Frustrations

The past week has been very frustrating for me. Israel is experiencing an amazing run of Asian vagrants, including two national firsts. I have been somewhat involved indirectly with those, but have not seen them. Just to clarify, I claim no credit for these records; all the fame and glory go to the finders.

In the evening of October 31st belated news broke of a Black-faced Bunting that had been ringed in the morning at Hefer Valley Ringing Station:

MEGA: Black-faced Bunting ringed this morning by Francis Argyle at Heffer Valley Ringing Station. First for Israel. Photo by Francis Argyle pic.twitter.com/eeUSlVQn4F

— Yoav Perlman (@yoavperlman) October 31, 2021

As soon as photos of a strange bunting went online I thought to myself 'what on earth is this bunting?'. Yosef Kiat was the first to blow the whistle. Frustration #1 - had the bird been identified immediately, perhaps I had a chance to see it?

Next morning (November 1st) I was there first thing. Incredibly, there were just three birders searching - Barak, Avi and me. Imagine this scenario in UK... The weather was horrendous, and we failed to relocate the bunting, not for the lack of trying (eBird checklist here). Frustration #2.

Next day (November 2nd) I had work to do at the JBO, enjoyed a Yellow-browed there and added Woodcock to my yearlist nearby at Gazelle Valley. 

Frustratingly, my birding session at Gazelle Valley was interrupted by belated news, again, that the Black-faced Bunting had been seen again (but identified only retrospectively from photos online) few hours after we had left the previous day, about half a kilometer away from where we searched. Arrrgh! Frustration #4. I sped back to Agamon Hefer, again to meet Barak and a few others. Nothing. No sign. This pretty Caspian Stonechat improved our mood by just a bit.

Next day (November 3rd) I was ringing peacefully near home, when Noam Weiss calls me, in a state of hyperventilation, asking me for help to identify an interesting bunting that had just been caught at IBRCE. I went with Noam over ID features, and we identified it as Chestnut Bunting - another national first, four days after the Black-faced Bunting. Amazing! What's going on? Frustrating to be part of the effort without seeing the bird (frustration #5).

MEGA MEGA: CHESTNUT BUNTING ringed at IBRCE Eilat by Noam Weiss!!!! First for Israel!!
Photo by @Itai_Shanni @BirdLifeIsrael @SPNI @TarsigerTeam @BirdGuides @RareBirdAlertUK @dutchbirding @westpalbirds pic.twitter.com/bm3M0L8sgb

— Yoav Perlman (@yoavperlman) November 3, 2021

Yesterday (November 4th) I did my monthly point count morning at Ma'agan Michael. It was in fact an excellent morning, tons of birds, so many species (eBird checklist here). I tried really hard but saw nothing more special than a Richard's Pipit. Before leaving I joined Itai Bloch's ringing team for a short while, good fun, until I had to leave.

This morning while birding near Tzor'a, guess who calls me. Itai Bloch. 'Please help me identify this bunting'. I video call Itai on WhatsApp - bloody Rustic Bunting. Arrrrrrgggghhhhh! I was there yesterday! Bastard bird. Frustration #6.

Imperial Eagle 2cy - much better than a bloody bunting

Caspian Stonechat - so much better than a bloody bunting

A short while ago news came from Eilat that the Chestnut Bunting resurfaced and is being seen. There are so many good reasons for me NOT to go for it tomorrow. Don't know if I will. May the force be with me.

Look east

It's that time of year we all wait for. In western Europe it starts in late September, and peaks in October. Here in Israel, it takes the vagrants from the east a little longer to filter down and make it over here. Numbers and diversity of eastern vagrants we get here compared to western Europe are much lower, so we need to make do with what little we get. On Sunday I got a little reward for working Tzor'a, searching in vain for an Oriental Turtle Dove that didn't show. Driving along a cut alfalfa field, oooh what this bird that flew up from the edge? Little Bunting! It showed briefly, then disappeared for a while, then showed again for half a minute, in front of a crown of five, before heading south high. In the next days, two birds were seen there, maybe this one and another, maybe two new birds. Lovely bird in any case.

On Tuesday, before a meeting in Kfar Ruppin conveniently scheduled for late morning, early morning was spent birding the bird-rich valley. Nothing special or new was found, but I enjoyed the huge amounts of big birds, spiced up with November regulars for Kfar Ruppin: Isabelline Shrike, Oriental Skylark and Richard's Pipit. Many Caspian Stonechat around - love 'em.

This morning a Pied Wheatear south of Be'er Sheva required my attention, a good looking 1cy female in a horrible water treatment plant, in horrible weather. Thanks to Eyal for finding and sharing info.

October Big Day

Yesterday the IL big day team (Jonathan, Re'a and me) reunited for our bi-annual mad dash across the country. Despite doing it for several years now, our motivation is still high. This year, eBird October Big Day was merged with Global Birding Weekend, and we were happy to support both efforts.

As in previous big days, focus of the day was on hi-speed birding, and there were few opportunities for photography. We left home in the middle of the night, ticked Barn Owl en route, and arrived at the gate of Hula Nature Reserve well before dawn, to quickly hear Tawny Owls. We entered Agamon Hula when it was still dark, and were rewarded by great views (but awful photos) of a majestic Eurasian Eagle-Owl, not too common down in the valley. 

Early morning birding was good in the Agamon - plenty of birds around (82 spp), nothing special but Sibe stonechats, Black Francolin, Stock Dove and soundtrack of newly-arrived cranes were all quality. The weather was lovely and cool - in fact it was the first time this season that I wore an extra layer.

Siberian Stonechat ssp. hemprichii

A quick stop at Lahavot Habashan produced Marbled Teals. Up on Mt. Hermon birding was fairly quiet - despite the dry weather relatively few birds came in to drink at the pools. Nevertheless, we cleaned up Hermon specialties quickly and efficiently - Syrian Serin, Sombre Tit, Western Rock Nuthatch etc.

Syrian Serin - sorry, messages came in to my phone

After we descended from Mt. Hermon, temperatures were already high. We needed to work quite hard to find birds in this heat but I think we did rather well (and thank god for car air conditioning).  On Mt. Hermonit we found a male Finsch's Wheatear. In Susita it was so hot that we feared the Long-billed Pipit running across the road would burn his feet.

When we arrived at Kfar Ruppin, at the bottom of Bet Shean Valley, the heat was really challenging, for both birds and humans. However, with hard work and good gen we found most specialties we were after, and somehow managed to enjoy good birds obscured behind the clouds of Black Kites everywhere: Daurian (Isabeline) Shrike, 3 Oriental Skylarks, Richard's Pipit, Dead Sea Sparrow.

Heading west we quickly stopped for some gulls in Heftziba where a lovely dark morph Eurasian Marsh-Harrier flew past.

Our last birding site for the afternoon was HaMa'apil fishponds. We quickly got on to the Greater Painted-snipe that had been present for about three weeks now, standing motionless at the corner of its favourite little pond. Lovely bird, and especially for me it was a big moment of relief. Ashamedly, In recent weeks I have been up there a few times already, failing to find the skulker each time. So it was very well received.

Blink! That's the most activity this Greater Painted-snipe did while Re'a @JMeyrav and I watched it. Filmed thru @SwarovskiOptik ATX85 at near darkness. Fitting end to our @Team_eBird and @global_birding #GlobalBigDay and #GlobalBirdingWeekend run@Rutlandbirds @RockjumperTours pic.twitter.com/kQHElc7ICg

— Yoav Perlman (@yoavperlman) October 18, 2020

Our day ended with 151 species, quite respectable I think. Certainly much better than the 130 of October 2019 or the 137 of May 2020. Yet, I think that the potential is much higher - again we missed good raptor diversity, and passerine migration on the slow side. Let's see what we do next year.

Thanks a bunch to my team, Re'a and Jonathan, for another successful Global Big Day. Fun and laughs all day long, you guys rock! It was a privilege, as always, to use the supreme optics provided by Swarovski Optik. Makes finding birds so much easier! 

Avi-blitz

This weekend I took part in an avi-blitz organised by (in no particular order) Israel Ornithological Center, IBRCE, Eilot Regional Council and Nature and Parks Authority. Over 30 teams took part in this effort. We surveyed remote corners of the southern Negev and Arava, seldom visited by birders. Many of these areas are deep within military firing zones, so access is restricted only to weekends. It was great fun, though my polygons were less productive. On both days I worked deep in the desert west of Neot Smadar. Yesterday was rather quiet (eBird checklist here), though I managed to find an uncooperative pair of Arabian Warblers at a new site in the far west of their predicted range, possibly the westernmost territory in the world?

Otherwise, away from the acacia wadi, birds were very few. The desert is extremely dry here, and the few birds concentrate where some productivity may be found. Good to absorb some desert serenity.

Somehow I managed to hear a distant singing Temminck's Lark; Spotted Sandgrouse flew by somewhere and that's it. I was really impressed by the huge numbers of Dorcas Gazelles on both days - we had over 100 yesterday and 60 today. They were generally tame and confident, implying that there is little poaching in this region if any.

As horny as they get

Check those huge rear toes on this Bosc's fringed-toed Lizard

Almost qualifies as a good bird - Poekilocerus bufonius

**This fascinating insect is venomous - it spits poison at predators, the poison is produced from the poisinous bush Pergularia tomentosa on which it is perched in this photo - thanks Avner for the info** 

After we were done we headed down to Eilat for some recreational birding. Again I failed locating both personal photography targets - Oriental Honey Buzzard and Lesser White-fronted Goose. No show. We checked the traditional sites, KM19 sewage and IBRCE. Nothing special, just the regular wintering birds plus local rarities and scarcities:

The now resident, funny Pygmy Cormorant at IBRCE

Rare in winter, this Gull-billed Tern spends the winter at IBRCE

One of four LEOs roosting at IBRCE

Caspian Stonechat just north of the park

Banana posture

Today I worked a polygon in the same general area. As we entered the area we had an Adrenalin-pumping early morning encounter with a pack of 9 Wolves - such fantastic animals.

Again there were rather few birds around (eBird checklist here). Only bird of interest was a fine male Cyprus Warbler that didn't pose well enough.

Those undertail coverts...

Huge thanks to the organisers Noam, Itai, Libby and Eran, to Eli who helped design the fieldwork. Hai Bar staff hosted us wonderfully - thanks! Kudos to all the hard-working skilled teams who did a stellar job. Till next year!

Birding Tel Aviv

Yesterday was my birthday, and I kept my tradition of not seeing any good birds. Only birding I did was while my son was in a club I checked a nearby park where Monk Parakeets breed - first, stunning photos I take of this recent invasive colonist. If I stayed in the UK I'd have a fantastic day with Brown Shrike and Stejneger's Stonechat, but I'm here in Israel, doing Monk Parakeets.

This morning I left early and birded Hatzuk beach, at the northern edge of Tel Aviv. It's a rather large patch of scrub-covered coastal sand-dunes. At the moment it's still attractive as a migrant hotspot; sadly in the future it will all get built up. In the early morning nice numbers of pipits and wagtails headed south, and few finches, including one Siskin. Huge numbers of Spanish Sparrows were moving through:

And large numbers were on the ground too, here with a Palestine Sunbird:

Some quality came in the form of 3 Richard's Pipits and a Citrine Wagtail moving south. A surprise Namaqua Dove headed south too, though it seems that recently they have started to colonise the greater Tel Aviv region too.

The most prominent migrants on the ground were Stonechats - I estimated 110 during my walk this morning. They were everywhere! Fighting on every thistle, chasing each other - quite lovely.

Among them there were a few Sibe Stonechats - 3 males that were Caspian, and a rather rich-toned female. Tried to turn it into a Stejneger's, without success.

Caspian Stonechat

Female Siberian Stonechat of some sort

I tried hard also to turn one of the Red-backed Shrikes into a brown, no luck there either.

There was a steady trickle of Eurasian Sparrowhawks heading south, I counted 12.

A Peregrine and a young Hobby were knocking about over the area.

Eurasian Hobby, 1cy

All in all it was an enjoyable morning. No rarities, and finch numbers need to increase towards November, but it was good to see so many birds in an urban setting. My full eBird checklist is here. This is my walking route, as recorded by eBird app:

On the way back home I checked Ayalon sewage treatment plant, which was packed with Shoveler and Teal, 42 Fudge Ducks and 2 White-headed Ducks. eBird checklist here.