Kuhi, the mountain kite

The Hungarian Ornithological Society has reported on the observation of a new bird.

Perhaps climate change is also a reason why a beautiful, small bird of prey, originally native to the tropics, has been observed today in Hungary.


The bird – in Hungarian kuhi, in English black-winged kite (Elanus caeruleus) belongs to the family of the diurnal birds of pray, and due to its characteristic appearance it is hardly to be confused with other species. It is bluish gray on the back, bright on the belly, and has black wings. The eyes of the adults are bright red, the wing feathers dark black, and their yellow feet are visible from afar.

We have checked where the strange-sounding Hungarian name of the bird comes from. Most languages name the animals unfamiliar in their territory by comparing them to a familiar species: thus, in most European languages the kuhi is called “kite”, namely black-winged kite, white kite (nibbio bianco), gray kite (luněc šedý), and even black-winged smoky kite (чернокрылый дымчатый коршун). In contrast, in Hungarian they have adopted the Persian name of the bird (کوهی, kuhi) meaning “mountain”, as it is called in its original habitats, where the language of culture is Persian or Arabic, which also took over the Persian name. It would be interesting to know who first heard and introduced the Persian name in Hungarian!

Originally in Africa, Rear India and the Indonesian Archipelago widespread species regularly nesting population is now Spain and Portugal, and more recently in Poland, Greece, Germany and Austria have also been reported in news. In Hungary, the Zámolyi Basin, Vértes Nature Park watching the photographic reporting Gabor Szalai.

The species, originally widespread in Africa, Northern India and in the Indonesian archipelago has a regularly nesting population in Spain and Portugal, and more recently they reported its appearance in Poland, Greece, Germany and Austria. In Hungary, it has been observed for the first time in the Zámolyi Basin, the Vértes Nature Park by Gábor Szalai, who published the first photo report on it.



via MME

octopus

at the encounter of Váci Street and Rozsnyai Street
it’s been months since I’m going to take a picture of it, but either I am on a rush, or it is dark, or it is raining (=> I am on a rush).
here you are. Is it evil, how d’you think?

Chinese brick

This addiction might be familiar to you. Photographing the ruins stirs up the treasure-hunter in me. I must go back, I must go back! I feel of having left there something. Yeah, like those beautiful little metal doves, which decorated the window boxes! How nice it would be to save them. If I leave them there, they will go to the rubbish anyway, nobody will pick them out. They have almost no weight, it is not worth to dig for them, and it is so uncomfortable to take them off the external facade. True, it would not be easy to me either.

I can easily turn into the plot, no gates, no dogs, only the mud crumpled by the machinery.
I take some pictures, a gutted out dollhouse, green flowered plastic floor, a small table desperately holding the bricks which tumbled upon it, light falls on the abandoned mirror of the bathroom in the second floor, an upset morocco game, dust, dust. The outside corridor is still held by a couple of beautiful cast iron columns on the opposite side, too bad for them, they will also get spoiled, how good it would be to build a house.


A sharp whistle, well, that’s for me. And it is good that not for the dogs.
That I should get out of here, quickly, as this is a private property, say the three men coming.
The one even having a waist-belt is the security guard, the one even having no shirt is Lacika. Then we end up talking, even the pigeons come into play, actually they cannot help me, but I should come back in work time and speak with the representative of the builder, if it is important. So many people try to rake things out of here, perhaps I will also succeed. Meanwhile, I do not feel it so important any more, these few pictures will do, where could I take the metal doves. There’s not much wasted here, whatever can have a new host will have it, the best I can have from here are the pictures, I will not go into picking irons.

In the meantime the small, thin man says that he is the guard of the demolition at the other side of the street, if I want to take photos, he willingly lets me in. He is bringing the water in two plastic jugs, because in his place there is no running water any more. And one must wash himself with something.

He pulls aside the plank fence, we get in. The bike almost cannot stand in the two inch deep loose dust, well, most of the former building has been already cleaned off, some of it is still standing at the borders of the plot, it is the most difficult to demolish there. Laci says that they were left so for the time being out of fear that it would fall into the next courtyard, which belongs to another office building. And on the other side, along Váci út, because the traffic goes there.


And how many good used bricks are there. For example these with the inscription RKF. A huge amount of them. Sometimes people come and buy of them, to build them into the garage or the fence, for decoration. But there are a few ones that are really rare, for example this square one, with a Chinese symbol.

The “Chinese symbol” – really beautiful. Do you know what it means?

But they have left so many things here, he says, even good furniture, tables, double beds. It will be not a few bucks to buy them again. You could also pull the wires from the walls. They could be recycled. True, one can no longer go up to the still standing part.
This is where he usually sleeps. What? In the front seat? Yes, across them. It is good soft. Here he has put that beautiful brick which he cannot find now, perhaps someone has thrown it out, it seems. Well, one can find all sorts of good things anyway.

Changes

Change for a full-screen map

the demolition of the Váci-Madarász-Fiastyúk-Föveny Streets block has been going on for months, in the spring we have already taken a series of pictures on it, which I have not yet published – now, retrospectively, I will pick myself up –, but this morning I have made new photos on the demolition which has recently got a new impetus. An office building called Váci Greens will be built in the place of the block. The hg.hu reported in June that building A has already reached its highest point, and that the office building is expected to be delivered in the spring of 2013. You can read more details on the project here and here, according to the preliminary designs it will look something like this:

I have some doubts about who would willingly rent any office – however well provided with eco-certifications – just on this bitterly developing, dusty, noisy, suburban trace of Váci Street, but for the residential area behind it it will be certainly good if there will be a tall silencer band of buildings along the Váci street ;> They promise that the office building will include the establishment of a spectacular community space, which will be open to the residents of the area. Let us see it!

ddd

(a puzzle: where was the dove?) ;>