Birds in Hungary Day 6. Woodpeckers in the Bukk Hills. 19th May 2018.

Male Lesser spotted Woodpecker

We'd traveled about an hour and a half from Tiszaalpar up into the Bukk Hills and booked into a small hotel in Bogacs which was clean and tidy but not overly welcoming.

We had said goodbye to our good friend and guide Istvan and were now in the capable hands of Attila. Luckily we had him as our new host at the hotel spoke no English other than "David Beckham, Wayne Rooney & Bobby Charlton"!
(He didn't speak like them I add, but seemed to know their names and claimed to have coached them all in his time as an Hungarian International Football coach! I think a lot of information was lost in translation!).

The first afternoon we watched well, but photographed poorly a pair of White backed Woodpeckers which were high up in a forest canopy and we had to climb up a steep wooded valley in order to get any angle on the birds.

The next morning we were introduced to a local ranger who took us to see Grey headed Woodpeckers but a bit of rain and an uncooperative bird made for more low quality pictures.

However we then met with a Dutch guy who was living nearby and was a bird guide and he took us into a marshy edge of a bit of woodland and right to a 2 metre tree stump with a pair of Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers nesting at eye level.

These birds were fantastic and allowed us to photograph them at close range... albeit with a 500mm lens but they were a treat!

Male Lesser spotted Woodpecker

Female Lesser spotted Woodpecker

Female Lesser spotted Woodpecker

 

Female White backed Woodpecker

Grey headed Woodpecker