Tiszavasvári Fehér-szik Természetvédelmi Terület

Salt‑tolerant plants still grow today around the saline spots in the area, such as salt‑grass, meadow edge‑sedge, and sheep's fescue.

The saline lake bottom was once characterized by salt‑marsh grass and beard grass, which now appear only in drought years.

Mosaic plant communities have developed on the higher, mostly dry areas.

In the northern part of Fehér-szik there is salt‑marsh meadow grass, with characteristic plants such as salt‑marsh rush, red‑legged cottongrass, common yarrow and deer’s foot.

Fauna

The area’s bird life is rich, especially noticeable during migrations, when thousands of waterbirds visit the lake and its surroundings for short or longer rests, and the nesting bird community is also diverse.

At the end of summer the red‑legged sandpiper, little stint, curlew sandpiper, grey plover, black‑winged stilt, lapwing, and little crake regularly appear. Storks also gather here, and the rare black stork is sometimes seen.

The lake is also inhabited by reed warblers, including the common reed warbler, marsh reed warbler and gypsy reed warbler.

Fehér-szik is a nesting site for the reed bunting, snipe, bittern, black‑spotted newt, common newt, small newt and the fire-bellied toad.

In the abundant reeds along the lake shore the reed‑dwelling singing birds have settled: reed warbler, reed grasshopper warbler, spotted reed bunting, reed bunting, and with the arrival of the reed warbler the reed bunting has also found a nesting place here.

Various rodents have also found a home at Fehér-szik. The dwarf mouse, one of our smallest mammals, lives here, as do the American bead beetles, and among the larger mammals the fox and the badger can be observed.