Well, the rain did go away and our trip round round eastern Hungary produced a good list of birds, butterflies, moths, reptiles and amphibians. Weather is always a factor on such tours and can really influence where you go and what you see. Anyway, we did well and some of the bird highlights were Black Stork, lots of White Storks in fields and some still on nests, 15 Great Bustards, Eastern Imperial Eagle, Saker, Long-legged Buzzard, swirls of Bee-eater, Rollers, Lesser Grey Shrikes, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Middle Spotted Woodpecker, Barn Owl, Long-eared Owl and masses of passage waders on the last day...
It happens and when it does, it is hard work. Rain. Yesterday it poured down several times while I was guiding folks on a natural history tour in the Bukk Hills. We still managed to find things... flowers, some birds and a few butterflies and other invertebrates like this bee on a thistle, when it cleared. But it is never easy or as pleasant as when the weather is kind. On we go today, and it looks like it might get better.
The Silver-washed Fritillaries Argynnis paphia are really out in force thesedays. They are one of the largest butterflies hereabouts and when fresh are bright and flashy. They can be locally common in warm bushy and wooded areas and I snapped this one in the Bukk Hills, Hungary.
Here is a European Tree Frog Hyla arborea that I snapped recently at Hortobagy, Hungary. They are great little amphibians that once found are easy to photograph. Note that it is a rather dull green colour as it has been sitting on a dark surface. Most are bright green but this changes depending upon the habitat they are in and colour of the surface they have been on.
Here is a photo of a young male (non-breeding) Green Lizard Lacerta viridis that I took in a garden at Lake Balaton at the weekend. He was popping out of a flower-bed and basking in the sun for a while on a concrete step each morning before heading off to hunt for insects in a nearby wood-pile.
One of the places we visited by day in Finland on our mammal watching trip was the Patvinsuo National Park. This 105 square kms of bogs, lakes and forests is a quiet, out of the way place, in the very east of the country not far from the frontier with Russia. We walked the 3km long board-walk of the Kuusipolku Trail where there is some great old mixed forest. A key bird here is Three-toed Woodpecker (see photo) though we did not actually see it on the rainy day we were there. There were, however a quite a few mosquitos... though they don't bother me much!
