Fieldwork therapy

My busy spring continues. More fieldwork thankfully steers me away from thoughts about the future of my country and enables me to enjoy the magic of migration. A few days ago, with Mark still around, I collected data again in our Batha mapping project, north of Jerusalem. Pale Rock Sparrows, Calandra Larks, lots of common migrants in beautiful habitat - I certainly am lucky that this is my job.

Somewhat small-billed Calandra Lark

Mourning Wheatear

Tree Pipit on a rock - abundant migrant in all habitats, nevertheless sexy

Judean Iris - almost as good as a bird

Another crappy morning with @yoavperlman in Israel - bird-filled, rolling hills in golden morning sunshine (Calandra Lark, Mourning Wheatear and Long-billed Pipit pictured). Can't wait to get home to the super-abundant rollercoaster of East coast spring birding. #zeissbirding pic.twitter.com/QVKzULS3ee

— Mark James Pearson (@Markthebirder) April 7, 2019

Before dropping Mark and Amity off at the airport we made a 'small diversion' via Kfar Ruppin. I had a meeting there and I wanted M&A to experience the fabulous Bet Shean Valley. After the meeting we had 38 minutes of joy in the fishponds - huge streams of migrants overhead - storks, pelicans, eagles; the fishponds were full of good stuff. 83 species in 38 minutes - pure bliss (eBird checklist here). Light conditions were horrible and I was tired, so I left my camera in the bag - surely Mark will blog about it soon.

Yesterday I spent a morning mapping birds in the Poleg region, north of Tel Aviv, with INPA's Ohad and Tzlil. This is an interesting and relatively under-watched part of the country, despite being right in the center. No amazing rarities were seen, just a abundance of breeding species and migrants in surprisingly good habitats. I was busy counting so had little photo opps. eBird checklists here and here.

Jumpshot fails

This morning I drove around northeast of Jerusalem with Shachar, the local INPA ranger, to prepare our upcoming effort this spring to map breeding birds in important Batha (open rocky slopes) habitats there. We didn't do any point-counting today, just checked access points and point-count routes that we will repeat this spring. It is a beautiful part of the world, especially at this time of year when everything is in flower and birds are in full breeding activity. It hosts a fascinating mix of Mediterranean and desert breeding species. We found good densities of Calandra Lark on high slopes:

First of a series of frustrating jumpshot fails:

Great Gray Shrike (Arabian)

Mourning Wheatear (Mourning)

It was very nice to hear the familiar 'Cu-ckoo' song in many spots, including males displaying territorial behavior.

Habitat shot

Flyby

My first Eastern Black-eared Wheatear of the season:

Other quality species included a flyover Syrian Serin, some Little Swifts, a handful of Rueppell's Warblers I casually bumped into, Balkan Warbler, and Bonelli's Eagles.

Falcon Watch

In recent years it has become evident that poaching of large falcons takes place in the Western Negev, where every winter small numbers concentrate. Besides being catastrophic to the survival of species like the globally Endangered Saker, this activity is totally illegal. Our nature law enforcement agency, Nature and Parks Authority, invests considerable efforts to crack down on this activity, but they need support. In recent weeks, a group of volunteers patrols the most sensitive zone daily, and looks out for suspicious poaching activity. We have already found a bait pigeon, and provided information on several suspects that are being investigated.
Yesterday I spent several hours around where the falcons are, looking out for suspicious activity. I saw some birds too, of course. I was relieved to see two Sakers. I tried not to disturb them so these images are big crops:

Individual one - possibly 1cy

Individual two - paler and possibly older

Only two Peregrines were present, one was a stunning calidus-type:

This year it has hardly rained there (again) - fields are very dry bar those irrigated. As a result, some species are present in lower numbers - I had zero harriers, and only one Merlin. There was enough Merlin food though - I counted 5700 Skylarks, and an impressive 450 Calandra Larks, including some tight flocks:

Eurasian Skylarks

Calandra Lark

Mixed flock of calandras and skylarks

I searched for the ever-shrinking group of Sociable Lapwings - I saw seven sat distantly in the middle of a big field - no chance for photography with that killer heat haze. They are not doing great either - perhaps as a result of climate change that causes the continuous decrease in winter rainfall in this region?

Complete eBird checklist here.

Ticks and treats

It's been two weeks now since we arrived in Portugal. We are still working in northern Alentejo, based in Campo Maior. The weather is heating up, the grass is drying fast, and we need to find creative ways to stay focused and motivated to endure the long days in the field. New phenomena are the increasing amount of ticks we peel off, and the violent bee attacks we suffer. Living on the edge.

Work is going fine, but the birds seem to repeat themselves somewhat. So we seek for new playing fields in the little free time we have. Yesterday was our day off. We went to Alqueva dam which was quite a waste of time. We really did not see anything of interest, but we did add some trip ticks (or lifers for Dan and Re'a), such as Rock Sparrow, Short-toed Treecreeper, Egyptian Goose (boom!) and this stunning male Western Subalpine Warbler:

In the evening we tried for Red-necked Nightjar at Caia reservoir.  We heard one singing male in the distance, but couldn't connect with it. I am not satisfied yet with my encounters with this species. YET.

Another way to keep motivated is to try and improve my photos of the regular birds we encounter. Not easy when I'm always on foot, but at least I have lots of opportunities to try.

 Calandra Lark

The ubiquitous Corn Bunting - first one I bother to photo this year

Those eyes... 

An early morning stretch for this sweet Red-rumped Swallow: 

Sometimes when it gets especially slow, I do what European birders often do, and start paying attention to bird food, AKA butterflies. Dan enthuses me to try and ID them - he's really into that stuff.

Brown Argus

Iberian Marbled White

This evening I worked in an especially slow box. However there was a micro-fall of Northern Wheatears - 7 individuals! Bloody hell. This one actually did not perch on a fence! Just by a fence.

Steppe up!

We are very lucky to work here in Castro Verde. This is the most beautiful and biodiversity-rich steppe region in this part of Iberia, or maybe in entire Iberia? Or in the world? Anyway it's fantastic here. We walk for many hours every day, and the reward is great birding and lovely landscapes. Here is a selection of some recent photos I took. I don't photograph that much because I have to work... but still I get some decent photo opps. Not like shooting from a hide or even a car, but I can't complain. As you may notice, in this part of the world it is possible to photo birds on a fence or in flight.

I will actually begin with the less spectacular group of birds, but they are ever-present and such good birds: larks. Commonest species is Calandra Lark, a magnificent mimic and one helluva lark. It's display flight is quite spectacular. They are found in good densities here, in pastures. In recent days, numbers of Short-toed Larks increased considerably too, and they are seen singing and displaying in good numbers in legume fields and dry pastures. Thekla Larks are found in the scrub-covered sections of the park. Theklas are birder's birds - notice the stubby, pointed bill, heavy breast streaking, general warm brown tones, and overall stocky structure.

Thekla Lark

This is how I see most Calandra Larks:

On the deck they are quite skittish

Greater Short-toed Larks are pretty mobile too, but sometimes they do settle down

Little Bustard is one of the focal species of my research this season. Contra to Great Bustards that are well-monitored, little is known on the conservation status of Little Bustard in Iberia. In some parts of Castro Verde they are still found in good densities, for instance today we had about  40 singing males in an area outside the park. The males are heard singing mainly early in the morning, but are usually well hidden in the tall grass and hard to see well. Occasionally we get a showy bird - this macho showed off by a main track as we drove in at first light. These photos have been heavily edited to compensate for the bad light, and are not as sharp as I would want them to be. The males give their fart-call while whip-lashing their heads back. This movement is so quick, so with my slow camera and low light I couldn't get a photo of the head all the way back. What a bird!

 I took this short video - sorry about the noisy soundtrack (no external mic):

We see many Great Bustards - Castro Verde is their stronghold in southwest Iberia. However I usually keep my distance from them not to disturb them, though sometimes I get some close encounters and flybys:

Moult score 29

The adult males are some gigantic beasts

Even here is Castro Verde life is not always sweet for steppe birds. Fences are a real hazard, especially for a heavy bird like Great Bustard. I found the remains of a dead bustard that colided with a fence on one of my transects:

Black-bellied Sandgrouse are another symbol of the Iberian steppes. They are most often seen in flight, so we count them mainly in transects and not in point-counts. They are always located by their distinctive bubbling flight call. They do favour dry pastures and legume fields where they may be seen on the ground from a safe distance.

Rocky outcrops hold scattered pairs of Western Black-eared Wheatears. Here are both morphs, the black-throated:

I find the white-throated morph much more attractive:

Yellow Wagtails are seen in small numbers in wetlands and creeks. Most are Iberian Yellow Wagtails. However, I am not sure which subspecies these are - at least the top bird looks more like flava, with a yellow throat and pale ear coverts and lores. Both were breeding, seen carrying food to nests. Quite a good local breeding record apparently.

When the temperatures rise, raptors usually take off and are seen in relatively good numbers and diversity (compared to UK...). We search for rueppell's among the commoner vultures - no success yet.

Black Vulture and Eurasian Griffon

Red Kites have not been found breeding here yet, but they certainly seem to be in the business:

Some more random birds:

Hoopoe 

Great Spotted Cuckoo

Spanish Sparrows

Just some nice opium-producers 

In contrast to the abundance of breeding birds, I am amazed by how few migrants we see. There are many breeding summer visitors, true (Lesser Kestrels, Bee-eaters, Nightingales etc.) but true migrants are extremely few and far between. Over the last week of walking, we had only one Tree Pipit, two Grasshopper Warblers, and one Northern Wheatear (in the Algarve).

On Thursday we move to work in northern Alentejo. Sadly, I expect to find there agro-steppe habitats in less-pristine state, and fewer associated birds. Stay posted!