Colleagues from the Slovenian Natura LIFE Integrated Project were hosted by the Hungarian Grassland-HU project team. During the three-day meeting, the experts got to know each other's conservation activities, good practices, and the management and funding possibilities of the Natura 2000 network.
The Bükk National Park Directorate has dedicated a whole autumn research week to the study of the tiny and extremely rare Hungarian birch mouse in the Borsodi-Mezőség Landscape Protection Area. Besides other research groups, the Bükk Mammal Research Group Association and the Hungarian Museum of Natural History were also involved in the fieldwork research.
Our grassland habitats are not as well known and popular as other ecosystems, but they are just as valuable as our forests and wetlands. Think about it: when we say grassland, most people think of freshly mown lawns in their gardens, but our country is home to such diverse grassland habitats as the Hortobágy salt marshes, the sandy grasslands of the Kishunság, or the marshes of the Őrség, which provide a home or feeding ground for countless species.
Although summer has barely passed, one of the most spectacular events in the world of wildlife, the autumn bird migration, is already well underway. There are species that have already set off during August, but there are also those that are just getting ready for the long journey to their wintering grounds.
The grasslands of the South-Hevesi Regional Unit of the Bükk National Park Directorate are in a beautiful purple colour due to the mass flowering of the Hungarian sea lavender. It could well be the emblematic plant of the Hungarian alkaline grasslands, one of the most characteristic perennial flowering plants of the Tiszántúli steppes, capable of painting the whole horizon purple in summer.
This year two short-toed snake eagle chicks have been fitted with identification rings within the area of the Kiskunság National Park Directorate. This cautious species despite its relatively large body size, builds surprisingly small nests high in pine trees, where finding them is a challenge for experts. Feeding almost exclusively on reptiles, little is known about their ecology and behaviour due to their secretive lifestyle.
A travelling exhibition of the photo competition A gyepek titkai III. can be seen in the Lászlómajor Visitor Centre and Demonstration Garden of the Fertő-Hanság National Park Directorate until 28 August 2023.
It's time for the first mowing. It is important for farmers to bear in mind that in Hungary, the use of animal deterrent chain curtainare required by law when mowing grasslands and arable lands subjects of either Natura 2000 or Agri-Environmental Payments.
This spring, colleagues from the Hortobágy National Park Directorate again visited the sites of the Grassland-HU LIFE integrated . The project aims the long-term conservation of Pannonian grasslands and related habitats. After the spring rains, our project areas are beginning to regain their original habitat associations, thanks to various habitat management activities.
In the framework of a volunteer programme, the staff of the Bükk National Park Directorate again carried out grassland management work on the Sulymos plateau in Tiszadorogma. Within the framework of the Grassland-HU LIFE integrated project mowing was carried out in areas that couldn't be reached by machines and the previously cut false indigo-bush was collected, the Bükk National Park Directorate said.