Hawkers were patrolling the open water, and we were able to compare White-tailed and Black Skimmers perching and egg-laying. Returning to the hotel, we saw our only Lesser Fiery Coppers of the trip. In the evening we were taken to a restricted area, where we saw several Great Bustards and also had wonderful views of a male Montagu’s Harrier quartering the grassland close by.
Leaving the Great Plain for the mountainous north, we stopped on the way to see our first Rollers and Bee-eaters at their nest sites. We arrived in the Aggtelek National Park at about 2:00, and after lunch walked down the wooded valley, seeing several Lesser Purple Emperors and a few Hawfinches. Many butterflies were seen and photographed mud-puddling beside the river running through Josvafo village. The flowery openings contained lots of butterflies, including all three species of short-tailed blue and Alcon Blues; the biggest surprise, though, was the first record for the area of Geranium Argus. In the evening a few of us went moth-trapping on a nearby hillside.
On Tuesday we walked along the Menes Valley towards the lake, seeing many butterflies in the fields on the approach to the wooded valley. Here were our first views of the beautiful Pallas’s Fritillary, along with Lesser Marbled and Marbled Fritillaries. A couple of Niobe Fritillaries, rare in this area, flew with many other fritillaries, including Silver-washed, Dark Green, Heath, Assmans, and Spotted. The lakeside gave us our only sightings of Common Clubtail and Small Pincertail dragonflies, but there were plenty of Blue Featherlegs, Broad-bodied Chasers, and Blue Emperors about. In the afternoon we stopped close to the Slovakian border for a walk in the hills, where Turtle Doves called continuously and we saw a great variety of butterflies.
A circular walk around the Tereszteny Plateau on Wednesday produced some excellent butterflies seen nowhere else on the trip, and photographers were able to get good shots of Chapman’s, Anomalous, and Meleager’s Blues. But the greatest prize were several Osiris Blues feeding from their larval foodplant Onobrychis. After lunch we went to Szelcepuszta and saw four Hungarian Gliders, including one egg-laying on Spiraea bushes, and two male Stag Beetles.
In the late afternoon, a walk to the plateau from Josvafo village gave wonderful panoramic views towards the Slovakian mountains.
On Thursday we left Josvafo and headed for the Bukk Hills, stopping first at the lake near Aggtelek. An afternoon walk along Borsodszentgyogy Valley gave us our first and only views of Common Gliders and many Heath and Marbled Fritillaries, as well good numbers of Map and Scarce Coppers. After lunch we continued to the Bukk Hills, reaching our hotel at about 5:00 pm, giving us time for a brief walk around the village, where we saw our first Serin.
On Friday we made a brief stop at a Bee-eater colony, followed by a visit to the grounds of a monastery, where two Peregrines sparred with Ravens high on the cliff face. We continued upwards to the high plateau, where butterflies were so numerous as to slow our progress. The greatest surprise here were several False Heath Fritillaries. The many other fritillaries included Silver-washed, High Brown, Dark Green, Weaver’s, and Queen of Spain. We also encountered our first two Small Tortoiseshells. On our return we stopped for a taste of the local wine, and after dinner went into the valley where a local bat surveyor was netting; two Bechstein’s bats were caught while we were there.
The next morning we visited Farm Lator and saw the first fresh Small Pearl-bordered Fritillaries and a beautiful valesina form of the Silver-washed Fritillary as a Short-toed Eagle passed overhead. We continued through the village up onto the plateau and spent the morning in the dry grassland. A Sand Lizard gave us a good view of its brilliant green markings, and a Wart Biter was also found. Our lunch was accompanied by Woodland and Great Banded Graylings, and a darter dragonfly turned out to be an immature male Moustached Darter. We returned along a rough track, and after a thundershower passed, stopped at a quarry that turned out to be very productive. Three beautiful Checkered Blues flew around their larval foodplant, White Sedum, and our first Blue-spot Hairstreak was found. An amazing and rare bush-cricket Saga pedo, one of the largest insects in Europe, was discovered and photographed. On the quarry face a Rock Bunting and several Black Redstarts were singing.
On our final day, we left the Bukk Hills for the edge of the Great Plain. Our first stop gave us good views of Saker Falcons and more distant views of an Imperial Eagle. More Rollers were seen, and our only Knapweed Fritillary became the final butterfly added to our list. A rough walk across hot, dry grassland to a blind overlooking a large lake proved worthwhile, as the first birds seen were two Black Storks. The view from the blind also revealed many Spoonbills, Spotted Redshanks, and Great White Egrets, as well as Garganey, Common Pochard, and many Graylag Geese. On our way to the airport we stopped by the roadside for lunch and found two of Europe’s largest beetles around the oaks: several dead Stag Beetles and the impressively huge Longhorn beetle Cerambyx cerdo.
We arrived at Budapest airport at about 2:30 pm, and were back at London’s Gatwick at 6:15 pm.
- Richard Lewington
Updated: June 2008