10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 13, 2012

My week-long trip to Hungary was a familiarity trip organized by the wonderful folks at Swarovski Optik to introduce their new line of superior spotting scopes, the ATX and the STX modular telescopes , which were used to digiscope all of the images in this post. Few are as easy to figure out! …

Hungary 197

Hungary Asia Europe Africa 197

10,000 Birds

JUNE 17, 2012

Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend was the last bird he paid attention to in Hungary on Saturday morning before flying back to the United States, a European Goldfinch singing in a tree outside of his hotel. If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment.

Hungary 213

Hungary Miami 2012 Trinidad 213

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 21, 2012

The famous bird experts, Thorogood and Davies, carried out an experiment which… reveal that social learning is specific to the cuckoo morph that neighbors mob. Our results suggest that selection for mimicry and polymorphisms comes not only from personal experience but also from social learning.

Hungary 216

Hungary 2012 Science Eggs 216

10,000 Birds

JULY 30, 2012

After Corey shared his story of his hedgehog experience in Hungary I thought you may like to see some rather adorable pictures of a young European Hedgehog in England. It appears that hedgehog numbers in the UK have dropped by 25% in the last 10 years , so every hedgehog that can be saved is extremely worthwhile.

Hedgehogs 198

Hedgehogs RSPCA Hungary The Blue Cross 198

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 25, 2012

And while I can still remember the first time I saw one in 2007, in the company of Jochen and Hendrik in a pine forest on the coast of the Baltic Sea, it took until this year’s trip to Hungary before I managed to get a decent image of one. It’s because they like to crack open or “hatch” nuts for food. …

Hungary 164

Hungary Europe Portugal Russia 164

10,000 Birds

MAY 28, 2015

I have asked myself that same question many times over the last six months, until last week, when I was involved in an opening ceremony of five new bird hides at the Palic Lake, by the town of Subotica in the very north of Serbia, along the border with Hungary (all photos are from that area). They got the message right. And so did I.

Serbia 268

Serbia Spain Birds Hungary 268

10,000 Birds

JULY 5, 2018

What I have always missed there and what I still miss is to experience presence of the European Beaver. But, published in 1921 in Budapest, Hungary, it was written in Hungarian. Whenever I pushed my paddle lower, I had the impression that there is no water and that I paddle on and though the mist, timeless and eternal.

Beavers 180

Beavers Serbia Hungary Eagles 180

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 31, 2012

Attila Steiner, who I was lucky enough to meet while I was in Hungary , was ecstatic to see a rare rail in Ghana: It was my last afternoon in Ankasa Reserve, Ghana. I have chronicled the experience on my blog. A whole bunch of you responded and shared your best birds either in blog post form, email form, or in our comments.

2012 133

2012 Ghana Ireland Costa Rica 133

4 The Love Of Animals

NOVEMBER 24, 2009

Horowitz and other scientists are now running experiments to determine what a behavior, like a kiss, really means. Horowitz wondered if they behave this way because they truly recognize they’ve done something wrong, so she devised an experiment. See TIME’s video “ The March of TIME: Hunting Dog Field Trials.&#.

Wolves 100

Wolves Fox Dogs Apes 100

10,000 Birds

JUNE 30, 2012

White-backed Woodpecker was one of the major target birds of the Bükk Hills portion of the trip to Hungary and though I would probably have preferred seeing what I now believe to be the mythical Black Woodpecker , the White-backed Woodpecker was a nice consolation prize. No one had access to my thought processes or to the previous footnote.

Woodpeckers 237

Woodpeckers Hungary Europe Japan 237

10,000 Birds

JULY 31, 2012

Until a month ago I had never seen the Eurasian Wryneck either, but the trip to Hungary took care of that gap on the life list easily. Many thanks to Swarovski Optik for inviting me along and letting me experience both some awesome new optics and the natural wonders of the wonderful country of Hungary. ••• a.

Hungary 224

Hungary Asia Woodpeckers Africa 224

10,000 Birds

JUNE 7, 2022

Gorman’s personal field experience informs much of the text and his total grasp of the field means he relates one research finding to another with narrative ease. I do wish that Gorman included more of his personal experiences and stories in the natural history tradition of ornithologists like Alexander Skutch.

Woodpeckers 264

Woodpeckers Hungary Thailand Europe 264

10,000 Birds

MARCH 1, 2018

Yet, it takes great logistical effort to organize the census all the way from Germany to Austria, Hungary and Serbia in the same day, to count on numerous volunteers and hope for the best February weather. Yet, David, who has much more experience with bustards, isn’t convinced: “In winter, some females develop bristles, too.”.

Hungary 189

Hungary Serbia Austria Eggs 189

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 23, 2024

Storks, Ibises and Spoonbills goes on to give greater detail of the former nesting sites in Europe: it could once be found “in southern Germany and Austria, in the valleys of the upper Rhine and Danube Rivers, and in the Alps of Switzerland, Italy and Germany, and perhaps in Hungary and Greece”.

Morocco 246

Morocco Austria Algeria Germany 246