Ma'agan Michael

On Wednesday I had a day at Ma'agan Michael with meetings and stuff. I had little time for birding before and between and after the meetings. I'm still hoping to get Great Shearwater this winter - my IL bogey bird (nine records...) therefore I spend any time I can scanning the sea. That early morning at MM the wind was blowing from the wrong direction and there was lots of rain, so seawatching conditions weren't good. But the sea and the skies and the rainbow were dramatic and beautiful.

Because I had nothing better to do I spent my time checking gull legs. All I could find were two Slender-bills ringed by Yosef in Atlit. This one was ringed in April 2020.

With Sandwich Terns:

Pallas's Gulls are developing their black hood and are looking damn sexy:

Later my team joined me and me met up with a TV crew. We dragged them seawatching with us which was fun in the masochistic way:

The sea didn't improve much birdwise, still we had a couple of Med Gulls, a Parasitic Jaeger and an Arctic Skua.

Mediterranean Gull

Parasarctic Jaekua

Over the sand dunes flew around many swallows hawking for insects. One bird almost gave us a heart attack until we figured out it is a partially-leucistic Barn Swallow:

In one of the fishponds four Little Gulls were hanging out. They are such adorable birds, these wee gulls, with their little bills. The adult plumage is very attractive with that dark underwing:

Those snowy wingtips 💗

I find the first plumage very beautiful too

Fluttering over the water like a Wilson's Storm-Petrel

A week in the UK

Earlier this month I participated in the World Congress of BirdLife International in Cambridge, UK, celebrating 100 years of the most powerful conservation partnership in the world. I represented BirdLife Israel - Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel. It was a great celebration indeed, meeting so many friends, old and new, from all over the world. It is truly inspiring and empowering to feel a part of something so big, a giant, special, sometimes a bit crazy family, working together for nature and people. After several years of zoom meetings, it was awesome to meet people in person, actual people with legs and all. 

The congress included a European Partnership Meeting, where important work was actually done, and included amazing displays of solidarity with our partners in Ukraine and Belarus (check this Youtube video). Then there was a Partnership Fair, like a mini BirdFair where each organisation could present their work. This is my stand, adjacent to MME/BirdLife Hungary and natur&ëmwelt/BirdLife Luxembourg:

Something very weird happened during the Partnership Fair

I *think* I just arrived at the @BirdLife_News World Congress and watched Jarvis Cocker play two songs about birds but there's also every chance that this is a mad dream? pic.twitter.com/JalngpridP

— Rory Crawford (@redkingcraw) September 13, 2022

Of course, I had to keep my checklist streak. In most days I walked around local sites, such as Stourbridge Common and Ditton Meadows. As expected, with the weather and location, there were very few migrants around, still enjoyed it. Tried to force a Reed Warbler into becoming a blyth's, without success. Nice to share that moment with my mate Simon from BTO, where banana posture just ain't good enough.

Had a good time with my mates from Cornell Lab, including an early morning visit to Fen Drayton Lakes RSPB, providing Cullen with quality life birds such as Eurasian Green Woodpecker and Common Kingfisher.

Then I headed over to Norwich for a long weekend of birding and birding friends. Two mornings were spent seawatching off Sheringham. The wind wasn't perfect but the sea was nice and rough, and I enjoyed birding with mates. There were many birds that I enjoyed, even some OK stuff - Cory's Shearwater, Sabine's Gull, Long-tailed Skuas. There were many skuas in general, divers, scoters - birding experiences that an Israeli like myself appreciates. And it was cold! I really enjoyed feeling cold after the scorching hot summer in Israel.

Just finished a 10 hour(!) sea-watch at Sheringham, 6am to 4pm. Going east were 206 Little Gull, 80 Arctic Skua, 12 Great Skua and 3 Pom Skua, while 6 Sooty Shearwater went west. Other highlights were 90+ Manx, 2 Long-tailed Skua, 3 Black Tern, 2 Hobby and a Puffin. #rbnNFK 😀 pic.twitter.com/nLNgdsqzoB

— Drew Lyness (@DJLbirding) September 16, 2022

On my final morning went with Robin to Cantley Sugar Factory, which was alright. Many hirundines over the pits, some shorebirds, first Pink-footed Geese. Among the House Martins there were a couple of striking birds that the late Martin Garner would have enjoyed. Extreme Common House-Martins I guess.

Was I one week too early, or was the nighthawk one week too late?

Not sure what’s more British? A large bunch of twitchers looking at a bird on a garden fence from point blank range or the lady turning her back on it and getting her knitting out! 😂🇬🇧 #wantagetwitch vs #wantageknit pic.twitter.com/oDOLqUopWH

— David J Bevan (@djbevanphoto) September 27, 2022

Seawatching

Wednesday morning I visited Palmachim beach. A large storm was boiling, the wind was already good, the sea was properly rough - just before the rain started at noon. 

When I arrived at the seawatching spot, I was greeted by a sea full of birds:

There was really good activity of gulls close to shore, attracted to large fish shoals. Soon I noticed that there were good numbers of Yelkouan Shearwaters among the gulls, feeding very close to shore, sometimes down to 20m. Fantastic. This winter is special for yelkouans - their numbers are bigger than usual in recent years, and they are often seen feeding very close to shore. I focused most of my attention on the shearwaters, and took many hundreds of photos of them. I was hoping to find another shearwater among them (which I didn't), and document their variation. I also really enjoyed watching them fish, using short dives. It was difficult to digiscope in these conditions...

I will devote a separate blogpost to the Yelkouan Shearwaters - out of the hundreds of photos I took a few tens are blog-worthy. I will leave you with one I am pleased of.

The gulls were dominated by Black-headed Gulls, but there were a few other gulls mixed in, though the diversity was fairly low.

Lesser Black-backed Gull (fuscus)

Armenian Gull (adult) - lots of black on wingtip with little white, and nice black bill band

Yellow-legged Gull (I think) - bill too heavy for caspian, large head, and rather uniform wing

Many Sandwich Terns were fishing close in too:

One Pomarine Skua passed two distantly for a photo, but two Arctic Skuas made near passes - one super close. The first bird is especially small (check the size comparison with Black-headed Gull!), but still an Arctic.

Second bird

Back at the car, a Greater Spotted Eagle flew over, battling against the strong wind:

More images in the eBird checklist here. Stay tuned for a deep study of Yelkouan Shearwater.

Never wait too long for a twitch

About three weeks ago, just before I went to UK, an interesting shearwater was found at Eilat by Shachar Alterman. It was first identified as a Yelkouan-type according to distant views and poor images, which is a good record - only two prior Red Sea records. However, a few days later when the bird became more settled and good images were taken, it showed in fact some good signs of Manx Shearwater, which would make a first for Israel! There was quite a lively and educational discussion among Israeli birds, mainly because both Manx and Yelkouan Sheawaters show great variation in almost every ID feature, but in the end the consensus is that it is a manx indeed. 

Since I got back from the UK almost two weeks ago I was over-busy, and just didn't have time to drive down there. Yesterday morning it was still seen briefly, so I decided to hit it yesterday evening. I met up with Re'a and together we drove down. It was very hot in the Arava:

And by the time we got to Eilat the thermometer climbed up to 45. At the beach we were joined by Shachar the finder. We spent the next three hours searching for the bloody shearwater but it didn't show. It's a pity because even without the shearwater it was a good afternoon - 3 White-cheeked and 1 Bridled Terns, 1 Sooty Shearwater, 3 Arctic Skuas etc.,  but still we left back home disappointed. II am really depressed not only by not seeing the bird but by the idea that I might need to drive all the way down to Eilat in the coming days to try for it again - if it gets refound. 

Arctic Skua

Eilat pelagic part 1

Continuing yesterdays' taster, here is a small selection of images I got from the 'pelagic' trip with Avi Meir. I know that going out into a tiny gulf in a small dingy is not quite a pelagic, but this is the best we can get here in Israel.

Anyway, the conditions were great - soft wind, calm sea, comfortable temperatures, and as soon as the chum went into the water we got response very fast. The most active and attractive birds were Cory's Shearwaters - we had six or seven birds in total. They are such fantastic birds, and it was great fun for me to be in such proximity to them.

When I started seawatching in Eilat in the 1980's, days with 40-50 cory's were not uncommon, but their numbers have gone down dramatically in Eilat since the early 1990's. In fact between 2003 and 2010 hardly any were seen at Eilat. This decline corresponds with global population decreases, and with the ever-increasing pollution of the Gulf and crashing fish populations. This seems to be a relatively good summer for them.

I have hundreds of cory's images to go through, and I hope to get some on the blog during the next few days. This is just one more appetizer:

But apart for cory's, we had lots of other good birds. There were a few White-eyed Gulls flying around, but only this one showed interest in the breakfast provided by Avi.

This must be a 2cy, but I am not completely sure. As they're semi-tropical birds I don't know whether their moult cycles correspond to the Northern Hemisphere moult cycles we 'gullers' use when dealing with our gulls. This bird is going through its first wing moult, with P1 to P3 fully grown, and P4 growing. T1 to T3 also moulted (see 2 images below), and the new T2 and T3 have black tips. Leg colour is in fact pretty bright compared to juveniles that have dull grey legs.

I strongly recommend to have a look at the new page dedicated to White-eyed Gull in gullresearch.org, with images mostly by Avi and Amir Ben Dov.

White-eyed Gull (Larus leucophthalmus)

We had only one skua, this 2cy Arctic Skua. It made two brief fly-by's but never showed real interest in the feeding frenzy near our boat. It has not started moulting yet.

Arctic Skua (Stercorarius parasiticus)

Towards the end of our morning session quite a few terns arrived. Most were Common Terns (about 25), and among them we had one or two Bridled Terns. This bird never got quite close enough, so I have only these record shots. BTW don't panic, the tern above is just a Common Tern in strong light.

Bridled Tern (Sterna anaethetus)

Common Terns did get close indeed:

This 2cy Common Tern got me excited at first when seen from a distance - it was very pale and at first I thought it's an arctic, but after seeing it well it was safely identified as common. We don't get this plumage often in Israel; most of the 2cy's stay for their first summer somewhere in the southern oceans.

I had some trouble with my gear and screwed up its flight shots, so many thanks to Avi for this super image:
I really need a faster set of camera and lens, so if anyone out there wishes to donate me about 10000$ I will be very grateful.

Anyway, one Little Tern was among the larger species:

We had two Sooty Shearwaters. One of them came in to feed (pretty late when light was very contrasting already). This individual is rather scruffy and not very attractive, but they behave really nice compared to cory's - they just sit there and feed.

Sooty Shearwater (Puffinus griseus)

So stay posted for another batch of cory's images tomorrow.