Limosa - Birdwatching and Wildlife Hoildays Worldwide

A vital refuge for some of this continent’s rarest breeding birds and a major staging post for innumerable passage migrants, springtime on the Hortobágy plains is an unrivalled birding experience in Europe. But add a four-night stay in the beautiful Carpathian Mountains of neighbouring Transylvania, and a quite remarkable wildlife holiday is in store!

Our tour begins in Hungary, where we visit a Great Bustard display ground and hope to gain an unique insight into the private life of these impressive birds. Birds of prey are plentiful in the Hortobágy, with White-tailed and Eastern Imperial Eagles, Long-legged Buzzard, Red-footed Falcon and Saker all likely at this time. As we search the steppe for them, we should encounter Stone-curlew, Common Crane, the very localised Aquatic and Moustached Warblers, and maybe even an elusive Little Crake or a nesting Long-eared Owl. We will take in Europe’s biggest Spoonbill colony, where hundreds of Pygmy Cormorants also breed - the latter having increased dramatically since we took our first group to Hungary almost twenty years ago. In spring, large flocks of wildfowl and waders will also be migrating through the plains and, all in all, we should be in for an action-packed few days in this wonderful national park.

Next we head east, across the border into Romania and on into the Carpathian Mountains of Transylvania. The birdlife here is equally exciting, with the region’s dark pine forests and alpine habitats coming in striking contrast to the open plains we have left behind. Here we will explore deep limestone gorges for Wallcreeper and stroll quietly through woodlands in search of the timid Hazel Grouse. The scenery is stunning, with forests and alpine slopes that are the haunt of Golden Eagle, Nutcracker, Fieldfare, Rock Bunting and the scarce Three-toed Woodpecker - which we shall make a special effort to find. Our overnight stay in the picturesque World Heritage village of Rimetea (Torockó) was deemed a major highlight by participants on our May 2010 tour.

Best of all, in spring we have good chances to see Brown Bears from a series of small observation hides in the forest. These shy mammals are most reliably encountered in early May, when food is still scarce in the forest and the bears are hungry after their hibernation. Though sightings of wild animals can never be guaranteed of course, our spring 2009 and 2010 groups enjoyed superb sightings of Brown Bears in the forest here and the sight of one of these magnificent creatures in the wild would surely make the trip!

Limosa has been operating up to four tours a year to Hungary since first travelling there in May 1992. Designed and led exclusively for us by our resident Hungarian expert, the excellent Janos Olah, 2011 marks the fourth year in a row for this exciting Birds & Brown Bears ‘combo’ to Hungary and Romania.