Patch OBP!

If I was super-chuffed to find a Richard's Pipit on my local dog-walk patch a few days ago, I can report that today I am mega-chuffed. My routine dog walk along wadi Ekron near my house started well with a distinct wave of Red-backed Shrikes - 4 birds right outside my house; then it got better by finding my first Spotted Crake for the patch:

A couple of minutes later I heard a familiar call, saw a pipit approaching from the north - Olive-backed Pipit! Got on it through the bins while I tried to reach my phone to sound-record it, but it was too quick. Managed to see a bold head pattern, and plain greenish mantle as it flew away. It did not drop down but continued to fly on low, disappearing between the houses. I spent some time trying to relocate it without success. I was over the moon - while Richard's Pipit is a fine bird but 'only' scarce, OBP is a proper national rarity and a local patch classic. I am so happy that my local patch delivers quality so quickly. Sadly no documentation for now - hope it reappears in the next few days.
The rest of the dog walk was actually pretty good, for the site. Wryneck was sweet, and I am happy to welcome Bluethroat and Chiffchaff - both species were first noted on my walk yesterday. Check my eBird checklist here.

Shame about the reed across the breast

Shetland day 2 - wind and hard work

A difficult day today with hard work and less reward compared to yesterday, but still pretty good. Bad weather today - strong SW west and sort of wet most of the time. Started off early. In Paul's garden 5 yellow-brows, they were really everywhere today. By 10:00 I already had about 25. 

Yellow-browed Warbler

I recorded these two in a duet:

The walk down to Roger's via Virkie was alright but hard work. Birds kept very low and quiet because of the wind. Highlight was a Bluethroat I found in a ditch above Virkie. I flushed it twice, enough to see it was a Bluethroat with the tail pattern etc. but honestly I don't even know if it was a male or female. Nice bird to find but I would trade it happily with a proper sibe. More pipits around today, plus several Redwings and a Fieldfare. Quite a few Pinkfeet went through in the morning, and some landed in the fields for a rest en route from Iceland to Norfolk:

Pink-footed Goose

Pool of Virkie had three Grey Plovers, some Barwits etc. Met up with Martin and we walked back to Roger's, more yellow brows...

Bring it on!

In the afternoon we were determined to see some birds despite the awful weather. We first made the mistake and tried the Arctic Warbler at Weisdale again. Stood around like idiots in horrible wind, watched a Sycamore shaking like crazy and glimpsed the warbler for a split second. We agreed this was not much fun so we went on to watch real, big, showy birds. We started off with gulling at the tip of Weisdale. There were several argentatus herrings, a Little Gull and this hybrid Glaucous X Herring type thing -interesting wingtip pattern, even the unmoulted P10 is odd: 

There was this group of Red-breasted Mergansers there, and also 7 Goosanders flew over:

Red-breasted Mergansers

Then we checked ducks on Tingwall Loch. No interesting aythyas among the tufteds, but this juvenile Goldeneye made us get out of the car and grab our scopes. Interesting bird, tiny with small bill, half-developed head shape, and dark eye:

Then in the late afternoon shorebird in Virkie again. More commoner stuff but nothing new. 

Hoping for some better weather in the next few days!

Female Caspian Stonechat

Returned to ring at Ashdod after a long absence. It was a good morning with large numbers and varied catch, pretty typical for this time of year. As expected, main species was Bluethroat, with 34 birds, including some returning migrants / winter visitors from previous years. Also caught in nice numbers were Reed Warbler, Chiffchaff and Blackcap.

Bluethroat

Star bird of the morning was this female Caspian Stonechat. Its mate, a male, dodged my nets the whole morning. In normal 'field' views, the tail looks solid black:

But when you blow on the tail base, white feather bases are visible:

Other interesting birds were Marsh Warbler, Thrush Nightingale and this very striking melanocephala Sardinian Warbler (European bird), so much darker and colder above and below than our local subspecies momus:

Common Redstart 

Some nice birds in the field that were not caught - Penduline Tit, Moustached Warbler, Wryneck and a probable Striated Heron seen briefly by Arad. Nice early morning migration of pipits and skylarks.

On the way home had a quick look at the ponds - few gulls with about 40 baltics and some heuglin's and yellow-legs, and this immaculate 1cy Greater Spotted Eagle:

Thanks to Arad, Liad, Roei, Oren and Shahar who helped me this morning.

Tsor'a sunny morning

Yesterday (25/12/09) had a couple of free hours in the morning, so went to have a quick look at Tsor'a. The weather was beautiful - sunny and warm, and the birds evidently responded to that. There were hundreds of swallows hawking above the alfalfa field, among them a single House Martin. Prinias and cisticolas were singing in full blast, even though I think this isn't the real business yet but more of a practice for spring. Note that this male Prinia hasn't developed the black bill and gape yet, so I suppose it isn't involved in any relationship now:


This Hen Harrier flew over the field and spooked the hundreds of pipits and skylarks:


I paid Yosef's ringing course a visit. They had quite many birds, including this stonking male cyanecula Bluethroat:

Ashdod ringing

Had a pleasent morning ringing at Ashdod. I had a guided group at 09:00, so I had plenty of time to enjoy the birds and the fine weather today, before the millions of screaming kids arrived.
Birdwise, it seems that winter has settled down, and most migrants have moved on. The commonest birds I ringed were Bluethroat and Chiffchaff, with a few other bits and pieces.
Sweetest birds were two Penduline Tits - part of a small group hanging around:

This Sardinian Warbler felt a bit paler and neater than our local birds - perhaps a migrant?

Other birds seen during the morning were a Bittern (my first for this site), several flyover Siskins and a Wryneck - most probably it will stay for the winter.