Crab Plover on my mind

I wake up these days with Crab Plover on my mind. I narrowly missed several of these mega rarities in Israel (see e.g. here); July along the Med coast seems like a reasonable bet to chance upon one. No luck this morning either. It was a fine morning, relatively cool, cloud cover softening the harsh sunlight, but the humidity... Birding was OK, though on the slow side. It is a confusing time of year, when autumn migration smells promising, but on the ground (or rather on the mud) there's very little migration bar returning shorebirds. Ma'ayan Zvi had five Grey/Black-bellied Plovers, some gulls, many terns in a nice pond, but nothing out of the ordinary (see eBird checklist here).

I had a very funny-sounding Cetti's Warbler (I think) at Ma'ayan Zvi. Never heard this song type before. Very different from normal song I hear in Israel or elsewhere (they have local dialects). Another sound recording is in the checklist.

Schreiber's Fringe-fingered Lizard

Nahsholim had one fun pond with godwits, shanks etc. (eBird checklist here). There was good butterfly activity on the coastal sand dunes. Since I moved from Canon to Olympus, I started photographing butterflies much more. This has two reasons: First, the close focus distance of the Olympus 300mm f4 lens is 1.4 m, which makes it almost equal to a macro lens, and works really well for butterflies. Second, admittedly I struggle more to photograph birds with the Olympus OM-D EM10iii, especially in flight, so I often divert my photographic attention to easier objects. With my growing interest in butterflies, I appreciate more and more their beauty and uniqueness. This morning I had only very common species, but really enjoyed them.

Plain Tiger - nothing plain about it. Nectaring on a Procumbent Centaury-thist

African Babul Blue (female)

African Babul Blue on a White Garden Snail (I think)

Lesser Fiery Copper (male)