Israel's first Chinese Pond-Heron stays put (at least until yesterday, April 18th). The first visit was all too brief, adrenalin levels were too high and in less optimal conditions for proper photography. So I decided to return for seconds. The bird is a real poser, totally ignorant of humans. It is feeding very efficiently on fish in its frog-packed pond - must be fattening up nicely. The pond-heron is not in an ideal location for photography, with an annoying fence around the pond preventing getting down to ground level. Yet, it is an entertaining target for photography. I spent two more short sessions with it, and came back with OK results, I think.
Monday, April 19, 2021
Chinese Pond-Heron revisited
Wednesday, April 14, 2021
Chinese Pond-Heron!
On April 12th, Daniel Katz, posted a photo on a Facebook birding group, asking for help to identify a heron in a small pond in Jerusalem Botanical Gardens:
It was only the next day (yesterday, April 13th) that the photo received some attention. This was an awkward Squacco Heron-type bird, but I wasn't certain it was just a bad phone photo. In any case, I asked a couple of local birders to check it out. In the late afternoon, Shachar Hizkiya followed my advice, and checked that pond. He found there a certain heron, sent me a screenshot, and the rest is history:
Chinese Pond-Heron. First for Israel, one of very few WP records. What a monster, in a tiny urban pond in the middle of Jerusalem.
I live about 40 minutes away from Jerusalem (without traffic). It's 18:07. The sun was already very low. Without hesitation, I grabbed my bins and camera and ran to the car, leaving my astonished family deserted behind. As I approached the city, in worsening traffic, I saw the sun lowering and lowering. I got to the pond in the botanical gardens just after sunset, only to understand that the bird had flown off, probably to roost, three minutes before I arrived. No further sign, despite a few of us searching potential roost trees in the vicinity. What a blow. Only Shachar managed to see it, no other twitchers did. I drove home in silence, also because it was Memorial Day here.
After a short and tense night sleep, this morning I was back up in Jerusalem at dawn, Piki in my car. This time, three minutes before arriving a sweet message landed in my phone - the heron just flew in. Few minutes later we were watching the heron. Chinese Pond-Heron on my list. Phew. At first it was feeding out in the open on floating aquatic vegetation:
Shame the sun wasn't up yet, as the photos are crap and don't do justice to its true, rather glorious plumage tones. Fairly soon it flew into a tree where it spent the rest of the hour I could spend there. A growing crowd gathered, time to go. I had to leave early for an important meeting, before rush hour. At 07:45 I was back home, heart still pounding fast.
Saturday, April 10, 2021
Eilat plover mystery
On Thursday I spent the morning in Eilat with Jonathan, Arad and Rony. In fact we left home on Wednesday before midnight, and made our way down south picking up some night birds along the way. None posed for photos, but this Desert Hedgehog, the largest of Israel's three hedgehog species, was quite lovely:
At first light we started birding at Seifim Plains. I had quite high expectations from this site - reports from recent weeks described the place as heaving with birds. It was very quiet in fact - not many larks singing, few migrant wheatears (no sign of the pied seen there the day before) - eBird checklist here.
Hooded Wheatear 2cy male
At IBRCE things were not much busier - a significant exodus of birds happened the night before... Nothing special to report on the bird side, some year birds (Levant Sparrowhawk, Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin, Red-necked Phalaropes) - eBird checklist here. This fine Schokari Sand Racer was very cool to watch:
Then we moved on to KM20 saltpans for the disputed sand plover. It was waiting for us at the entrance to the saltpans, and showed well. This bird was found by Shachar Shalev on March 27th, and it's ID isn't final yet (IMO). Our initial reaction when seeing the bird, especially the long bill, was 'whoa, this can't be a Lesser Sand-Plover'. But then, at closer inspection, we started to have other thoughts. Re size, though slightly larger than Kentish Plover, it was certainly in the 'small and delicate plover' camp, comparable with kentish and ringed, rather than 'beast plover' camp. Then, in all angles, it's seemingly clean legs were black or blackish, not green. With no signs of moult into summer plumage whatsoever, I find this a solid candidate for Lesser Sand-Plover, but happy to be proven otherwise.
I agree it has a long legs, large head and long bill, but from my experience, there's so much variation in both species in these features that I'm not sure how relevant they are. Same for leg extension and wingbar pattern. See my insights on identification of Lesser and Greater Sand-Plovers in Kenya here and here.
The mental process regarding the identification of this bird reminds me of the process we went through with the 2010 Lesser Sand-Plover. When seeing the photos taken by the finders, we were eluded by the longish bill. It wasn't until we saw the bird in the field that we realised how small it is.
It is interesting that almost everyone who saw this bird identified it as Lesser Sand-Plover, while those identifying it from photos say it's a greater. In any case, this is a great bird to study - more to come!
After we had enough of the sand plover, we continued to check the saltpans that were packed with shorebirds, gulls, wagtails, pipits and generally very lively (eBird checklist here). It was entertaining to watch a variety of Western Yellow Wagtails chase after swarms of shore flies (Ephydridae) coating the banks:
On the way home we paid a quick visit to the Black Scrub-Robins in Kibbutz Samar, this one ringed as part of a study on their movements and colonisation:
Thanks to Jonathan, Rony and Arad for the company, vibes and use of photos.
Sunday, March 28, 2021
Sometimes it works...
This morning I left early to try for a Caspian Plover west of Hatzerim, that had been found by Olga Chagina a few days ago. I may have left home too early because when I arrived it was still dark. At least I saw some Jerboas driving in. This is the same area where I had the Dotterels a few weeks ago. When there was enough light I started scanning the plains. And the plains were very plain. For those who know this site, when it's quiet, it's VERY quiet. I spent more than an hour working the area carefully, and saw very little on the ground. A lovely flock of Lesser Kestrels that were hunting for beetles off the ground or low bushes were the main point of interest. A Merlin was darting across the plains too. Up in the air, many Greater-Short-toed Larks and Tawny pipits were on the move. But no plovers were to be found whatsoever. I started to lose hope and headed back out. On the way out I spotted in the distance a flock of Cream-coloured Coursers. I edged closer, hoping that shorebirds show solidarity with each other. Hey, what are these smaller, darker plovers? Are they? Yes! Not one but four Caspian Plovers!
Eventually offering brilliant views. I knew others would try for them, so I didn't apply pressure on them and kept a safe distance; not quite close enough for proper photos to be taken, but I guess I can't complain...
As far as I could tell, the group consisted of two adult males, a young male, and a female.
Monday, March 22, 2021
Shag on the beach
What a stupid, yet unavoidable title... This morning I worked at Ma'agan Michael. Weather was unstable, hot, dusty and windy. Yet it was a pretty good morning. While driving in, two gulls nearly gave me a heart attack. This leucistic Black-headed Gull almost cased a major hear attack:
Tuesday, March 9, 2021
March rambling and scrambling
March is my favourite month for birding in Israel. Everything is so green, flowering, singing and wonderful. I wish I could spend every day out in the field, but work and family commitments reduce my fieldwork time to 2-3 mornings a week... guess I can't complain. I have seen some nice stuff in recent days, nothing worthy of a solo blogpost IMO. therefore, here's an accumulation of habitats, birds, mammals and butterflies from recently.
A visit to Lahav Reserve in the northern Negev with Meidad was slightly quiet on the bird front (eBird checklist here) - maybe too early still? Too cold? But the reserve, with its batha habitat, is so beautiful now, which made up for the relative lack of birds. Still, many Spectacled Warbler busy breeding, Finsch's Wheatears, Long-billed Pipits - not too bad.
Three Dotterels snoozing in a cold desert morning. I was expecting more zugunruhe - they're leaving us in a few days. Taken through @SwarovskiOptik ATX85@BirdLifeIsrael pic.twitter.com/9kMyAVF2rv
— Yoav Perlman (@yoavperlman) March 5, 2021