On the last Saturday in November a special event takes place in the „town of waters“: more than 10.000 nature lovers gather in Tata to greet tens of thousands of wild geese, which come from Scandinavia and the northern region of Siberia, and spend the autumn and winter on the Old Lake. The first floks arrive in late September and early October, and return to their arctic nesting site in March.
The Old Lake – Hungary’s oldest fish pond
The Old Lake of Tata with a surface of nearly 250 hectares is one of the oldest artificial lakes in Hungary. It was created long before the Hungarian Conquest, in the Roman Empire, when a dam was built across the Által-creek. The lake was extended over time, and it played an important role in the Middle Ages, since together with the surrounding wetlands it provided protection to the castle of Tata. In the 17th-18th century, when the area belonged to the Esterházy estate, the lake was used as a fish pond, mills and a water slaughterhouse were also built next to the lake.
Today Old Lake is located right in the centre of Tata, it’s the only urban lake in Europe, where thousands of waterfowls and other birds stop by during their migration in spring and autumn. The lake and its surroundings are listed under the Ramsar Convention, an intergovermental treaty, whose aim is to halt the wordlwide loss of wetlands and conserve, through sustainable use and management, those that remain.
Wild geese as far as the eye can see
The number of wild geese that arrive in Hungary and spend – under ideal circumstances – the winter here is between 300 000 and 500 000, and they use 18 large sites as a resting place. In 2021 more than 60 000 birds found shelter in Tata. If winter is mild, they stay in Hungary till spring, but a long-lasting snowy, very cold weather may force them to move to warmer places.
The vast majority of winter visitors are greater white-fronted geese. Their name is derived from the white facial feathers around the base of the pinkish-yellow bill. Greater white-fronted geese are long-distance migrants, they can fly up to 7000 kilometers from their Arctic breeding sites in Eurasia to their western or central European wintering areas.
The other wild goose species that arrives in large numbers at the Old Lake is greylag goose, the biggest European wild goose. It’s the ancestor of most domesticated geese, and the only nesting goose in Hungary. Greylag goose has a mottled grey and white plumage, orange bill and pink legs. The Hungarian population of this waterfawl has been growing slowly and steadily, you can see loud and noisy flocks of greylag geese in several parts of Hungary.
Bean goose, which is rather similar to the greater white-fronted goose, but has a larger, dark bill with an orange band, no white frontal patch, and a uniformly lighter-gray belly, was the dominant species at the Old Lake for a long time, nearly 90% of the wild goose species wintering in Tata were bean geese 15 years ago. Due to an unknown cause, however, the population of bean goose has started to decline recently. Now they account for only 3-7% of the wild goose species on the lake.
Besides the populous species, some rarities can also be observed on the lake: red breasted goose, lesser white-fronted goose, barnacle goose, brent goose and common shelduck. The lake is hugged by a 8 km long footpath, which provides visitors with perfect spots for watching flocks of many thousands of geese and ducks flying together.
- Address: 2890 Tata, Tópart utca
- County: Komárom-Esztergom
- 70 km away from Budapest, 3 km away from M1 highway
- Website: vadludsokadalom.hu
- The festival and all of its events are free.
- Seasonal live webcam
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