Decade summary #1 - Best of 2010

With the decade drawing to a close, and ten years of bloggage to sum up, it's time to start the countdown to my annual special summary. Ahead of the special occasion, I will display my personal favourite bird of each year of the decade.
First - 2010. It was a fantastic year, with a crazy spring of breeding orgasm in the desert,  mouthwatering rarities and a mindblowing trip to Kenya. Soaring above all the great birds seen was one specific Siberian gem, only the second for Israel, not recorded since - Black-throated Accentor. Admittedly, twitching it involved some borderline ethical issues...

Tien Shan blast

Today our Rockjumper group had a blast of a day in the Tien Shan mountains above Almaty. It was our acclimatisation day, so we birded mid-elevations, up to about 2600 m.

Big Almaty Lake

Tien Shan birding

Quality birds just kept on coming. Highlights included Ibisbill - 2 adults attending at least one super-cute fluffy chick, brief views of White-browed Tit Warbler (TBC tomorrow...), initial distant views of Himalayan Snowcock (TBC tomorrow...), Eversmann's Redstart, Himalayan Rubythroat, Brown Dipper, Black-throated Accentor, White-winged Grosbeak and Red-mantled Rosefinch. Fantastic. Can't wait to get up higher tomorrow!

Himalayan Rubythroat - what a cracker

Eversmann's Redstart

Brown Dipper - any aquatic experts out there can identify what it's caught?

Black-throated Accentor

Red-mantled Rosefinch

White-winged Grosbeak

Ibisbill - sorry about the heat haze. No public access to where they were, so distant photos.

Siberian bombshell!

Oh, November, the month we all live for! If in Europe and the UK October is THE month, apparently it takes the good birds a few weeks to make their way down to this dusty part of the Middle East. The last couple of weeks have been really crazy with great birds found almost every day (and this is with about 15 active birders in the whole country! Imagine we had 1500 birders here...). At last I am getting return value for my RBA subscription...
Anyway, this morning I was ringing at the JBO. Pretty useless, only birds of note being several Hawfinches flying around but none got caught. About halfway through the morning my phone rings (again...), this time it's Ron Haran: "I've got a Black-throated Accentor in the hand at Netiv Halamed He, can you come over?". F@&@!!! I was busy with two school groups and couldn't see how I can get myself down there in reasonable time to see the bird before it's released. I gave the poor schoolkids the shortest ringing demonstration ever and sped off. Luckily no car crashes or police interactions due to my speed...
When I got there I released a sigh of relief, the bird was still in the bag, safe and cool. Took a few images, and let the bird go. It disappeared into an almond orchard. I actually managed to glimpse it in a tree an hour later together with Shachar but nothing more than a glimpse. But what a terrific bird it is! So beautiful and so special. It was aged as a 1cy by the shape and amount of wear on its alula and rectrices.

First of all, congratulations to Ron and Yotam for yet another great find! This site has real magic to it!

This is the 2nd record for Israel. the first was in 1982 in Jerusalem, just a year before I started birding. So this is serious blocker out of the way! Of course it was an Israeli and WP tick for me.

After the adrenalin left my veins, I had time to contemplate my destiny as a twitcher. What's the point in seeing a rare bird in a bag? What does it matter to myself or to anyone whether I saw the bird or not? Was it worth almost getting myself and others killed on the road while speeding to see the bird? OF COURSE!!! YES!!! I am a bloody twitcher and proud of it!