Hungary

Tours that take the strain out of enjoying Europe’s flora and fauna! Tours under this banner will be based in a single good quality hotel, and will have direct flights, and these at kind times of day. Most importantly, field trips will be kept to a maximum of six or so hours, giving you plenty of time to relax before and after. Direct flights are available from some regional airports.

Rollers and Bee-eaters are two of the commonest birds around the lovely Kondor Eco-Lodge, our base for the week. The large white walls of the buildings attract a rich moth fauna, and indeed the lodge runs a moth trap that regularly attracts Poplar Hawkmoth, Buff tip, Chocolate tip, and in the garden we can find Provençal Short-tailed Blues and Common Gliders. Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers, Golden Orioles and Hawfinches frequent the garden. Kondor is in the heart of the Kiskunsag National Park and in the surrounding puszta, or sand steppe, we can watch magnificent Great Bustards, this area having the biggest remaining population in Europe. Stone Curlews and Lesser Grey Shrikes pose on prominent perches and in the skies we’ll see Red-footed Falcon and rare Imperial Eagle and Saker Falcon. Cute European Sousliks call sharply from open country where we’ll see also see Eastern Short-tailed Blue. Alongside ‘puszta’ we’ll explore forest steppes with oak and juniper where a fine flora includes Ophrys cornuta and both Military and Green‑winged Orchids, and the local endemic Epipactis bugacensis. A mix of alkaline lakes, gravel pits and rivers mean Odonata are particularly varied, amongst them Lilypad Whiteface and Southern Emerald Damselfly. Bird highlights here will include White-tailed Eagles, Ferruginous Duck, White-winged Black Terns and Penduline Tit, whilst gallery forests host Black Woodpecker, Black Storks, and plenty of Golden Orioles.