Third time unlucky

 On July 18 mega news broke:

MEGA: Senegal Thick-knee @ Kfar Ruppin, Beit She'an Valley Israel.
2nd record for Israel if accepted. @TarsigerTeam @westpalbirds @JordanWatching pic.twitter.com/OlovJiJSxu

— Tuvia Kahn (@KahnTuvia) July 18, 2020

I needed that bird! The first for Israel came when I was in the UK. I was unable to go straight away, and in any case the bird was not twitchable that day. I went there the next day, dip #1, my air conditioner broke down at 45⁰ C. Joy.

Fast forward to August 1st:

Then they became two! Again, I couldn't go the same day; next day I was there again, dip #2. Aarghh! So frustrating. We just cannot figure out their local movement patterns.

On Wednesday Avner Rinot again found one, in a slightly different spot. This morning I went AGAIN, hoping for a third-time-lucky. In Hebrew we say third-time-ice-cream. No luck nor ice cream, dip #3. What's going on?

This tale of serial dipping raises existential thoughts about the whole concept of listing and twitching. From my personal point of view, my listing career in Israel changed dramatically when I moved to the UK. Since my return two years ago I got back in the game, but somehow my energy is slightly lesser. My stamina is OK, but will I go fourth time? Most probably...

The only positive aspect of these visits to Kfar Ruppin is that birding there is excellent, luckily. Tons of birds, quality, nice build-up of autumn migrants. I have never paid so much attention to variation in Eurasian Thick-knees...

Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters are present in large numbers, many juveniles around:

Western Yellow Wagtail - adult female feldegg

It was a good breeding season for Collared Pratincoles:

And for Purple Herons:

Frustration sometimes led to attention diverted to butterflies, like this Little Tiger Blue:

Thanks to my partners in dip, Jonathan, Piki, Amir.