This morning I went with Jonathan to bird in the Eilat area. Our first mission was to see the Grey Hypocolius found by Barak Granit a few days ago near the IBRCE. We searched for it for a long time but at first with no success. We worked the nearby date plantation, in which we had an Olive-backed Pipit. I heard a very interesting Phylloscopus calling several times. It first sounded to me like an odd humei call, but after consulting with my iPod I found it closely matching proregulus! The bird was very mobile and stayed high in the canopies. I kept losing it, even with the help of Itai and Jonathan. I had a glimpse of it flying from treetop to treetop - it was tiny but I could get no plumage details. Eventually we gave up on it, but if a pallas's gets found tomorrow then it's mine!
We returned to the IBRCE, and soon after we had a few brief encounters with this beautiful bird. Unfortunately it was very shy and jumpy, and kept disappearing in the thick vegetation of the IBRCE. lucky I managed a couple of shots. I was very happy to see it - haven't seen one for many years.
Grey Hypocolius - male



Hoopoe Lark

White-fronted Goose

This seems to be a good season for white-fronts in Israel, with small groups recorded in several sites all over the country.
Yoav - do'nt forget to credit Barak Granit as the sole finder and identifier of the Grey Hypocolius, he was most insistent on the 'Eilat Birding' blog!
ReplyDeleteLaurie -
I have
ReplyDeleteHi Yoav
ReplyDeleteThe 2 young White-fronts look more Pacific like or albicans than albifrons to me
Martin