An early visit of the Neusiedler See Lake area
Thursday, March 1, 2012
This Thursday we went to the area of Neusiedler See in Austria and Hungary to make necessary arrangements for our planed trip in April [Spring trip to the National Park Neusiedler See – Seewinkel (Austria)] and to check “new bird arrivals”. In the information center of national park we met friendly staff and arranged an excursion to Slovakia as a part of local bird fair Pannonian BirdExperience.
Than we went to see some birds. We have visited sites we are familiar with and also some that were new for us. We appreciated conveniently build and placed watch towers and hides that we miss so much at home. On smaller water sites in Austria we observed mainly ducks, geese, gulls and Common Shelduck (Tadorna tadorna). Later we moved to Hungary, where we were pleased by large flocks of geese (Anser anser, A. albifrons, A. fabalis). From water they gradually moved to land, where they grazed. During our trip we had several very nice observations of Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) and Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus). During all day we managed to register all "our" species of genus Anas except Garganey, that means Northern Shoveler, Wigeon, Pintail, Teal and Mallard. What pleases us the most was an observation in the end of the day, when in a flock of grazing geese we spotted two Ruddy Shelduck (Tadorna ferruginea). Satisfied with our observations we set off home in rays of setting sun.
List of observed species:
Common Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus)
Bean Goose (Anser fabalis)
Greylag Goose (Anser anser)
White-fronted Goose (Anser albifrons)
Mute Swan (Cygnus olor)
Shellduck (Tadorna tadorna)
Ruddy Shellduck (Tadorna ferruginea / Casarca ferruginea)
Gadwall (Anas strepera)
Wigeon (Anas penelope)
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)
Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata / Spatula clypeata)
Pintail (Anas acuta)
Teal (Anas crecca)
Red-crested Pochard (Netta rufina)
Pochard (Aythya ferina)
Common Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula)
Little Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis / Podiceps ruficollis)
Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea)
Great Egret (Ardea alba / Egretta alba)
Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo)
Hen Harrier (Circus cyaneus)
Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo)
Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus)
Coot (Fulica atra)
Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus)
Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus / Larus ridibundus)
large gull (Larus cachinnans/michahellis)
Feral Pigeon (Columba livia)
Wood Pigeon (Columba palumbus)
Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)
Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major / Picoides major)
Common Magpie (Pica pica)
Jackdaw (Coloelus monedula / Corvus monedula)
Rook (Corvus frugilegus)
Hooded Crow (Corvus cornix)
Great Tit (Parus major)
Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus / Parus caeruleus)
Crested Lark (Galerida cristata)
Common Skylark (Alauda arvensis)
Common Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)
Blackbird (Turdus merula)
House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)
Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus)
Greenfinch (Carduelis chloris / Chloris chloris)
Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)
Reed Bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus)
