Crane-Watching Will Take Place at Lake Fehér Near Szeged

Crane watching tours, educational presentations, bird ringing, a photography competition, a performance tour, a mini train ride on the fish railway, and numerous children’s programs await those who visit the 14th Fehértavi Crane Watching Event in Sándorfalva on Saturday. One of the natural spectacles of autumn is the migration of thousands of cranes (Grus grus) in the Southern Great Plain.

One of the natural spectacles of autumn is the migration of thousands of cranes (Grus grus) in the Southern Great Plain. The cranes resting here find suitable feeding grounds in the fields and stubble fields, and spend their nights on the fish ponds.

Most cranes leave the Carpathian Basin when the cold weather sets in and spend the winter in southern Europe or North Africa. In recent years, however, there have been more and more examples of larger groups wintering here, for example in the Pusztaszeri Landscape Protection Area in Büdös-szék.

On Friday afternoon, a photography competition organized in memory of Kristóf Diós will begin, in which participants will have a full day to take artistic pictures of the autumn atmosphere and natural values of Lake Fehér, as well as water as the source of life.

Eurasian cranes on the water Photo: MTI/Czeglédi Zsolt

On Saturday morning, bird ringing will take place at the Szalakóta Visitor Center next to Lake Fehér, where, in addition to species typical of alkaline lakes, those interested can also get to know birds that are less common in the area during the migration period. The Crane Run will also start in the morning, offering participants the chance to complete the classic performance tour of the Lake Fehér area, either running or walking, over a distance of 5 or 17 kilometers.

The main venues for the programs will be the market square in Sándorfalva and the Pallavicini Castle and its gardens. An exhibition of previous award-winning entries from the Bird Photographer of the Year competition will be held here.

In the castle garden, children can enjoy outdoor folk and nature games, while those interested can listen to an informative lecture about cranes in the cultural center, and there will also be an experiential session with therapy dogs. The Kurgán nature conservation exhibition center welcomes visitors with film screenings and guided tours, according to the organizers’ announcement.

Guests can also observe birds at the lakes during the day. Passengers on the narrow-gauge train operated by Szegedfish Kft., which farms the area, can travel between the fish ponds from the starting station behind the Fehértói Halászcsárda restaurant to the research station in the middle of the lake system.

However, the most exciting programs of the day are the tours starting in the early afternoon with a guide, during which visitors can observe in small groups the crane pull-in, the process when the cranes return to their roosting place.

The basic color of the feathers of cranes, with a wingspan of 190-200 centimeters, is slate gray, and the white stripe on the sides of their heads and necks contrasts sharply with their black faces and heads. Cranes are extremely alert and stretch their long necks high when they sense danger. In their breeding grounds—the forested and steppe landscapes of Eurasia—they eat grass, plant shoots, insects, and sometimes fish, small mammals, and bird chicks. During migration, they feed on crop yields and seeds, while in spring and summer they tend to eat insects. Its migratory flocks fly in a V-shape or in a straight line, unlike storks, which also fly with their necks stretched out but in disorderly groups.

Eurasian Cranes near Balmazújváros. Photo: MTI/Czeglédi Zsolt

At the end of the 19th century, cranes still bred in Hungary, but now they are spring and autumn migrants. However, in the summer of 2015, for the first time in a hundred years, a breeding pair was observed in the Marcal Valley, followed by another in the Rába Valley in 2021. Experts believe that these pairs are likely to breed year after year and that another pair may also be breeding in the Csanád plains.

Crane-Watching Tours Await in the Southern Great Plain