Vig Károly: Zoological Research in Western Hungary. A history (Szombathely, 2003)

Phylum Vertebrata 181 the great white egret does not breed on the Hungarian side of Fertő, but one pair is thought to have nested between Fertőrákos and Balf in 2002 (BANKOVICS et al. 2002). However, several hundred pairs breeding on the Austrian side cross to the Hungarian side to feed. Sometimes a hundred pairs at a time were seen in the summer of 1998 (HADARICS 1998C and 1998d). However, the species breeds regularly in the Hanság (FÜLÖP 1983 and 1995), where the stock can be put at 40-50 pairs (FEHÉR 2000). In 2001, only 41 breeding pairs were seen (BANKOVICS et al. 2002). The species has been spreading steadily across Transdanubia and the Great Plain since the 1970s (KÁRPÁTI et al. 1986). The whooper swan (Cygnus cygnus) nested in several places in Hungary until the mid-18th century. Thereafter, arrivals by individuals or small flocks became steadily rarer (SCHENK 192Id). There are records from Fertő by ISTVÁN CHERNÉL (1883) and JAKAB LEITNER (1940) and from the Hanság from IVÁN KIRÁLY (195 5b). Very rare single vagrants still occur in the region. Estimates of populations of whitefronted geese (Anser albifrons) wintering at Fertő were published by ISTVÁN STERBETZ (1967) and ALBERT VERTSE (1967). The greylag goose (A. anser) once nested in large numbers at Fertő (VASVÁRI 1932b; STERBETZ 1957 and 1966), but then the number of breeding pairs declined. Now it is rising again, with 100-200 pairs on the Hungarian side of the lake (probable a mixed population of ssp. rubrirostris and ssp. anser). Flocks of several thousand are not unusual. In November 1990, 11,000 birds gathered at Fertő and 14,000 did so in October 1994 (HARASZTHY 1998). Flocks arriving from the north probably winter at Fertő as well. In the summer, fledglings roam first on foot and later on the wing (TRIEBL 1983). The first Canada geese (Branta canadensis) were observed at Mekszikópuszta on October 22, 1990 (ANON. 1991; HADARICS 1991). A single bird was seen on May 8, 1991 in the Sopron Hills as well (Fehér-út Pond

—MOGYORÓSI 1991), although the Nomenclature Committee found the evidence insufficient to include the species in the national register. The Nomenclature Committee, however, accepted a specimen observed between February 7 and April 2 near Fertőújlak as the first certified occurrence of the species in Hungary (HADARICS and NEUWIRTH 1998; MNE NOMENCLATOR BIZOTTSÁG 1998b). Since then, another three individuals (ssp. canadensis and ssp. hutchinsii) have been observed in the Fertőújlak district (BANKOVICS et al. 2002). Presumably the artificial islands at Mekszikópuszta were the reason why a young ruddy shelduck (Tadorna ferruginea) spent more than six weeks in the vicinity. Initially, it fed with summer geese on flooded habitat-reconstruction areas and then went off with flocks of bean geese (Anser fabalis) to nearby farmland to feed. There have been ten known observations at Fertő altogether (KÁRPÁTI 1984b and 1993; PELLINGER 1991b; PELLINGER and SOPRONI 1999). The shelduck (Tadorna tadorna) was still considered scarce in the early years of the 20th century, but there has been a leap in the observation data over the last twenty years. ZOLTÁN BARBÁCSY sighted one on the River Rába near Rábapaty and Nick (ANON. 1979b). In 1995, three shelduck spent the summer on the seg-