Hungary Bee-eater Bonanza 2017

This is my photo album from the Hungary Bee-eater Bonanza workshop in June 2017.

I switched to seven days this year as I felt that should be enough to get the pictures the client want.

The result from the Hungary Bee-eater Bonanza in 2017 was different from prevoius years. In some ways this year excelled compared to 2015 and 2016, but sadly it also was the opposite. The good part was that the Tower hide produced together with the Garden hide. And the not so good part was that a Badger was digging at the Bee-eater site making it really quite.

I didn’t have high hope for the European Roller as it actually hadn’t started to incubate, but I was wrong. There where two males courting a single female as she hadn’t made her mind up. That gave us an unexpected show. We also got to see the young Common Kestrels take their first steps out of the nest like last year.

At the Garden hide we had three different types of woodpecker. The Green Woodpecker, the Syrian Woodpecker and the Wryneck. This wasn’t expected even if I know they are around this hide.

Wryneck catching food

The Hoopoe site was productive give everyone good photos of the bird in the early morning. It is a plain looking bird when the sun come up, but in the early morning light it is really nice.

We visited the Red-footed Falcons this year even if it is a hard place to work at during June. It is much easier there during the mating season as more birds are around then. I really like both the male and female Red-footed Falcon, they are nice looking birds.

The Barn Owls

This year we had the possibility to witness the ringing of Barn Owls. We went there together with our guide and a Game Ranger from the National Park. It was interested as I actually haven’t seen bird ringing before. It went smoothly and the chicks coped well with being out of the nest box. Hopefully we might see this again next year.

Barn Owl old chick

At Lake Tisza the Whiskered Terns put on their usual show. We saw White-tailed Eagles at the lake not far from the Tern colony and that was a first for me. I know they nest nearby, but I haven’t seen them before.

The fields produced some stunning photos as usual. It was really fun seeing the Eurasian Bittern and the Bluethroat is always a pleasure to photo. There was less water than normal in the fields and that was due to a new irrigation system. Sadly less water means less birds, but the fields still produced nice photos.

Please enjoy the album form the Bee-eater Bonanza 2017.

Photo Album: Hungary Bee-eater Bonanza 2017