Nyirkai-Hany

Nyirkai-Hany is a protected area of the Fertő–Hanság National Park. The water habitat reconstruction created in 2001 has developed a diverse and valuable community of life through its flooding. Because of this, it was declared a Ramsar site in 2006.

Location

The Nyirkai-Hany water habitat reconstruction lies in the southern basin of the Hanság, near the Bősárkányi-láptorok, close to the settlements of Acsalag and Bősárkány (but within the administrative area of Csorna). To the north it is bounded by the Hanság main canal, to the south by the Rábca River, and it is crossed by the Kis-metszés canal. The nearby Route 86 provides access.

Fauna

Botanical and zoological studies were not carried out in the Hanság before the drainage. According to the remaining descriptions, there were huge reed beds, extensive carrs with floating peat islands. In the deeper parts there were open‑water lakes 3–4 m deep, and woody vegetation existed only as small alder patches at the edge of the peat. Bálint Zólyomi’s studies published in 1934 already reported that the floating carr vegetation had retreated to smaller, deeper areas, while the higher‑lying peat plant communities moved into the formerly deeper water zones as water levels fell. The large reed beds gradually disappeared, the peat was mined at a rapid rate, and agricultural cultivation began on the dried areas. Later, especially after the Second World War, large forest plantings started, initially with alder and then mainly with noble willow hybrids and cultivated poplars.

Vegetation

Rapid successional changes have occurred in recent years. In the area once used for mowing, today, alongside the open water surfaces, extensive reed beds and rushes are found, with reed stands in places, and shrub willow thickets. The once common white fairy rose, yellow water lily, and fairy veil, now only survive in the canals elsewhere, still bloom in many places.

Fauna

The species of fish living in the Hanság rivers entered with the water of the Rábca, but among others the Fertő–Hanság National Park also introduced roach-like fish, spined loach, crucian carp, catfish, and pike. The protected meadow strip finds a favorable breeding place in the area and suitable water bodies for it, and the protected alpine newt now occurs again there. Rarely observed here is the marsh turtle, which occurs only in a few places in the Little Hungarian Plain. More and more often we can meet the otter, which has only reclaimed this region in the last decade, attracted by the undisturbed habitats and water rich in food. The beaver expands along the river waters in the Hanság from the direction of the Szigetköz. Its traces are found throughout Nyirkai-Hany as well, especially in summer, when its gnawings are visible in many places. It especially likes to chew the shrub thickets that grow along the dams.

The flooded area was populated by waterbirds in a short time. Undoubtedly these are the most conspicuous for visitors. Their numbers and species richness attract many interested people throughout the year. In the winter months passing‑over‑wintering wild geese are characteristic. In addition to the large greylag geese and breeding geese arriving from the north, many summer geese also overwinter if the water does not freeze completely. Within a few years the number of wild geese increased to tens of thousands, despite the fact that previously only smaller passing flocks had been recorded in the Hanság. Occasionally small greylag and red‑necked geese can be seen among the nocturnal migrating flocks. On the reed beds, swimming and diving ducks rest, among the several thousand stemmed reeds whistling reed warblers and friend‑warblers swim, and occasionally small diving ducks, coot and other species preferring deeper waters also appear among them. Among the predators, the marsh eagle and the black eagle, which has returned for years, are characteristic.

In spring the first to start nesting are the kárókatonák, in the crowns of the huge summer trees on the drying half. The more than one hundred nesting pairs primarily reduce the death toll of the flooding. The artificially created gull island is occupied by about a thousand pairs of dankasirály, among them regularly breed szerecsensirály, as well as, on the edge of the colony, near the water, the csérek that linger. In protection of the settlement a few cigányréce and üstökösréce also settle each year. At the beginning of March the summer ludak are already sitting on nests. In the reed beds and the babásodó gyékényeses areas the vörös gémek settle densely, including a few pairs of large kócsag. In some years, in a separate settlement, kanalasgémek also settle. On the shrub‑islands standing in the water we can find bakcsó nests. In recent years a pair of small kócsag and a silk gém have also associated with the bakcsó, and in 2007 for the first time some pairs of szürke gém nested here. Also in 2007, for the first time, fattyúszerkők nested on the floating carpet of vidrakeserűfű near the gém settlement, which until then could only be observed in spring during migration. Often in the densest gyékényes, but sometimes almost completely open places, bütykös hattyúk nest, 4‑6 pairs settle here each year. After the breeding period as many as 100 individuals may gather in Nyirkai-Hany. Observers with appropriate species knowledge can also find many other waterbird species here in every season of the year, even in the weeks of hard frosts we find a few szárcsát, tőkés réce and szürke gém at the non‑flowing, moving‑water streams, or at the Rábca river.

Nature protection

Nyirkai-Hany is entirely within the protected area of the Fertő–Hanság National Park. Since 2004 it is a Natura 2000 area, i.e., part of the European Union’s community‑significant protected areas. Since 2006 it is also protected under the Ramsar Convention as a wet habitat.