Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Green Warbler!

This morning I was working at home. 09:15 - phone rings, Ron Haran is on the other end: "I think I have a Green Warbler at Netiv Halamed-He, can you come over to have a look?". Grabbed my gear, ran to the car and sped off. Luckily Netiv Halamed-He, Ron's constant-effort ringing site, is only 20 minutes away from my house.

The bird was quite easily located, as it was waiting for me in the bag... Id was pretty starightforward. While driving I talked to Amir Ben-Dov about the probable bird, he cancelled an important meeting, took the chance and started driving. He made it on time before the bird was released. It flew into the reeds immediately, and was not seen again. I think some other guys might give it a try this afternoon, hope they get lucky. Finding a phyllo in such a huge site seems pretty challenging...



Anyway, well done Ron for the find and for the ID!
This is the fourth record for Israel of this Himalayan gem. The first was ringed by Hadoram in October 1997. The 2nd was found by Zev Labinger and seen by many observers, including myself, at Ramat Sirin, E Galilee, August 2004. The 3rd was ringed by Ulf Bauchinger et al at Sde Boker in May 2008. This type of twitching is not very challenging, but it was a super bird nevertheless!

4 comments:

  1. So, this is a Himalayan green Warbler? Does it come to Israel for the summer?

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  2. Nice to find a rare vagrant in your area Yoav. That close up of the little Green Warbler is amazing. Wonderful detail.

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  3. We rescued three baby weblers in Hong Kong but do not know about them much , I have many pictures and videos

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