South coast

Today I worked with NPA marine rangers on seabird identification near Ashkelon. There were no proper seabirds around, so we made do with gull identification. Can't get any better than that. We spent a bit of time inside Ashkelon NP, then checked for some gull rafts inside the coal depot. At one secluded spot a nice mixed group contained, among the striking Pallas's Gulls, a few other taxa, especially fuscus and heuglini. A metal-ringed cachinnans, metal ringed Pallas's and two darvic ringed fuscus were out there, but frustratingly too distant to read.

Armenian Gull is less frequent down the southern coast compared to the northern coast and northern valleys where it is the 'default' large gull. As spring comes, adults like this gradually lose the diagnostic black bill band. I have seen individuals with a more convincing P3 pattern, but the overall solid black wingtip (very limited grey tongues on P7/8) and deeply hooked bill leave no doubt that it's armenicus:

Large numbers of Loggerhead Sea Turtles were washed up dead or dying on the coast over the last few weeks. This one was washed up on the beach this morning.

Some of the few remaining Mountain Gazelles still roam on the vegetated coastal dunes. Sad to see numbers of this globally Endangered mammal dwindling.

Thanks to Guy (NPA) and his team for a great day out.

The gulls are back

Beware: this is going to be a long post, which is surprising bringing into account the crap images. I appologize to all the gullophobes, but from now until March this blog will be flooded with gull stuff.

This morning I had some time between meetings to check the Ashdod ponds. Eventually this was not enough, as the ponds were packed with birds. On the way in I saw some Baltic Gulls sat near the rubbish dump, in classic poses:

In the ponds themselves I had 50 adult Baltic Gulls in one group:


All gulls were in a similar moult stage, with P1-2 or only P1 replaced, all the others unmoulted:

Among the baltics I had one juv. Armenian Gull and my first Siberian Gull of the season - a large, powerful bull:

It showed the typical suspended moult of this form. It had P1 to P6 moulted, and P7 to P10 unmoulted. Interestingly, its right wing was much more worn than its left wing (see worn primary tips in above image). It is quite difficult to see the moult in this image but I checked it well in the field.

What a beast!

I was happy to find our first ring of the season, CV21 which is back again for its fourth year, this time earlier than ever. Here is an image of it from last year.

There were tons of waders, with hundreds of Ringed Plovers, Little Stints and different tringas.

Ringed Plover - 1cy

Many of the stints were juveniles, with their crisp rufous-fringed plumage.

Little Stint - juvenile

There were about 10 Temminck's Stints, this adult already in full winter plumage:

I tried really hard, and scanned the waders again and again and again, but could not produce anything more interesting than single Broad-billed and Curlew sands, and a Turnstone. No sharp tails, no buff breasts, no long toes, no red necks...

Among the tringas, Marsh Sands showed in pretty good numbers, about 15:

I even tried to turn this Squacco Heron into an indian pond but even that didn't work:

There were good numbers of Turtle Doves on the move, many coming down for a drink in the ponds.

Good numbers of passerines were present too, mainly Yellow Wagtails and Willow Warblers. This is an adult male feldegg which is still the commonest form:

And this is a 1cy feldegg (note the difference in greater coverts pattern from the adult above):

Ashdod ringing and ponds

Yesterday I had a ringing session in Ashdod. We started bloody early and closed the nets very early too because of the heat. Ringing was OK, not more and not less, as expected in summer. Only bird of note was this colourful White-throated Kingfisher:


This was Rea's last time as a helper. He's moving to Eilat next month and hopefully gets his B permit next week, so he's a big boy now. Hope he produces some good birds at IBRCE. Thanks Rea for all the hard work over the last couple of years!

There were still some late migrants around - Blackcaps and a Lesser Whitethroat.
After ringing we had a quick look at the ponds. There were some gulls around. 6 Yellow-legged Gulls were a good record:

Also three Baltic Gulls were present:

Among the shorebirds there were some early migrants: 10 Green Sands, 1 Marsh Sand, 1 Common Sand and 2 Redshank.

Green Sandpiper

Ashdod ringing

On Friday I had a productive ringing session at Ashdod, with many migrants around. Newcomers to my site were several Sprossers:

These are not Levant Sparrowhawks on migration - this is a small part of a swarm of mosquitoes that escorted us most of the morning:

After ringing we had a quick look at the gull ponds. There were only 100 gulls left - fuscus, heuglini, cachinnans and armenicus. Among them three birds with rings - two from Finland and one from Norway, all long-staying birds that do not want to leave. Other than that several hundred Yellow Wagtail (incl. supecilliaris and beema), and a single Citrine Wagtail was a good local bird.

Ashdod gulls with KMO

Today I had the pleasure to spend a day gulling at Ashdod with Klaus Malling Olsen. He arrived a couple of days before the festival to join the Ashdod gull team (Amir, Ehud and myself) for some hardcore drop-dead gulling.
It was a terrific gull day, with peak fuscus migration. We had something like 3000 gulls, about 80% of them were fuscus. The light was excellent so we had good photographic opportunities.
It was a very educational day for me. Even after watching gulls for so many days at Ashdod, I learned so much from Klaus today. Eventually we agreed on most gulls, which was a good sign for me...

Most barabensis have left already by now, but we had a few birds, including this beautiful couple. Look at this amazing yellow tongue!

This image shows the wing pattern quite nicely, especially the black tongues all the way to P4, with strong black 'streaks' penetrating the grey.

It was another big day for rings (Ehud has the figures, possibly 50 or so), including this Swedish ring.

There were other birds too. We had two late Greater Spotted Eagles. This bird confused us a bit because of its long gape, but it is identified by the unbarred remiges and characteristic pale comma on outer primaries.

Another nice bird we had was a male Desert Wheatear. One late Pallas's Gull was nice too.

The rubbish dump was very attractive today. It was very impressive to see all of those fuscus.

This is a nice trio - fuscus, armenicus (2nd winter) and heuglini (3rd winter):

And a close up on the heuglini admiring the Israeli scenery. Note the still growing P10 - typically late moult of this species:

we had very large numbers of cachinnans, almost all 1st-winters.

Ashdod gulls

So, I have some birds of my own too...

Continued yesterday's trend of wasting my time, and had a useless day attempting to catch gulls. They were so nervous today - two kites hung around the rubbish dump the whole day and prevented the gulls from feeding and us from catching gulls.

During the day I had some Finnish clolur rings on fuscus, including this 2cy seen for the first time in Israel.

The gulls against the dark sky provided some photographic opportunities.

This is an adult cachinnans:

And a mixed flock spooked by a kite - fuscus, heuglini, cachinnans and armenicus:

Ashdod rarities

This morning we had a gull-workshop at Ashdod with the top Israeli gullers - Ehud, Amir and Sassi. Not too many gulls about but as always the variety is terrific - many fuscus, heuglini, cachinnans and armenicus, with smaller numbers of intermedius, barabensis and a possible michahelis that didn't allow good views. Still so much to learn on the variation of this group.

We had an adult Common Gull - a pretty tame bird. As the name implies, it is a good rarity in Israel...

Numbers of Pallas's Gulls typically rise during January. Today about 20 birds:

On the way out Ehud found two Desert Wheatears - a good winter bird for this area. This is a record shot of the male:

Ashdod beach

This morning had quite a good time at Ashdod. Started with some gulling by the rubbish dump. Many gulls but few colour rings, and no outstanding gulls. Still waiting for a glaucous...
This pretty fuscus is on the pale end of the spectrum:

This 2cy cachinnans shows the classic head shape:

Then I headed to the beach for some seawatching. Quickly I found the Scopoli's Shearwater - the same individual found by Amir Ben Dov on Saturday. The bird was patrolling up and down the beach, very close to the shore. However, the wind was strong and the sea was pretty rough, so the bird never settled on the water, and the spray made my life difficult. I didn't have such an amazing experience like Amir had on Saturday, but still had amazing views. Since this species virtually disappeared from Eilat, it became very difficult to get good views like this in Israel.

It's such a cool bird!

And just to share the atmosphere:

While waiting for the shearwater to fly by, quite a few gulls flew past me. This is a 2cy armenicus:

And a 2cy fuscus:

Several Pallas's Gulls were about. This is a 3cy:

And this is an adult: