Keve András, Sági Károly Jenő: A Bakony természettudományi kutatásának eredményei 7. - Keszthely és környékének madárvilága (Veszprém, 1970)
The birds of Keszthely and its surroundings (Summary)
The comparatively smallest amount of change has taken place in the woods of the area. Although a considerable part of the alder wood at Középmalom had been cut out partly when the new canal was laid out partly as a result of the expansion of the moorland farming, woods still appear in several places of the long stretch between Keszthely and Fenékpuszta. Sometimes it is difficult to determine the very geographical points. For instance, "közép malom" (= middle mill) did not exist already in 1946, "alsó malom or Pruska-malom" (= lower mill or Pruska mill) w T as still in operation at that time; in 1967, however, only parts of its ruins could be found. The former elm wood at Fenékpuszta, a thingrown gallery that consisted of about 200 centuries old trees, mostly elms, was cleared in 1946. Though a few trees have been left as samples to be destroyed later by the elm-pest. The last two old elms of the shore perished in 1967. On the other hand, in the place of the grove first a hemp-field was established that later was beeing changed to a flex-field. The oil-seeds of both plants spread about on the ground represent the winterfood for thousands of finches and make the ground to a gathering place of these species. The once renowned stork colony at the same time has completely vanished. Among the ornamental trees the Japanese acacia and the yewtree deserve special mention which are frequent in the city. Beside the frequent parasitic plant, the mistletoe, these trees provide berry-feed to many birds. The mistletoe is also a good hiding place and its host-plants, the trees of heaven, attract a great number of collared turtle-doves. In wintertime the wild vines trained on the walls of houses are visited by hosts of starlings, thrushes, waxwings, etc. The ornithological importance of the pine-arboretum planted around the Festetics Mausoleum is underlined especially in the time of migration. Among the characteristic birds of the city the stork should be mentioned in the first place, a couple of which —with short interruptions —have been nestling on the smokestack of the factory for decades. In 1936 the collared turtle-dove appeared in Keszthely (LOVASSY) and has since enormously multiplied. Also the Syrian woodpecker, which settled down in 1949, has become frequent to the damage of the thin great spotted woodpecker-stock. In recent times their population rates in the park is oscillating. Of the swallows the house-martin is most frequent in the city while the common swallow nestles mostly in the stables of the outskirts. A steady dweller of tall buildings is the jackdaw, now and then also the kestrel breeds in them. In the hollow trees of parks a great number of jackdaws build their nests. The great tit breeds in hollow trees and exposed artificial hollows, sometimes it nestles in letterboxes and the like. Birds characteristic of Keszthely are still the redstart and the serin finch. The birds of the plough-lands and alleys tend to give the region a level country character. The plough-lands of the morland farmstead are visited by lapwings even in our days and the sown lands are loud with quails. The turtle-dove, the skylark, the lesser grey shrike and the cornbunting are still to be mentioned. Along the roads and in the outskirts of the city the crested lark is frequent. The woods had originally been used for pheasant breeding and at the present time the strength of their pheasant stock depends on the hunting. They serve as nesting places to the hobby, the kestrel, the magpie, the long-tailed tit, the marsh-tit. The skirts of the woods house the red-backed shrike, the yellowhammer and the stonechat. The songthrush and the chiffchaff are frequent birds in the wcods. In the alder-woods the river warbler is the most characteristic bird. A special feature of the bird population of the grove is that its composition isidentical with that of the so-called "postglacial relict-areas" like the Hanság, Ocsa, etc. Its characteristic birds are the bustard, Montague's harrier, the corncrake, the lapwing, the curlew, the redshank, the skylark, the winchat, the grashopper warbler, the blueheaded wagtail, etc. All these species keep still preserving their continually decreasing stock. The drainage was first felt by the godwit which according to observations made by the authors, nested here in 1949 for the last time. Sometimes also the short-eared owl breeds in this area. The gallery forest at Fenékpuszta can be today only an object of memory. Its characteristic feature had been the vast stork colony, the last couples of which settled dowm on the trees of the pine^alley leading towards Keszthely. In 1933 this grove was investigated by Steinfatt (1934) who discovered 28 breeding species, among which the
