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| Pygmy Cormorants are more numerous here than at the Halasto Fishponds |
Before the 2-hour drive west, we spent the morning at Polgar Ponds, mainly to catch up with Pygmy Cormorants. This is a long-established area of fishponds which has been extended as part of a conservation initiative. In Dave Gosney's pamphlet from 2015, he mentioned that the ruined building near the entrance may one day become a visitor centre but as with our autumn visit here in 2019 sadly there has been no change.
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| Downy Emerald Dragonfly ~ A species 1st for Dazza and me. |
The paths too are now overgrown but passable and beware of ticks!! Dazza had two on her by the time we arrived back at the car, professionally dealt with, having learnt from our time in Canada. During our stay in Hungary, we've seen very few odanata and just a handful of butterfly species but today we struck lucky with a Downy Emerald, a first for us both.
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| Whiskered Tern |
A calling Wryneck was heard as we entered the reserve and the bird species range is much the same as the Halasto only in smaller numbers, with Herons, Egrets and Marsh Harriers at close range, but we did have the addition of Marsh Warbler and Hobby. A few Whiskered and Black Terns were also noted and ducks included Ferruginous and Garganey.
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| Wood Sandpipers have been numerous during our week in the east. |
Plenty of waders with Wood Sandpiper, Spotted Redshank, Ruff and a few Black-tailed Godwit. Penduline and Bearded Tit were also noted, along with Lesser Whitethroat and plenty of Cuckoos, Yellow Wagtails and Nightingales.
Our drive across to Budapest was uneventful until we were just 30 minutes from our Airb&b apartment when a low tyre pressure alert flashed up on the dashboard! Thankfully as we watched the pressure slowly drain on the dash message we managed to pull into a motorway service area just as the tyre dropped its last breath, PHEW! With excellent service from the car hire company, we were delivered a new car within 90-minutes and on our way!
