Watch the Hortobágy come to life – Photos

With the arrival of autumn, it is time for the St. Dömötör Day Collection Festival and Jib Festival.

With the onset of cold weather in Hortobágy, following the traditions of the old folk custom, the shepherds and their animals are preparing for winter. The animals are collected for their winter accommodation. On Saturday afternoon, shepherds, stocks, and dogcarts arrived at the famous Hortobágy Nine-Hole Bridge.

First, 200 sheep and 50 Hungarian merino crossed the bridge. According to Hajdú-Bihar County news portal, they were followed by the wranglers, with a whip in their hands. This was followed by the carriage of the Mátra Stud, the carriage of the brave, and the sheer five.

“This ancient tradition is more than one thousand and one hundred years old, a part of our culture, and it not only has practical significance but also represents our past,”

said Árpád Gergely Medgyesi, the managing director of Hortbágy Természetvédelmi és Génmegőrző Nonprofit Kft. (Hortobágy Nature Conservation and Gene Conservation Nonprofit Ltd.).

According to the tradition of the old system, the commissioned shepards also presented the stock, the offsprings, and the events of the recent period. In honour of the old shepherds, the Eternal Shepherds of Hortobágy were greeted. Furthermore, István Derencsényi was awarded the title of Photographer of Hortobágy. This is not the first time that Hortobágy has a wonderful sight.

Photo gallery: www.facebook.com/HortobagyiNemzetiParkIgazgatosag

Another big autumn attraction in Hortobágy is the migration of cranes. The cranes will start migrating in September and Hortobágy is their favorite place in Hungary. In the autumn, the Nature Conservation Service of the Hortobágy National Park counted 95.400 cranes.

The weather in the northern breeding areas cools, which triggers the migration of cranes. The steppes, fishponds and other wetlands of the Hortobágy are the most populous land resting places of the European route of cranes. The cranes staying here are measured weekly in the organization of the Hortobágy National Park. During the so-called synchronous counting, the observes lined up at the shallow water levels and fishponds serving as the overnight places of the cranes divide the line of sight among each other. In this way, the number of teams arriving on different retraction routes can be estimated with a good approximation. 

Based on the September data, as in the previous year, there was another sharp increase in the number of inviduals. The record values may be due to the succesful nesting season, or simply to the time phase shift of the migration compared to the previous year, or to the population rearrangement between the migration routes.