Monday, 2 June 2014

Balaton Bumm....

.....if you ever decide to make a chocolate bar....have a think before you put a name on it...


...though the chocolate bar itself tasted rather nice....

A week away from the paradise of Pembury.....Lake Balaton, Hungary.....


Above is the view of the lake from the house we rented for the week....the lake is about half a mile from the house....and this rather fabulous view was quite stunning we thought....sadly there weren't that many 'seabirds' to see....

First bird spotted, from the plane after landing....'theres a Buzzardy thing over there' said my wife.  Not having the window seat....and being stuck by the aisle, I couldnt crane round to see anything.  My son had bagged the window seat both ways, being 5 and his first proper experience on a plane it seemed only fair and he was most appreciative, enjoying the taking off and landing and looking at the land far, far below....and I did see a Buzzard at the airport whilst waiting for the plane home....so it probably was a 'Buzzardy thing'...

......the actual first bird was House Martin, nesting on the airport building.....and that was about it for the first few hours...off to rent the car...and the terror of not only driving on the wrong side of the road but on the wrong side of the car too....gear changing with the wrong hand....aaargh!

I will pause here to say that the birding was snatched early mornings and some evenings...this was a family holiday and not a birding holiday so I had to adhere to 'family time'.....further proof would be that we rented the house at the north-east end of the lake, at a place called Alsoors near Balatonalmadi, rather than at the south-west end near Kis-Balaton, the large and rather fabulous birding reserve.  I had managed to gather some information from a very kind Hungarian chap who runs tours.  He provided me with a few places local to base that I could see some birds...possibly....

After getting used to the wrong side of the car/road and the interesting driving style of the Hungarians, we eventually arrived at the house.  Opening the car door I attained bird species number two...in next doors garden....Nightjar...calling at 5pm...which it did every evening and continued in to the night.  Sadly I never saw it.

Whilst we unpacked the car my son went to explore the garden and came running in...'Hedgehog in the garden' he said....and there was...I foolishly left my camera indoors when I went to look.

My son had the top floor and the view was even better than the picture above.  But from his balcony regular views of Hare were to be had in the field at the bottom of the garden.  I spotted more Hares at a couple of birding sites too during the week.

A short evening stroll produced Magpie, Blackbird, Song Thrush and Lesser Whitethroat sitting openly on wires singing.  How different it would be seeing this bird during the week...so easy compared with home!

When I got up early in the morning, usually around 4am - 4-30am the first bird I could hear singing would be Golden Oriole.

Anyway....heres a list of birds that I saw....no particular order....

Collared Dove, Woodpigeon, Great Tit (plenty of them around), Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Jay, Spotted Flycatcher (in the garden), Hooded Crow, Black Redstart (in the garden), Starling (very common), Icterine Warbler (nice!), Blackcap (all over), Nightingale (plentiful supply in some places and could be heard from the house), Chaffinch, Swallow, House Sparrow, Feral Pigeon, Cuckoo, Tree Sparrow (family in the garden, but everywhere), Mallard, Mute Swan, Great Crested Grebe, Pied Wagtail, Great Reed Warbler (Tick!...very easy to find and see, just go to a small clump of reeds), Serin (around the local fields)

A quick pause to say there was a visit to Budapest....


Corn Bunting, Stonehcat, Buzzard, Swift, Marsh Harrier, Linnet, Yellow Legged Gull, Common Tern, Nuthatch, Little Egret, White Stork (Tick!), Kestrel, Rook, Cormorant, Reed Warbler...

...and an incident with my new camera...dropped on the cobbles these bits fell off....


.....never to be put back....dont buy one of these new cameras that are so thin you cant grip it....oh for my old chunky Nikon....

Night Heron, Bearded Tit, Purple Heron (Tick! 7 or 8 in the air at same time), Little Grebe, Savis Warbler (Tick!...heard, not seen), Long Tail Tit, Blue Tit, Sylark, Turtle Dove.

So...not many Ticks...and what of the 9...yes...NINE...species of woodpecker....sigh!....well...a couple flew overhead at times and disappeared in trees never to be seen....but sadly the sites I went to didnt seem to attract that many though they were on the list as being there.  So, I am still Black Woodpecker-less.  And all the others too.  Still...if you see everything today, theres no point getting up tomorrow...onward...

.......now...where to next??

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