I usually sort my own trips out, but seeing bats requires special access so I went on an organised trip with Naturetrek although Eco Tours were the ground agents. This was a new trip so a few issues needed to be ironed out but it generally went quite well and I am sure subsequent trips will be even better. The local guide was excellent and with his network of friends and colleagues were got access to some excellent sites and species. The group as always had one or two people who did not quite fit in with the rest of the group but they did not spoil it for the rest of us and generally the group dynamic was pretty good.
Thursday 2nd September
After meeting up with the rest of the party at Ferihegy airport we found our guide and eventually the transport, some major work was going on at the front of the airport causing some traffic issues. We were loaded and quickly sped off 100 yds to the taxi rank for sandwiches and more importantly European Sousilik. This endering ground squirrel was easily found in the area of grass by the taxi's. A scarce swallowtail butterfly, eastern bath white and a green toad were added to the list. We had a three hour drive ahead of us to the Aggtelek National park in the NE of the country so we headed off, noting an imperial eagle along the motorway. A brief stop at the services had some confiding crested larks and with an ice cream or two I was ready the journey. We arrived at our lovely looking hotel (Tengerszem Hotel in Josvafo) and after an average meal (chicken) served by some miserable staff (who never cheered up all stay) we headed off to a mineshaft in the hills a short drive away. A mist net was erected as we watched Mediterranean horseshoe bats emerge in less than ideal weather from the mine. We bat detected in the area and found some of the common species and were just packing up when we caught a Mediterranean horseshoe bat which was excellent to see close up, boyant we headed back to the hotel for a beer but the bar was closed, but we did spot a wild boar and a white bellied hedgehog on the way back.
The breakfast was better than last nights meal but the tea was decidedly average, Liptons yellow label a favorite of the rest of the world for some reason and it was a theme through the holiday. A hummingbird hawkmoth was nectering on the flowers as we waited for our departure, our first stop was in an area of old orchard checking nest boxes for dormice. 50 boxes were checked but delivered only one edible dormouse but the supporting cast of wildlife in the area made up for it. Several butterflies map, weaver's fritillary, silver washed fritillary, Sand lizard and a small praying mantis. We drove to the nature centre which contains a Lesser horseshoe roost just over 50 were present, but the amount of guano suggests that in the summer a significantly higher number are present. A packed lunch was provided by the hotel, their offering was again chicken! A wander round the site produced a red squirrel with a black tail quite common in the area. A few birds black redstart, short toed eagle and middle spotted woodpecker the pick. I caught a small sand lizard before the group located some red deer up on the hillside above. We departed for a village church a few miles away and after negotiating a few dodgy steps we were in a greater horseshoe bat roost just over 50 individuals, a Geoffreys bat and 4 serotines were also present. We went back to the hotel for an early dinner of yet more chicken before heading out for a bat catching session in the next village. While they were setting up we met a local guide who had been following a wolf pack which had recently set up territory in the area, on the way we got a brief view of a Ural owl. With our guide we tried wolf howling but we did not get a response. Back at the mist nets it had been slow and we only caught a couple of daubenton's bats. I saw a brown rat along the river but little else and we packed up for the night.
With the poor weather the night before I headed out to find some salamanders, others in the group had been up earlier than I had and informed me of some good spots where they had seen some, within a few minutes I had a very large fire salamander infront of me. An important phone call to be made to my wife as it was our wedding anniversary, top planning not, and yes I did forget it and booked a holiday before realising and yes some serious brownie points to be made up! And my wife is a saint for putting up with all my exploits! Grovelling over and a quick breakfast before heading to a few bat boxes near the nature center, a couple of common pipistrelles were present in one of them. But the major interest was from the amphibians, more fire salamanders, common toads, an agile frog and a common tree frog. Onward to Rakoczi caves which the Aggtelek national park is famous for. We had a tour of the limestone caves, a couple of bats were present in the entrance probably lesser horseshoe but we could not firm up the ID with the brief views. Walking back to the bus for lunch we found a tree frog and someone found a small dice snake, the butterfly interest was a lesser purple emperor. After a packed lunch again of chicken we climbed up the top of the hill to do some fossil hunting. On one of the disused mine buildings a wall lizard sp?? was found and we flushed a brown hare. We visited an area on the hill where small fossils can be found in the red mud and within a few mins we had a small collection of 3 million year old small mammal bones, mainly jaw and skull parts. Our last stop of the day was to be another church bat roost but we interrupted our journey for a tornado twisting its way across the land. The bat roost again held lesser horshoe bats but also a few greater mouse eared. During our evening meal of more chicken the weather in the again got worse so we abandoned any bat catching efforts, but we did lay a few small mammal traps in an area of woodland. We retried the wolf howling to no avail before returning to the mammal traps. We had a few captures, two yellow necked mice and two woodmice were expected but a striped fieldmouse was well worth the effort. Handelling was not easy in the conditions and I had one escape and the other bit me before getting to grips with the third sucessfully.
Sunday 5th September
Our final day in Aggtelek, we headed a short distance near the nature centre to an area where more dormice boxes were, again 50 were checked and only one inhabitant a hazel dormouse. We drove a mile or so into Slovakia just for fun and found a large grasshopper but little else. We headed back to the hotel for lunch and checking out etc. Lunch was - you guessed chicken (surely we must have eaten all the Hungarian chickens by now) but finally we had chips so it was not half as bad as it could have been. Unfortunatly these were the only chips of the trip! We headed south to the Bukk hills national park with a few stops on the way, the first was the largest book in the world complete with Guiness book of records certificate in the very small hamlet of Arnot. Well worth a look even if they did ID the bat in one of the photographs incorrect. Next stop was for some local ice cream which was so good I had two. Then onto an area of wetland which was jammed with birds, several black storks, a common crane, bittern the usual herons, egrets and ducks. The first bee eaters of the trip also put in an appearance. We arrived at the second hotel the Nomad Hotel in Sikfokut, near Eger. The hotel was not in quite as nice a setting as the last but still very pleasant, the staff were much friendlier and the food was amazing - not a chicken in sight. After our monster 5 course meal we joined up with one of the local national park staff for some bat catching, all be it a bit late, unfortunatly were were too late for the pond bat caught earlier which had to be released. We only caught Daubenton's during the evening but had more luck with the small mammal traps 1 yellow necked mouse and countless wood mice. During checking the traps I disturbed a small water shrew and it swam up the stream, from my description our guide suggested it was more likely to be Millers water shrew. Two locals arrived carrying flaming torches to visit a memorial of some sort perhaps to sacrifice a tourist or two so we left them to it returned to the hotel for some late drinks in the outside bar.
Monday 6th September
After breakfast we headed into the Little Hortobagy plains, one area in particular was excellent for birds and the weather good for raptors. Soon we had two saker falcons, an imperial eagle as well as red footed falcon, hobby and a roller. A short drive away we met up with two researchers one studying southern birch mice in the area. He explained about the project, it took 10 years to trap one so I was a little unsure that their overnight efforts would produce one but they had been using completely the wrong approach and it was now perfected. These mice don't go in conventioonal small mammal traps of any sort but can only be caught in a pitfall trap. We took a look at the habitat and found some fire bellied toads, tree frog and a couple of pool frogs but some thought were edible but they were pool. A southern birch mouse had indeed been caught and posed for photos before its release. The journey was interupted to purchase watermelon, then stopping randomly to borrow a large knife from a stranger to cut it up - try doing that in the UK! We arrived at Kunamadaras the former Soviet Airbase still with its hangars and bunkers, the site is quite polluted thanks to the Soviets but undisturbed and is a haven for our next target. The researchers earlier were already on site and had just caught a Lesser mole rat, this is a very difficult to see mammal and worth the trip and we had a good opportunity to get some photos before its visit to the vets for some blood samples to be taken and then back to its burrow. We took a look at a few sites on the way back adding a few birds to the list but not much else and headed back. We came to an abrupt halt and our guide leapt out of the bus and ran off, a minute later he returned with a large newt he has spotted by the side of the road at 50mph. It was a Danube crested newt a speciality of the area and a great spot. We made a couple of other stops in the Little Hortobagy and added spoonbill to the list and had some nice bee eaters. We made a final stop at the lakes, some very distant pygmy cormorants the highlight but the night herons were significantly closer and got most of the attention from the group. The return to the hotel produced a European hamster at the edge of the road but nothing else.
Tuesday 7th September
After breakfast we headed to a Monastery for another bat roost visit, on the way we stopped amidst shouts for wildcat, and indeed a large cat was present in a distant field, on closer inspection we confirmed it as a wildcat and were able to watch it for 15 mins as it wandered around a field edge looking for prey. The bat roost held reasonable numbers of Lesser and Greater Horseshoe Bats, outside a scarlet darter was resting on a wall enjoying the good weather. Next stop was at another church where we had lunch and visited a bat roost, this was an amazing sight. Hundreds of bats greater and lesser horseshoe, greater and lesser mouse eared and Geoffrey's bats were in the attic. One stop was left before the hotel and this was a flyover in Eger where in the joints is a roost of noctule bats we could see about 20 or so but they were difficult to see. We headed back to the hotel for an early goulash meal which I ate plenty of, the weather finally was good for bat catching and we headed off to a cave entrance deep in the forest some distance from the Hotel. We set up and very shortly started catching bats first a natterer's, then a daubenton's then a bat I really wanted a pond bat and we eventually caught several. A bechstein's was next up and then some of the real beasts both greater and lesser mouse eared bats and several of the much smaller Geoffrey's bats in all we caught over 30 bats if only the weather had of been like this every night. On the return journey a fox ran down the road giving us all good views, we made it back to the hotel just in time as a massive thunder and lightning storm with torrential rain started and lasted all night.
Wednesday 8th September
The weather was not great as we met our guide for the day and headed off to the Fields nearby to look for hamsters. We found lots of signs but no hamsters and the weather was less than ideal for anything else to be about, so we headed off to our next destination. We took a look at an area of wood pasture and how with primitive cattle grazing and it worked for wildlife. A family of wild boar were spotted while the bus was turning round. Next was a quick touristy / shopping visit to Eger which was almost as lovely as the ice cream selling girl - which called for double scoops all round! Back at the hotel another banquet ensued before we headed 30 mins away for some mist netting in a park with a lake. We set a few small mammal traps which only caught one young yellow necked mouse, setting the traps made me miss the flyover saker falcon being mobbed by a hobby but we certainly heard the commotion. The bats were flying round mainly daubenton's and we caught a couple, but the pond bats and large myotis species present eluded us and we packed up early. A return visit to the hamster grounds was called for and we did a spotlighting session in worsening weather a couple of roe deer a fox and a hare were seen, but more interesting were some blue eyeshine about hamster sized but we could not be 100% certain (subsequent investigation confirmed hamster eyeshine as blue) and it vanished difficult in the middle of a stubble field. We headed for home, the shout of hamster was good on size but it turned out to be a baby white bellied hedgehog crossing the road.
Thursday 9th September
The last morning arrived damp and dreary after last night thunder and lightning storm, we packed up and headed back to the Hamster site, no hamsters but a fall of migrants mostly wheatears and whinchats but a few tawny pipits were about as well. We checked the spot of last nights probable hamster and a burrow was present most likely where it vanished to the previous night. The weather perked up and was quite pleasant but we had to press on and made it to the airport without seeing much else of note. We had another look at the sousliks before flying home.
Notes
We did struggle with the weather in the evenings so our mist netting was not quite as productive as it could have been, but apart from that the trip was good.The weather also put pay to a boat trip for beavers.
Species Lists
Little Grebe
Great Crested Grebe
Cormorant
Pygmy Cormorant
Great White Egret
Little Egret
Grey Heron
Purple Heron
Spoonbill
White Stork
Black Stork
Greylag Goose
Mallard
Short-toed Eagle
Marsh Harrier
Montagu's Harrier
Sparrowhawk
Goshawk
Common Buzzard
Imperial Eagle
Saker Falcon
Hobby
Kestrel
Red-footed Falcon
Pheasant
Moorhen
Coot
Lapwing
Black-headed Gull
Yellow-legged Gull
Whiskered Tern
Feral Pigeon
Stock Dove
Wood Pigeon
Collared Dove
Turtle Dove
Bee-eater
Roller
Black Woodpecker
Middle Spotted Woodpecker
Skylark
Crested Lark
Sand Martin
House Martin
Swallow
Tawny Pipit
White Wagtail
Blue-headed Wagtail
Stonechat
Whinchat
Black Redstart
Northern Wheatear
Great Reed Warbler
Chiffchaff
Spotted Flycatcher
Marsh Tit
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Nuthatch
Treecreeper
Wren
Red-backed Shrike
Jay
Magpie
Rook
Jackdaw
Raven
Starling
House Sparrow
Tree Sparrow
Linnet
Goldfinch
Greenfinch
Hawfinch
Corn Bunting
Ural Owl
Tawny Owl
Shoveler
Teal
Booted Eagle
Red-legged Partridge
Bar-tailed Godwit
Common Crane
