Good old friend

Yesterday Piki and I paid a visit to a good old friend, Goldy, the Tel Aviv Pacific Golden-Plover. This individual bird has been returning to the same busy strip of coastal rocks for its eighth winter. Since 2017, when it was first found by Ilan Moriyah, it normally arrives in mid September, and stays until early March. Over the years, this bird has witnessed the adjacent landscape changing dramatically. In its early years, across the coastal promenade, an active airport was still in operation, Sde Dov. Back then, when the beach became too busy and disturbed by humans and dogs, the bird went to rest and roost in the open spaces buffering the runways, with other shorebirds. Check the blogpost from my first encounter with it, when I was attended by airport security trying to photograph it inside the airport ground. The airport stopped operating in 2019; a couple of years later development started in the abandoned land. Now it's all dug up with huge land works taking place. 

Over the years, Goldy has become fully accustomed to human disturbance on one of Tel Aviv's busiest beaches. In its early years it was quite skittish. Now Goldy is a true performer, so confident and relaxed. Piki and I found it first thing, before sunrise, on the exposed vermetid reef with a few more shorebirds. We sat down quietly, no hide or camouflage needed. The bird approached us, very calm, and did its thing, which was mainly foraging for little crabs and other invertebrates living on the rocks, resting and preening, waves crashing on the rock behind it. 

The sun rose behind the tall buildings of Tel Aviv, its early rays adding a beautiful golden tone to Goldys' feathers. 

After a long wait for it to complete its preening and grooming session, it finally agreed to stretch its wings for us, exposing the grey-brown axillaries. What. a. bird.

Spot that one tiny shed feather

Stretch!

Of course, with all the justified admiration to Goldy, it would be rude to ignore its neighbours. 

There were two Greater Sand-Plovers on the same rock, and another two further south. In the background of this photo is the tip of a sea kayak passing close by.

Two cute and round Common Ringed-Plovers shared that same rock too:

Several kingfishers, Common and Pied, were fishing around the rocks:

In the air that was little active migration of wagtails and pipits. Several White Wagtails were jumping on the rocks, happily chasing after insects:

A couple of graceful, fearless Little Egrets came in too close for a photo of their complete body:

Thanks to Piki for an enjoyable morning session, despite all the horrible news creeping in from all directions, threatening to shatter our nature-healing bubble.

Super day at Maagan Michael

I don't do these kind of things anymore, report on a single days' birding. However, today was really brilliant and report-worthy. Once a month I spend a morning monitoring birds at our restoration project in Ma'agan Michael. I start early, and do point counts for about two hours. Then I spend the rest of the morning counting birds in the general area of Ma'agan Michael fishponds and beach. Today, my first point count was interrupted by flocks of hundreds of Great White Pelicans cruise low over me:

It was evident that there were lots of birds around. Flocks of wagtails and pipits headed south. My second point count had so many birds I struggled to end it on time. It was nice to see this migrating flock of Flamingos at eye-level.

At my third point count I had two Striated Herons - hatched this year I think. They are becoming more regular in this area, but still scarce.

Towards the end of the point count I noticed a shrike on a fence, quite distant and in bad light conditions. A quick look through the bins and I said to myself - hey, this is an Isabelline Shrike. The shrike flew out of view. I went around a small pond to try and get better views. Then a Red-backed jumped up. Disappointed, I discounted my previous ID. Only when I got back home and checked the photos I noticed it was actually an Isabelline - nice one.

The fourth and final point count was uneventful though it had lots of migrants. Then I went down to the beach to check what's on there. I bumped into this fine adult male Desert Wheatear - pretty scarce in this region, and such a beautiful bird.

I spotted a large shorebird flying south high up - Bar-tailed Godwit! Another scarce bird. Sweet.

Later on Yuval found one a couple of kms north - is it the same bird that U-turned, or another bird? This one showed really well, feeding in a coastal lagoon.

In a large dried up fishponds there were over 100 Black Storks. I checked them for colour rings and found three. 718N is from Estonia, ringed in 2022, and seen since every winter in Ma'agan Michael.

I am awaiting information about the other two - U199 and 15U6.

By 10am it was getting hot and I had to leave. My total was pretty good - 116 species. eBird checklist here.

UK family visit autumn 2024

Yesterday I returned from a nice family holiday in the UK. Our main purpose was to meet friends, and indeed much time was spent catching up with good friends. We were based in Norwich most of the time. Norwich - Norfolk - easterlies - early October... Hmmm... We travelled up to Yorkshire to visit our friends Mark and Amity. Yorkshire - easterlies - early October... You get my idea. So my days were divided between family and friends stuff after 10:00, and whatever birding I could get done before 10:00. Several mornings were spent locally in Norwich, birding city parks for my eBird checklist streak, I enjoyed that, even without seeing much - I like Norwich and its habitats. Admittedly, the habitat always looks better that what it actually holds, especially this time of year when most breeding warblers have gone already. Still, seeing birds I don't see in Israel is fun.

I spent two mornings with Mike Dawson in fantastic reserves in Norfolk - NWT Hickling Broad on September 30th, and RSPB Strumpshaw Fen on our final morning, October 8th. In Hickling the weather was awful but I enjoyed seeing pinkfeet back, and there were Curlew and Wood Sandpipers. 

En route to Yorkshire we spent one night in Sheringham with friends. I admired the regular chippy-eating visitors.

The weather was building up, and I anticipated my morning birding at Beeston Bump on October 3rd. That morning easterlies were blowing nicely, and Beeston Bump felt rare. I worked the patch hard but came up with nothing special and few indications of active migration. Scanning the sea produced a few birds I enjoyed - Brent, Common Scoter and Red-throated Diver. Just as I was about to leave and rejoin my family, birds started to appear, coming in-off - some thrushes, finches and mipits. This was thrilling but I didn't have enough time and had to leave when the game was on. Arrgghhhh...

The Pale-legged Warbler at RSPB Bempton Cliffs, the 2nd for Britain, had been found a few days before I arrived in the UK. Had I been a serious twitcher, I could have gone for it from Norwich. However, at my current status I am not a serious WP or UK twitcher. Therefore I decided to wait patiently, maybe it will wait until our planned trip up to Yorkshire on October 3rd. It was still seen on the evening of October 2nd. I was hopeful and persuaded my family that the best spot for coffee in Yorkshire is Bempton. The bloody bird buggered off that night. With negative news on 3rd and slight disappointment we travelled direct to York. York is a beautiful city and we had a lovely time with Mark and Amity.

The Shambles

York Minster

Mark and I escaped early morning of October 4th for some much-needed birding quality-time. The wind was still good but with clear skies we didn't expect a huge fall. We headed to Flamborough, hoping to find a good birding spot and avoid crowds. We were amazed to find Old Fall parking layby empty - were we missing a mega nearby? We walked along Old Fall hedge and quickly witnessed really nice migration - not a huge fall indeed, solid numbers of birds coming in and moving along the hedge and into the plantation. Halfway down the hedge a small bunting jumped up and flew off strongly. Mark fired off a few flight shots and I heard a sharp thin 'tzik' - Little Bunting! A few meters further down we flushed a Woodcock. We positioned ourselves at the southern side of Old Fall plantation and had a great couple of hours in beautiful weather, waves of migrants coming in and heading towards the mainland - Goldcrests, warblers, finches, thrushes. We were joined by another local Yorkshire birder Paul who had nearby another Little Bunting, maybe even two. A Richard's Pipit flew over calling, a Firecrest joined the goldcrest and tit flock, a Red-breasted Flycatcher rattled from the plantation, several Yellow-browed Warblers were very active in the sunshine, often chasing each other - magic. 

Coming from a goose-deprived country, I appreciated the incoming flocks of Pink-footed Geese.

Incredible that Mark, with his mighty photographic skills, managed to take such a lousy selfie.

Wonderful morning birding Old Fall, #Flamborough with brother @yoavperlman. Waves of migrants moving through in warm sunshine, inc Richard's Pipit, two Little Buntings, RB Fly, Firecrest, Pied Fly, 5 Yellow-brows, Bramblings, thrushes, lots of Goldcrests. A privilege and a joy. pic.twitter.com/1O0aJaTSv7

— Mark James Pearson (@Markthebirder) October 4, 2024

Inside the plantation there was lots of activity. We had fleeting views of an unidentified Acro, a nice Pied Fly, Redstart - thoroughly entertaining. Listen to all the bird calls in the Old Fall sycamores. Bliss.

Then it was back to Norwich. I refused to twitch the Winterton Asian Desert Warbler - I am so mature and responsible. I was strongly motivated to find an inland Yellow-browed. I tried very hard every morning without success, until the final morning. RSPB Strumpshaw Fen looked glorious in the sunshine. Just as Mike and I left the carpark I heard the anticipated 'Tswee'. Love the shape of this sonogram.

There were a few more quality birds including Bearded Titlings and Bittern.

I am amazed how quickly Great Egret transformed from a rarity to a common bird in the UK. I saw them at several sites in Norfolk, including Strumpshaw.

And that was that. eBird trip report here. Till next time. Thanks to all the good friends who make us feel at home in the UK.