Bird ringing for scientific purposes in the area of Lake Fehér started with the leadership of Dr. Péter Beretzk in 1939. Metal rings with an individual identification code attached to the legs of the birds were back then the only and nowadays still the most popular scientific tools to study bird migration.
The first organized bird ringing activities begun in 1988 by Tamás Nagy and Béla Tokody in the area of Fertő in Sándorfalva. The ornithology camp at Fertő has operated between 1988 and 1995 where primarily shore birds were ringed in the period of August.
The ringing station was established by György Krnács and Péter Lovászi in the current location of “Péter Beretzk Visitor Centre”, the former fisherman’s house of the state fish farm in 1996. Ringing of reed passerines started with this on the birdwatch located in the neighbourhood of the reed bed on Lake Fehér’s 13th unit and the ornithology camp of Lake Fehér (FOT) was founded. The building of state property managed by the Kiskunság National Park Directorate has been maintained by the Csongrád local group of BirdLife Hungary (MME) since then. The first section of the ringing path crossing the reed bed was built in 2003 and FOT is taking part since then in Actio Hungarica and since 2004 in the CES ringing programme. The path reached its final length in 2005.
The previous building of FOT and the more than 20 years ornithological researching work of many professionals are the basis of the “Péter Beretzk Visitor Centre” which could have been realized in 2018 with the support of the European Union in the frame of the LIFE+ project “Conservation of the European Roller in the Carpathian Basin 2014-2020” coordinated by BirdLife Hungary. The visitor centre continuously serves as home to one of the significant ornithology camps in the country and therefore is a perfect tool for the local scientific and conservation education.