“‘Why have we been going on ordinary birdwatching tours all
these years and doing nothing in the evenings and on hot afternoons when we
could have been with Sunbird enjoying these wonderful concerts when the birding
stops?’ This observation by one of this
year’s participants encapsulates the appeal of these unique dual-interest tours
and the double-whammy effect: reliving the exciting ornithological highlights
of the day whilst experiencing such magnificent music.
Our first day was a typical example. Starting before breakfast with Little
Bitterns and Kingfisher right outside our hotel in the Hortobagy we continued
with no less than twenty species of waders at Kaba sugar factory, including
Terek Sandpiper, Temminck’s Stints, Red-necked Phalaropes, and Marsh and Curlew
Sandpipers, and even added Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Common Redstart,
Red-backed Shrike, and Marsh Tit over an alfresco lunch in Debrecen before
continuing to the luxury of the newly-restored Degenfield Palace hotel and the
opening concert of the Zemplen festival.
Here in the relaxed setting of Sáraspatak castle courtyard we could
relish these superb birding experiences whilst enjoying the Danubia Symphony
Orchestra playing Rossini’s Semiramide overture, Shostakovich’s second piano
concerto, and a particularly exciting performance of Dvorak’s eighth symphony.
The following afternoon and evening we had plenty of time,
over Andrea Henkel’s piano recital in the salon of Károlyi castle (Bach,
Beethoven, and Liszt) and the four-hour renaissance evening in the Rákóczi old
palace (with vocal and instrumental music, poems, pantomime, and an
eight-course banquet) to relive the day’s ornithological highlights: Black
Storks, Black Kites, our first Lesser Spotted Eagles, Wryneck, Grey-headed and
Middle Spotted Woodpeckers, and a range of woodland passerines from Treecreeper
to Long-tailed Tit and Hawfinch. The
pattern was repeated the next day with an organ recital in Kovácsvágás
Calvinist church and a folk-dance performance by the French group La
Farigouleto followed by a concert by the Orfeo Chamber Orchestra in
Sátoraljaújhely Catholic church. To the
strains of Purcell, Lully, Tessarini, Telemann, and Bach’s transcriptions of
Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, we could relax and savour the day’s excitements: more
Lesser Spotted Eagles plus the first Imperial Eagles, a huge female Eagle Owl
sitting on an open branch, Black Woodpecker, Thrush Nightingale, and Barred
Warbler. The next day brought options –
either a Rosemary Hardy recital at our own hotel (Schubert, Schumann, Britten,
and Kodály) followed by dinner there and the chance for an early night or two
outdoor events: the East European World Music Festival in the garden of the
Rákóczi castle Sáraspatak followed by the opening concert of the International
Folk Dance Festival in Sátoraljaújhely park (the programme promised ‘frantic
dance’: the Woodcock was a bonus).
But the common denominator was the shared bird images of the
day: comparisons of Goshawk and Sparrowhawk, a distant Short-toed Eagle, and a
pair of White-backed Woodpeckers.
Next came everyone’s favourite concert. Just to look at Lúcia Megyesi Schwartz
is satisfaction enough (and particularly in the intimate setting of the Oremus
Hall salon). But she also sings,
exquisitely. And after the Milhaud,
Berio, Copland, and de Falla came fine wine and food in the garden. Then an amazing and staggeringly exciting
selection of ethnically-inspired sacred oratorio from all over the world in the
courtyard of the Rákóczi cellar Tokaj (Handel, Tan Dun, Bacalov, Lloyd Webber,
Gil Shohat, Fanshawe, and Szentpáli), followed by a fully staged performance by
the choir and orchestra of the Kolozsvár Hungarian Opera (the oldest
Hungarian-speaking music theatre) of János Vajda’s popular opera buffa Leonce ét Léna
in Sáraspatak cultural centre (happily with well-upholstered comfy chairs as
the opera continued until midnight).
Again, there was the opportunity to opt out of the latter for an earlier
evening. But the shared experiences
included close Honey Buzzards, comparisons of Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff,
Serin, more woodpeckers, and yet more woodland birds from Goldcrest to Coal
Tit.
Our final day in the beautiful wooded valleys and cool
forests of the Zemplen finally brought us the hitherto-elusive Holy Grail of
all our woodland walks – three Ural Owls, finally disproving the winning entry
in our acronym competition (claiming that the abbreviation stood for
‘unreasonably reclusive avian loner’).
Other memorable moments that day were the male and female Imperial
Eagles giving flying lessons to a juvenile and the perched Grey-headed and
Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers and Hawfinch.
These indeed were lingering images to match the inspired concert
performance that evening of Puccini’s first opera Le Villi back in the Sáraspatak castle courtyard (with surely the
largest chorus ever assembled for any Puccini opera – the combined forces of
the Budapest Academic Choral Society and the Honvéd Male Choir. What a finale.
Nor did these double-whammy days cease when we traded the
Zeplen festival and its charming landscape for the fishponds of the Hortobagy
and the indescribable silent vastness of the open puszta. Here the music was more exclusively folk:
gypsy cymbalon, violin, and double-bass trios as we ate our czarda lunches;
zita ensembles or folk-dance groups in the evenings. But the bird images which surfaced from our subconscious as we
enjoyed the traditional tunes were just as memorable. Specialities included Long-legged Buzzard, Pygmy Cormorants,
Ferruginous Ducks, Lesser Grey Shrikes, Bearded and Penduline Tits, Cranes,
Squacco and Purple Herons, Spoonbills, Stone-curlews, Tawny Pipits, Bluethroat,
White-tailed Eagles, Montagu’s Harrier, Caspian and Yellow-legged Gulls for convenient
comparisons, Little Owls, and that most colourful trio on any European
fieldguide page Bee-eater, Roller, and Hoopoe.
But the cameos which remained most vivid even after the music stopped
must be the tree in Balmazujvaros flowering with Long-eared Owls (plus a single
intrusive Golden Oriole), the flock of Dotterels tripping across the
early-morning puszta and the flock of Great Bustards striding majestically past
a bush where Red-footed Falcons perched, the roadside Broad-billed Sandpipers
so close that the split supercilium and unique bill shape were clearly visible,
the single Saker on the closest pylon, and most of all the muddy inlet where at
least a dozen Little Crakes and twenty Water Rails (plus a single Spotted
Crake) fed unconcernedly at minimum-focus range – a breathtaking moment which
lasted for ninety minutes.
This is a
list of all the species seen during the last six tours to Hungary.
Column A =
Number of tours on which this species has been recorded.
Column B =
Number of days this species was seen on the last tour.
Column C =
Maximum daily count for this species on the last tour.
H = Heard only
(H) = Mostly
heard but some seen
|
6 |
Little Grebe |
3 |
87 |
|
Tachybaptus ruficollis |
|
6 |
Great Crested Grebe
|
2 |
7 |
|
Podiceps cristatus |
|
4 |
Red-necked Grebe |
|
|
|
Podiceps grisegena |
|
6 |
Black-necked Grebe
|
1 |
15 |
|
Podiceps nigricollis |
|
6 |
Continental Cormorant |
3 |
00s |
|
Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis |
|
6 |
Pygmy Cormorant |
2 |
15 |
|
Phalacrocorax pygmeus |
|
3 |
Common Bittern |
|
|
|
Botaurus stellaris |
|
6 |
Little Bittern |
3 |
5 |
|
Ixobrychus minutus |
|
6 |
Night Heron |
4 |
4 |
|
Nycticorax nycticorax |
|
6 |
Squacco Heron |
2 |
12 |
|
Ardeola ralloides |
|
6 |
Little Egret |
4 |
60 |
|
Egretta garzetta |
|
6 |
Great Egret |
4 |
30 |
|
Egretta alba |
|
6 |
Grey Heron |
4 |
50 |
|
Ardea cinerea |
|
6 |
Purple Heron |
3 |
4 |
|
Ardea purpurea |
|
6 |
Black Stork |
5 |
2 |
|
Ciconia nigra |
|
6 |
White Stork |
11 |
135 |
|
Ciconia ciconia |
|
2 |
Glossy Ibis |
|
|
|
Plegadis falcinellus |
|
6 |
Spoonbill |
3 |
40 |
|
Platalea leucorodia |
|
6 |
Greylag Goose |
3 |
400 |
|
Anser anser |
|
2 |
Wigeon |
|
|
|
Anas penelope |
|
4 |
Gadwall |
1 |
2 |
|
Anas strepera |
|
6 |
Teal |
4 |
40 |
|
Anas crecca |
|
6 |
Mallard |
4 |
40 |
|
Anas platyrhynchos |
|
2 |
Pintail |
|
|
|
Anas acuta |
|
6 |
Garganey |
3 |
20 |
|
Anas querquedula |
|
6 |
Shoveler |
1 |
20 |
|
Anas clypeata |
|
1 |
Red-crested Pochard |
|
|
|
Netta rufina |
|
6 |
Pochard |
3 |
60 |
|
Aythya ferina |
|
6 |
Ferruginous Duck |
3 |
79 |
|
Aythya nyroca |
|
4 |
Tufted Duck |
1 |
12 |
|
Aythya fuligula |
|
1 |
Smew |
|
|
|
Mergellus albellus |
|
5 |
Honey Buzzard |
5 |
3 |
|
Pernis apivorus |
|
4 |
Black Kite |
2 |
2 |
|
Milvus migrans |
|
1 |
Red Kite |
|
|
|
Milvus milvus |
|
6 |
White-tailed Eagle |
1 |
2 |
|
Haliaeetus albicilla |
|
6 |
Short-toed Eagle |
1 |
1 |
|
Circaetus gallicus |
|
6 |
Marsh Harrier |
9 |
20 |
|
Circus aeruginosus |
|
1 |
Pallid Harrier |
|
|
|
Circus macrourus |
|
6 |
Montagu’s Harrier |
2 |
2 |
|
Circus pygargus |
|
6 |
Goshawk |
3 |
1 |
|
Accipiter gentilis |
|
6 |
Sparrowhawk |
6 |
1 |
|
Accipiter nisus |
|
6 |
Common Buzzard |
9 |
20 |
|
Buteo buteo |
|
6 |
Long-legged Buzzard
|
1 |
1 |
|
Buteo rufinus |
|
6 |
Lesser Spotted Eagle |
5 |
5 |
|
Aquila pomarina |
|
6 |
Imperial Eagle |
4 |
3 |
|
Aquila heliaca |
|
1 |
Golden Eagle |
|
|
|
Aquila chrysaetos |
|
2 |
Osprey |
|
|
|
Pandion haliaetus |
|
6 |