Gyöngybagolyvédelmi Alapítvány

Hungary 2011

Tuesday September 20^th

We managed to locate each other at Budapest airport and successfully got a taxi to the bus station (although Doug did attempt to get in the driver’s side which the driver found absolutely hilarious), then the correct bus to Nagykanizsa. After a few hours’ drive, left the bus at Nagykanizsa to be met by Ákos from the Barn Owl Foundation. He drove us back to Orosztony and we unloaded our bags and the shopping into the cottage. Quick look around, and met Balázs, then cobbled together a quick dinner of pasta before all getting an early night.

Wednesday September 21^st

First we have a look around the garden and the nature trail made by previous cohorts. We meet Kobor, Ákos’s dog, who is awesome, and have a look at the aviary where the rescued barn owls live. We learned about the differences between the two subspecies of barn owl, then spent the rest of the day driving around with Balázs, cleaning barn owl nestboxes in church towers and searching others for owls. The first tower was a bit of a shock, with quite rickety ladders which some of us found a little alarming, but got to the top alright and were rewarded with a nest box full to the brim with solidified poo. Quickly emptied it all out before the bigger of the two bells rang. The priest invited us back to his house for grapes and delicious cakes, which fortified us for the next few church towers, one of which had to be cleared of a large pile of bat guano. Back at the house, quickly headed over to Ákos’s to feed the owls (and the cats!) with their chick rations, then Balázs made dinner. Finished the day with some proper English tea from Jenny’s monster supply of teabags.

Thursday September 22^nd

Spent the day harvesting apples from the orchard, with frequent apple breaks and able assistance from the dog and cats. Filled a huge wooden crate with apples which will go into delicious organic juice. In the evening cooked a traditional Hungarian meal with Ákos – chicken stew with sauerkraut – which we all enjoyed, then watched a film.

Friday September 23^rd

Another beautiful day; up to Ákos’s barn in the morning and Doug helped Balázs construct a floor for the loft of the barn. Jenny and Julia made some bird nestboxes out of bits of spare wood. After lunch, worked in the owl house garden – collecting fallen apples to be juiced, scything overgrown vegetation, clearing it all up again and taking it to the compost. Found another slow worm today in the pile of wood at the top of the garden. In the evening, had a fire in the garden and cooked stew for dinner in the (exciting) cauldron.

Saturday September 24^th

Up early this morning for some birding at Kis-Balaton with Ákos – saw great white egrets, lots of gadwall, shovelers, wigeon, teal, cormorants and pygmy cormorants. Also a lapwing, and a ruff. Really nice way to start the day. Afterwards, to Balaton itself (after a brief shop stop to buy lunch, during which Julia got stuck in the automatic doors to much hilarity). Ákos went off sculling on the lake, and we sunbathed and eventually worked up the courage to have a swim – though Balaton is so shallow, it ended up being more of a wade. We all had a go at sculling, too, but it’s harder than it looks. Long drive back home round the edge of the lake, with a stop at a viewpoint to admire the scenery.

Sunday September 25^th

Free day today, so went off for a walk to explore the countryside around Orosztony – started off very slow, because we all had to stop every minute to take pictures of exciting butterflies, or bees, or a cool spider that had all her babies on her back. Into the woods, which made a nice change from the heat of the sun outside, then headed back for lunch. Didn’t do much in the afternoon apart from admiring two nuthatches busily investigating the garden trees, then at maybe sixish went out for Jenny’s and Doug’s first drive. To celebrate our success at getting home safely and not crashing, made a monster apple crumble in the evening (due to Balázs telling us to ‘put more in’ with just about every ingredient we prepared).

Monday September 26^th

First weekly meeting this morning, and then our first Hungarian lesson with Balázs. Up to Ákos’s to clean out the owl aviary of the accumulated pellets and bits of chick. Afterwards Jenny and Julia decided to branch out from nestboxes and started constructing a bird table. In the evening had a presentation from Ákos about barn owls and their conservation here – really good to learn about the different solutions for helping them find places to breed, which is their main problem here. Pasta for dinner, and a film in the evening.

Tuesday 27^th September

Out on a field trip with Ákos today – he showed us a number of Natura 2000 sites and explained a bit about them. The first one needed looking at because people have applied to make some changes here, digging out the bottom of the stream, and Ákos needed to see what kind of a disturbance that would cause. Walked up the stream, noting lots of invasive plant species and a lot of invasive slugs. At the end, we were lucky enough to see two foxes in a neighbouring field, and a roe deer which didn’t appear to see us at all and walked straight towards us for what seemed like ages until Ákos’s phone went off. In nearby alder woodland, we heard a wryneck calling. Off again, and paused briefly to see some winter horsetails, which are quite rare, then to a sandy grassland where Ákos showed us helmeted grasshoppers. Doug found a copper snake under a brick, and we also found some dogmilk with four hawkmoth caterpillars on it of different sizes. Collected the apple juice on our way home – there’s so much of it! Balázs made dinner in the evening and we all worked on our presentations.

Wednesday September 28^th

Doug and Balázs went to work on building a roof for the well at Ákos’s, so Julia and Jenny loaded up the trailer with bricks to go down to the owl house for various useful bits. It was hard work, so we stopped for a second breakfast (the first had only been yoghurt anyway), then afterwards got on with our bird table which turned out to be absolutely huge. It is also extremely wonky because we got some of the angles on the roof wrong. It looks more like a dog kennel than anything else, but everyone is very positive about it. Dinner was, excitingly, bits of meat on sticks which we slowly cooked over the fire in the garden.

Thursday September 29^th

This morning Balázs took us to Kis-Balaton to do some birding, in a different place from last time – we went up a tall observation tower and saw lots of birds of prey, including a hobby and a pallid harrier. We heard a red deer bellowing from a nearby patch of woodland. Off to church to check a nestbox. Balázs rooted two pigeons out of the box and we poked around in the loft for bats. Next was a museum of old Hungarian life in a 280-year-old house – really cool to see the way people used to live – then Csillagvár, another historical site. The star-shaped castle was really interesting, though the teddy bear collection in its cellar seemed a little out of place. Back at the house in the afternoon, helped Balázs tidy up the garden a bit and start a hedge with the two hazels in front of the house. Spaghetti bolognaise for dinner.

Friday September 30^th

Up early and out at six to go bird ringing. Julia has done some ringing back home, but it was new for the others, learning how to get birds out of mist nets and how they are ringed or processed if they are a re-trap. When Ákos and Balázs left, ended up talking with the main ringer mostly in German, as it was better than either his English or our Hungarian. It was a good morning – we caught lots of sedge warblers, some reed warblers, quite a few chiffchaffs, a few reed buntings, and some blackcaps. The camp is run by BirdLife Hungary, and they have a sanctuary here for injured birds. It seems electrocution is a huge problem for birds here. There were several young buzzards, some kestrels, a rook, a honey buzzard, a marsh harrier, a goshawk, a fair collection of white storks and finally a few owls. Afterwards took a big canoe out onto the lake, but the boat was very unsteady and there were a few moments when it looked like we would all be going for a swim. Ákos will probably never get into a boat with us again.

Saturday October 1^st

This morning we headed out with Ákos to another Natura 2000 site where he’d been asked to guide a school group round as part of a national day of bird watching. Walked around one of several large fishponds, but not that many birds around probably because of all the enthusiastic children. In the afternoon, worked on our presentation and had an impromptu clean of the house. Jenny made gnocchi for dinner which – as with all things we make, the crumble, the bird table – turned out to be an overwhelming quantity that will probably feed us for days.

Sunday October 2^nd

Doug drove us to Nagykanizsa market this morning, and Ákos wasn’t kidding when he said you could buy literally anything there – it was mostly a carboot sale, with mountains of second-hand clothing, tyres, motorbikes, power tools, pottery and knick-knacks, underwear, plants, even pets. Back home for more gnocchi, then out again in the car to Gelse, a nearby village, where we’d heard there was a good swimming pool and thermal baths. Alternated between relaxing in the thermal pool and doing some exercise in the big pool. Julia remarked that it had been a thoroughly successful day which seemed to go to Doug’s head, as he promptly pulled out of the car park onto the wrong side of the road. Fortunately this was swiftly corrected, and we celebrated another successful drive with fish finger sandwiches for dinner.

Monday October 3^rd

Weekly meeting to start the day, then a presentation about Balaton-Uplands National Park, as well as the whole national park structure and organisation. Afterwards we helped Balázs bag up the next big lot of chicks for the owls, then headed back down to the field at the top of the garden for more apple-picking which lasted all afternoon. Julia went with Balázs to take the apples to the factory, and then to Nagykanizsa to do another big shop.

Tuesday October 4^th

Another field trip with Ákos (and Kobor!) today, learning to identify different kinds of trees. Walked up a road in the woodland for a while, and a big truck drove past – hunters, with a red deer in the back. It wasn’t the nicest thing to see. Up to the TV tower on top of the hill, then into more woods to find one of two ravines. It wasn’t too deep, so we walked along until we came to a serious drop off. Managed to clamber down then walked along the whole length of the ravine until we got to a lake at the end, where we startled a woodcock up from the ground. To another nearby ravine, with Kobor flushing a roe deer out in a cornfield in between. The second ravine was much deeper, so we walked along the edge until the end where there were ladders to get back up. Brief pause while we worked out how to get Kobor out, but he found his own way, startling a fox in the process. Home, and had another Hungarian lesson in the afternoon. In the evening, off to go bat-ringing; there was a university field trip which Balázs was helping with, and we tagged along – we saw six different species of bats, and it was really good to see them up close, see how they’re taken out of the mist nets and so on. We all really enjoyed it, though finishing at midnight means we’ll be tired tomorrow!

Wednesday October 5^th

Bird ringing again this morning, though we had a mercifully late start. They had caught a bluethroat when we arrived, and other new birds included a Savi’s warbler and a couple of stonechats. Started the day with a shot of palinka, to celebrate the ringer’s name day yesterday (any excuse). A bit of ringing, then to work – we had been asked to help them paint their observation tower ready for winter, so off to do that. All got thoroughly covered in paint, which since it had been mixed with chip fat made us smell absolutely lovely. Long lunch break, with naps and more meat on sticks, then apple dumplings with custard for dessert. Finished the painting, and we saw their two exhibition rooms – they have a large collection of eggs, and lots of interesting stuffed birds including a huge white-tailed eagle.

Thursday October 6^th

Up to Ákos’s in the morning to build a barn owl nestbox – the Foundation received a call from a church concerned that opening their tower to owls and other birds is causing a big nuisance, and the solution is to fit an internal nestbox and seal off the rest of the tower. Put together all the parts, which will be assembled in place, then did odd jobs in the afternoon – cleaning the house gutters ready for the rain, cleaning the car, building a low stone wall in the garden to stop erosion, and putting a fresh layer of chipwood on the garden path. We made a second apple crumble in the evening, which turned out much better than the first but is still huge.

Friday October 7^th

Today the weather changed, which is fair enough because it is October, but we had all gotten used to clear skies and warm, sunny days. Lots of church towers – first one where we had to clean up a fair amount of bat poo, then one where Balázs managed to catch a barn owl to be ringed. Good to see a wild owl up close. At the third church we were installing the nestbox, which meant carrying the wood and all the tools all the way up the tower, then doing a fair amount of hammering and sawing up there in the cold. Got it all done and set up, and hurried down again before the storm broke. Ate our sandwiches with some welcome hot drinks in a nearby pub. To another church to look for owls, and we did find one hiding in a deep hole, though Julia managed to scare it off with the flash on her camera. At the final church we had to empty and then repair an old nestbox, which turned out to have two mummified chicks in there buried under all the poo. Picked up the apple juice on the way home, then all rushed in to have dinner and the necessary cups of tea.

Saturday October 8^th

Balázs dropped us at Keszthely in the morning, and we looked around the palace – the library was the best – before meeting Ákos for lunch. We all tried the most traditional Hungarian meals we could find on the menu, then afterwards headed to the hunting museum. It was really interesting and quite well-done, but still very sad. Upstairs there was a model railway museum which was really just a gigantic model railway set, but we all enjoyed watching the trains go round and marvelling at the incredible detail of some of the bits (also, the Tom and Jerry cartoon that was playing at the drive-in theatre). Did a big shop in Keszthely, then back home we finally watched the owl film which we have heard so much about.

Sunday October 9^th

Free day today – Doug was working on his presentation so Jenny and Julia braved the gigantic bikes and gale-force winds and set out to cycle to Gelse. At Kiliman we realised everything would be shut anyway, and cycled back again. In the afternoon the neighbour brought round a ton of tomatoes, and in the evening over to Ákos’s for dinner, Jenga and cards.

Monday October 10^th

Weekly meeting in the morning, then spent a while gathering acacia wood for firewood, in preparation for the big heater in the house going on in the next few days. Broke it all up into small bits and stored it in one of the chicken sheds. We were going to paint the owl aviary, but it started raining, so we had our Hungarian lesson instead. Dinner and a film in the evening.

Tuesday October 11^th

Painted the aviary today, to get it ready for winter, then in the afternoon caught up all the injured owls with Ákos to make notes of ring numbers and give them a quick check-over. Really good to handle some owls and have a close look at them, and the most recent owl is doing surprisingly well following his electrocution and may recover enough to be released. We could clearly see the difference between the two subspecies Tyto alba and T. guttata, and it was even clearer with a hybrid in between the two. Spent the evening working on our presentation, and producing chilli for dinner and another vast crumble.

Wednesday October 12^th

Spent the day around the house doing odd jobs – cleaning, catching up on diaries and presentations, and some work in the garden, with Doug’s presentation in the evening.

Thursday October 13^th

Field trip with Ákos today, looking at white-tailed eagle and black stork nests. The day started well when we disturbed two eagles near the first nest, and underneath it managed to find (not the hoped-for complete eagle skeleton) several intact turtle shells and an eagle feather. Later that day we saw the courtship flight of sparrowhawks, and learned more about the requirements of eagles and storks – despite black storks being so shy and secretive, the second nest we saw was just metres from a village football pitch! Big shop in Nagykanizsa on the way home, stocking up on the all-important Nutella and hot chocolate.

Friday October 14^th

Headed out with Balázs, first for a spot of birding around Kis-Balaton and then at Kányavár Island, where we saw a ferruginous duck and some cool inkcap mushrooms. Afterwards, to the water buffalo reserve, where we admired the water buffalo and the Hungarian grey cattle, and learned a lot more about both, and their history in Hungary. We’d hoped to see ground squirrels here too, but it seems they’re all hibernating, and given the temperature we couldn’t really blame them. We stopped to watch the water buffalo enjoying their wallow, and felt sorry for a little frog who had to keep swimming out of the way. In the afternoon worked on our diaries and presentations.

Saturday October 15^th

Day off – laundry, diaries, frolicking with the pets, and a film in the evening.

Sunday October 16^th

Ákos took us to Héviz so we could take a dip in the thermal lake. We were, as usual, mystified by the truly baffling number of different prices, and the high-tech wristbands and unisex changing rooms were a bit of a surprise too, but managed to get ourselves out to the water and decided to get straight in. It was certainly warm, but not quite warm enough to take the chill off the air, so after a good swim around the lake, with occasional breaks to hang onto the installed metal bars and just float, tried the water inside to see if it was any warmer. Lunch at a nice restaurant, and ice creams afterwards. Home via Keszthely and did another shop, successfully getting an invoice for ourselves. Julia headed up to Ákos’s to worm and eye-cream the various pets, her sacred duty as an ex-vet-nurse. All enjoyed an evening of popcorn and poker (betting with nothing more exciting than pasta) with Ákos and his friend Robert.

Monday October 17^th

Really cold this morning – there had been a frost and all the leaves on various trees had given up the ghost. We were helping Ákos on the monthly bird count around Kis-Balaton, so headed out with our binoculars, telescopes and bird books. Counting every single bird, especially distinguishing between different duck species all grouped together, proved surprisingly hard, but we helped by counting the easier species – “There are two swans here”. Huge groups of greylag geese with a few bean geese in there too. At the next stop we were very lucky to see an otter, which competed with the thousands of geese flying overhead for wildlife spectacle of the day, though both were later almost topped by seeing the courtship flight of two white-tailed eagles, accompanied by another (third wheel) eagle. In the afternoon we visited the education centre and learned more about the history and wildlife of this area. Tasty chilli and rice for dinner, followed by hot chocolate and cookies: all in all, a really great day.

Tuesday October 18^th

Bird ringing today at a different place – in the morning we caught a big group of long-tailed tits and blue-tits, accompanied by a few robins and treecreepers. Also had a go at archery with a Hungarian bow – Doug managed to skewer a plastic bottle entirely. Julia’s and Jenny’s attempts were slightly less successful. The real highlight of the day was a green woodpecker we caught in the afternoon – gorgeous bird, and the first they’ve caught here.

Wednesday October 19^th

Back to the bird ringing place, and helped put up some new nets in a stubble field, but it turned out to be just too windy for ringing. We caught a few birds, but took the nets down around lunch time and headed home to work on our presentations. Jenny did her corncrake presentation in the evening, and we played some cards and watched a film.

Thursday October 20^th

Out today on a plant survey with Ákos – a wolf’s foot clubmoss, otherwise unknown in Zala county, has been rediscovered in an area of woodland scheduled for logging, so it needs to be properly mapped and looked at to make a case for protecting that part of the forest. The plant itself was a rather unassuming little thing, but once we’d seen one spotting the others got easier. Walked through the forest in a line, noting down every patch we found, and discovered a clump in a separate section of woods – the plant has taken ten years to cross the road! Stopped in Nagykanizsa to do some shopping and in the evening we produced a proper British shepherd’s pie (well, Doug did), which seemed to go down well.

Friday October 21^st

Computer work in the morning – our interim reports on how the placement’s going, and diaries and presentations. Up to Ákos’s to work on the roof for the well, chiselling holes into some big beams so they slot onto the upright supports. Chiselling proved oddly satisfying. Went to take a look at the chickens with Ákos – we lost at least one the other day to a fox in the garden, and one had a lucky escape but was injured; turns out her wing’s dislocated but it should be alright. Spent the rest of the afternoon working on the well. In the evening we watched Jesus Christ Superstar which was… quite an experience.

Saturday October 22^nd

Day off today; relaxed morning, then drove up to Szigliget castle to be tourists. The view from the castle was brilliant – Balaton, and all the isolated peaks that used to be volcanoes. We also spotted a little bird which turned out to be an alpine accentor – we don’t get them at home, so it was nice to see it. Had a look round an arboretum nearby. Back home to discover we had lost another chicken – Balázs had left them alone in the garden for just a minute, and something had snarfed one.

Sunday October 23^rd

First task of the day was rounding up some sheep – the little flock here is going back to their farm for the winter, and they need to be taken in two groups. We wanted about ten today, the younger ones with orange tags. Cornered them in part of Ákos’s garden, then all leapt in and grabbed one. This proved to be surprisingly fun; at least, it was until the final sheep did a ninja leap into the air and hit Ákos in the face. Drove up to the farm, the sheep looking grumpy in the trailer, and returned them to their flock. We had a little look around the farm, and saw a huge group of grey cattle. Ákos had arranged for us to do some horse-riding, which we all enjoyed. Ákos however was clearly having an unlucky day and came off his horse in quite a bad way, necessitating a trip to the hospital in the afternoon. Nothing broken though; back home, we all agreed that today had been quite a day.

Monday October 24^th

Had to catch up the rest of the sheep today – all the adults were left. Squeezed them all onto the trailer and back up to the farm with Balázs. A lady was interested in buying the car, so having dropped off the sheep we went to see her. She was part of a project restoring an old manor, Akli manor in the Bakony hills, and offered to show us around – really interesting to hear the history of this area, and learn about the issues facing small charities and projects here. We were staying the night in Zirc, so dropped our stuff then went to see a cave, Odvaskő, where Balázs thought we might be able to find some hibernating bats. Managed to find three species – lesser horseshoe, brown long-eared, and serotine – as well of lots of huge cave spiders.

Tuesday October 25^th

We were staying in the guest room of the natural history museum in Zirc, and in the morning an archaeologist there offered to show us behind the scenes – got to watch them working on reconstructing a few-million-years-old rhinoceros skeleton, and have our pictures taken holding a mammoth leg bone. Visited the natural history museum itself, which was all about the wildlife of the Bakony hills – it was very well done and we all really liked it. Afterwards we had some work to, cleaning the loft of a building in Veszprém of bat droppings. Second cleaning job afterwards in a church – they were happy to have the fifteen or so bags of bat poo we’d collected strewn over their garden, which created an interesting smell. Back home in the evening.

Wednesday October 26^th

Owl pellet analysis today with Ákos – learning how to get remains from pellets. The skulls are the most important part for identification, and we learned how to identify shrews and voles, and the different species of them. Mice are apparently really hard so we left them for now. Found some bird skulls too. We all really enjoyed it, though you have to be careful not to laugh or anything or the dust goes everywhere. In the afternoon we had a Hungarian lesson with Ákos, then updated the barn owl website with some of the diary and some photos. In the evening, ready for Halloween, Julia carved the gigantic pumpkin Ákos gave us – it says the name of the foundation, Gyöngybagolyvédelmi Alapítvány, and is (if she says so herself) rather spectacular.

Thursday October 27^th

Out on a field trip with Balázs. First we stopped at Hegyestü, a volcanic formation that is like a big mountain of basalt ‘pipes’. Climbed to the top and admired the view, then drove on to see the nearby “sea of stones”, a field of huge, ancient rocks. Finally we climbed up one of the volcanic sentinel mountains, and at the top had a look at the ruins of a castle, and saw (we heard them first) a flock of cranes heading past. In the evening we unfortunately lost another chicken to the local fox which obviously knows it is onto a good thing, and Julia did her great bustard presentation.

Friday October 28^th

Off to the Őrség today, a region in southwestern Hungary which has a distinctive character of its own, and an interesting history. As the border region, its people were always the guardians of Hungary (its name means ‘the guard’), and as such they enjoyed certain privileges such as not having to pay tax, but they did have to produce weapons at their own cost. First we stopped at one of the oldest churches in Hungary – built in the 13^th century, which still had the remnants of its beautiful wall paintings. We went for a little walk in the woods surrounding it to look for a particular fungus which we didn’t find, but did see lots of other interesting ones. In another village we saw some captive wild boar, and were all amazed again at how huge they are. Finally went to Szalafő, a kind of open air museum – they have lots of old traditional houses. They were all having their thatched roofs replaced, so we got to see that process as well.

Saturday October 29^th

To Budapest for the weekend; Ákos’s sister having agreed to show us the sights today. Got the bus in the morning, and successfully navigated the metro to one of the main shopping streets. We were all a little dazed by the big city after so many weeks of the countryside. Met Dora, and we had a little wander around Budapest – mostly the Pest side actually – taking a look at the Basilica, the gorgeous Parliament buildings, walking along the Danube for a bit where there was a memorial, in the form of metal shoes along the edge, to the Jews who were shot into the river during the Holocaust. We could see a few of the bridges over the river, and the castle and silhouette of the liberty statue on the other side. After lunch, went to the end of the yellow metro line to have a look at the big city park, and had our pictures taken with a big statue that seemed to be very popular. Found a nice restaurant in the evening for dinner.

Sunday October 30^th

Today the clocks went back, but we didn’t realise. Never mind – more time! Spent the morning at Budapest Zoo, which was having a lot of renovation work done but was still fantastic. After lunch, took a more sobering trip to the Terror Museum, which was depressing of course but very interesting and well done. Managed to catch the right bus in the evening, though we almost got off a stop too early, but home safe and sound and all tumbled into bed as soon as possible.

Monday October 31^st

Slow morning, catching up on diaries, laundry etc. In the afternoon, up to Ákos’s – we are going to do some bird ringing here tomorrow, so we had to cut the poles for the nets. More little chores around the place, taking down unnecessary electric fences and stuff, and managed to rescue quite a large copper snake from the chickens, fortunately unharmed. Another little task was finally putting up the bird table Jenny and Julia made weeks ago – it is huge, but it looks surprisingly good on an upright log in front of the owl house, so perhaps birds will dare to use it after all. In the evening Ákos’s friend arrived who was going to help with the ringing, so we put the nets up and checked them as it got dark, but nothing. The cats spent a night in the house, as we didn’t want them snatching birds out of the nets – they both seem quite happy about this arrangement though!

Tuesday November 1^st

Spent the morning extracting birds from the nets and ringing them – the vast majority were great tits, so we got very good at telling their age and sex – but we got a few robins, marsh tits, and a wren too. In the afternoon, when the birds slowed down a little, did some more owl pellet analysis with Ákos, learning about the different kinds of mice this time.

Wednesday November 2^nd

Field trip with Ákos to the Tihany peninsula, a little bit of land poking out into Lake Balaton. We got pretty unlucky with the weather – it was dry, but with extremely thick fog, so all the magnificent views we had been promised did not materialise, but there was still lots to see. An abbey, with the document containing the first recorded written Hungarian, and the visitor centre, which had really good displays about the wildlife and history of the peninsula, as well as all about the volcanic history of the area. Walked a nature trail, past the Aranyház, the ‘golden house’, the cone of a geyser that is so covered with yellow lichens it apparently glows gold in the sun. Unfortunately it did not glow for us, and to top it all we managed to get completely lost in some vineyards. The fog really didn’t help our navigation. Found the path again eventually, and back home after a spot of shopping in Keszthely.

Thursday November 3^rd

Off for a few days to Debrecen – Ákos is attending a conference and while we’re there we can see a few national parks and other interesting things. It’s at the other end of the country though, which meant we had to leave at five – all slept in the car. We stayed at the Aranybika hotel, the “golden bull”, which seems to be quite famous. Ákos left for the day, so after dropping our stuff we had a bit of an explore and Julia went for a haircut (Doug and Jenny were there for moral support in case everything went wrong). Despite language difficulties, a haircut was successfully achieved, and a not-too-terrible one either. Afterwards, decided to wander up to the north of the city to the University area and a lovely park, and did a spot of shopping in an exciting second-hand store.

Friday November 4^th

Hortobágy national park today! Drove there along road 33, which runs along the traditional route through the great plain. Near the visitor centre of the park was a sanctuary which rescues and rehabilitates injured birds, and we enjoyed having a look around there – lots of birds of prey, several owls, storks, gulls, corvids – they even take care of pigeons. Next was an animal park of traditional Hungarian breeds – horses, donkeys, sheep, goats, geese, and of course water buffalo and grey cattle. Back to Debrecen, where we visited the botanic garden, and found a tiny little place for Chinese takeaway for dinner.

Saturday November 5^th

First we were visiting Dévavanya bustard station. They have a pen where female great bustards can nest in relative safety, and also rear some chicks there. It seems, however, that they weren’t really expecting visitors, and our appearance at their observation tower caused some small consternation, which our lack of Hungarian didn’t help. They concluded we were harmless though, and left us to watch the ten bustards in the pen. They are beautiful birds. In the evening we ventured out in Debrecen with Ákos, which was an experience for all of us. We will probably never let Doug choose a pub again.

Sunday November 6^th

Leaving Debrecen today, but not before a trip to Aggtelek national park, which looked nearby but still took us at least two hours to get to. This is famous for its cave systems, and we got a guided tour through part of the system – it’s a world heritage site, one of only five caves in the world to be so. It had some beautiful rock formations, with very imaginative names – a dolphin, an entire Turkish city complete with the sultan and his harem, smoked fish, a hippopotamus, the sinking Titanic, and so on. We all really enjoyed seeing baby stalagmites forming on the path – no height to them at all, they were just shiny circles, but it had taken them six years to get to that point. Ate lunch, then basically spent the rest of the day driving home.

Monday November 7^th

Day off today, so did a bit of tidying in the garden – changed the chickens’ hay, which they seemed to appreciate – and went swimming in Gelse in the afternoon. As a belated bonfire night, had a fire in the garden in the evening, and cooked dinner in the cauldron over it.

Tuesday November 8^th

Field trip to Kiskunság national park today, to birdwatch and check some little owl nestboxes. Struck lucky with the very first one, with one tiny (and amusingly outraged-looking) owl. We got lucky again later in the day, coming across a group of thirty or so great bustards, feeding very close in a field. The farmer was spreading slurry in that field in his tractor, and the birds let him get quite close before taking them off – their size is even more apparent when they’re in flight. We met most of them later in the day as well, and later saw another group of six or seven which let us get to within thirty metres or so. Our luck ran out with the final little owl nestbox though, where Doug fell out of the tree after checking it.

Wednesday November 9^th

Spent today working in the garden – building the new wood store, tidying up the chickens’ yard, and cutting all the large bits of wood into more manageable pieces. Let the chickens out for the first time in ages since we were with them and could defend them from foxes; despite this, the fox did make an appearance in the afternoon but the cockerel raised the alarm and we finally found where it’s been coming in through the fence, so hopefully the chickens will be safe now.

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