Pusztaszeri Fülöp-szék

Area: 41 ha

Legal declaration by Decree No. 6/1990. KVM

Biogeographic region: Sand Ridge

This reserve is a remainder of the numerous soda lakes that used to fringe the eastern edge of the Ridge of the Danube-Tisza Interfluve. This small lake is surrounded by croplands and farms and has a grassy shore that steeply drops into the lake basin 50-60 cm below. Like other soda lakes of the Sand Ridge, Fülöp-szék also receives its water from precipitation and seeping groundwater with a high salt content. Nowadays the entire lake dries out every year and only small amounts of water can accumulate in the lake basin in wet periods.

As a result of the presently unfavourable water regime, the bird fauna of the Fülöp-szék has changed. In wet periods, Great White Egrets, Little Egrets, Grey Herons, Squacco Herons and White Storks feed in the lake. The lake is a stop-over site for passage migrants, including shorebirds, ducks and Greylag Geese. Kentish Plover and Black-winged Stilt were the most important breeders but the former has not nested here since the mid1990s and the latter, just like the Avocet nest only occasionally.

The landscape value of the lake is also significant; with the farmhouses by its shore it nicely gives back the original view of the Kiskunság region. The area is freely accessible.