Saturday, April 5, 2008

Middle Spotted Woodpecker drumming

Just finished a 4 day birding trip around eastern Hungary. All sorts of goodies seen... several Sakers and Eastern Imperial Eagles, a White-tailed Eagle, a late Rough-legged Buzzard, Great Bustards, all kinds of wetland birds, 8 species of woodpecker, a superb Ural Owl... But for me the highlight of the week was when I saw a Middle Spotted Woodpecker drumming on a poplar tree in a village in the Bukk Hills. This is a rare event, that is, Middle Spotted Woodpecker drumming. So rare in fact that some say they do not drum at all... well, I have seen it before, just a handful of times... and I can confirm, again, that this species does drum!

1 comment:

Aldamir said...

I'm just back from Hungary myself.

Went to Gemenc forest and saw a black kite, a goshawk and a black stork (the last I was particularly pleased with as it is probably too early to see many of these). I look forward to your write up about the place on your other blog.

On a more unexpected note, I also managed to see the van in front having to brake to avoid two wild boar on the road at Budakeszi ut within Budapest city limits...