Eilat

I spent the past week in Eilat. My younger son, Noam, did an open water diving course,  and I was there to escort him. I joined his group for a dive today (Thursday). On other days, I dropped him and his mates off in the morning, and picked them up in the afternoon. In between I tried to work...
At this time of year, when the temperatures are so high and fall migration is just starting, all eyes are on the sea. Naturally, every morning I showed up on North Beach at first light. I enjoyed good birding action until I had to leave, too early, at 07:00. There was really nice activity around bait-balls or fish-boils that formed once or twice every morning. It was exciting to watch this. On August 7th I had six tern species going crazy over the bait-ball, picking up little fish pushed to the surface by predatory tuna: White-cheeked (the most numerous), Common, Arctic, Bridled, Lesser Crested and Caspian. In this photo, spot the Bridled Tern on the right:

Crazy scenes off North Beach, Eilat this morning. Dozens of White-cheeked Terns and White-eyed Gulls in a feeding frenzy over a fish boil. Bridled, Lesser Crested, Arctic, Common and Caspian Terns thrown in for good measure.
Digiscoped through @SwarovskiOptik ATX85 pic.twitter.com/eAh34G1tim

— Yoav Perlman (@yoavperlman) August 7, 2023

I posted this video on social media, and it generated interest by our comms team. They pushed it and the 'story' featured quite well on national media. including in English here. Sadly the editor google-translated the Hebrew text, which came out quite a mess. I did my best to help her edit. the results is somewhat awkward but OK I think.

White-cheeked Tern numbers were really high - I counted over 100 together on Thursday morning. They were flying very actively back and forth across the gulf. I photographed these flying super-fast past me on their way back from a bait-ball feast, some carrying tiny fish in their bills. Note the recently-fledged juvenile - Noam Weiss says that they had a good breeding season.

I was also glad to get my first sound recording of this seldom-recorded species:

White-eyed Gulls were present in large numbers too. Several landed on the beach to rest. The adult is a really neat bird IMO.

It was interesting to see them catching flying insects, probably Chironomus midges that are abundant in the early morning.

A Brown Booby was present for a short while one morning, perched on a distant border buoy. Note the Cory's Shearwater sailing past at the very beginning of the clip:

Another welcome visitor to 'my' bit of beach - Striated Heron, made in 2023.

On August 9th I joined the monthly pelagic monitoring trip organised by INPA and Eilat Birding Center. On the boat were Chen and Ofer from INPA, and Noam and Netanel from IBRCE. Expectations were high, after last month's trip yielded European and Wilson's Storm-Petrels. Our trip was a bit hard going, to be honest. For a couple of hours we didn't see a single bird. Eventually, two Swinhoe's Storm-Petrels arrived to check the slick. They flew up and down the slick for about 30 minutes and showed very well. I managed to get my best photos of the species to date. Note how extremely worn this individual is - incredible how it can still fly so well like this.

Strange how times change. Only a decade ago, a pelagic trip with two Swinhoe's would be regarded as a huge success. Nowadays, that they have become so regular off Eilat, sometimes in quite large numbers, our result feels mediocre, almost disappointing. 

Away from the gulf, there wasn't too much to see. KM20 saltpans held decent numbers of shorebirds. best of the bunch was a Terek Sandpiper. Noam and I had an Olive-Tree Warbler during a meeting in Neot Smadar.

Oh Julia

A few days ago a female Mediterranean Monk Seal (Monachus monachus) landed on a beach just south of Tel Aviv, in Jaffa. It is globally Endangered, with less than 700 individuals left in the world, mostly in Greece and Turkey. This is the third modern record in Israel, and the first accessible individual, so it caused huge interest nationally. It is a 16-year old female, identified according to her unique pattern of scars as an individual from Turkey, affectionately named 'Julia'. A barrier or fence was erected at a safe perimeter around her. Rangers from Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the police are guarding her 24/7. Delphis, an NGO devoted to the conservation of marine mammals in Israel, organised a team and is using the opportunity to do important outreach with the huge crowds attracted.

I couldn't go until yesterday, but yesterday I went twice actually, in the morning with Piki and then again in the evening to broadcast live in a webinar we (BirdLife Israel) did - you can watch the recording on FB here. 

It was wonderful and very emotional to see such a rare mammal in Israel - we don't have many marine mammals here, and it was my first Israeli seal. She did very little - she started her fur moult process so she is full of fat and just lying there on the beach, possibly for a few more days or even weeks. She turned around and sneezed a few times, that's the most action we saw of her.

Distant Cory's Shearwaters (Scopoli's I assume) were the only birds of note.

Eilat seawatching

I spent two and a half days in Eilat, that included work, scuba diving and birding. Order of importance is debatable... This is the story: My elder son is really into scuba diving, and I am too. We went down to Eilat for him to complete his advanced open water training. I joined him on one dive but got an ear infection and couldn't dive anymore. I spent the rest of my days working, with compulsory dawn and dusk visits to North Beach, where all the action is these days. Everywhere else in the country spring migration is officially over and birding has become very static. In contrast, at North Beach, especially in the very early morning, birding was very dynamic with lots of stuff moving. I enjoyed that a lot. Check this representative eBird checklist.

Super moon setting over Sinai

Shachar's two recent rarities, Sabine's Gull and Great Crested Tern didn't linger, but there was plenty of interest at sea to keep me busy. Sooty Shearwater numbers are higher than normal, with a maximum of 14 yesterday morning. This could be an underestimate - shearwaters kept flying from one side of the gulf to the other constantly. Every scope sweep came up with at least one or two. One early morning, two sooties patrolled over the beach, even flying inland a bit, then returning to sea - could they be prospecting an overland crossing - to where? It was almost dark when I took this photo, as it flew over my head, so it isn't great:

Two Cory's Shearwaters were present too. There was very good skua/jaeger action too - three species seen: Arctic/Parasitic, Pomarine and Long-tailed - two magnificent adults with loooooong tail streamers, too distant for photography I'm afraid but good scope views. There were plenty of terns too, quite large numbers of Common and Little moving through. Quality terns included Lesser Crested, Bridled and White-cheeked. 

Three White-cheeked terns with a casual Sooty Shearwater

Little Terns on the move

There aren't many shorebirds in Eilat now, most should be busy breeding now very far north. This lovely female Greater Sand-plover shared the beach with humans one morning:

I spotted at a great distance a tiny white dot heading north. As it approached it became clear it's a Red-necked Phalarope - you should be in the arctic now, in nicer plumage than this!

Crested Eagle meets Red-necked Phalarope

Greater Flamingo is a silly bird. I counted 820 at KM20 saltpans where they look very settled - don't know why they don't breed there. Therefore it was very cool to spot a flock of 25 flying low over the water, heading north, battling against the wind. Migration magic.

Swerved from side to side, they eventually passed overhead

Unbelievable that such comic birds can actually migrate

White-eyed Gull for dessert

bergii

I am spending a few days in Eilat now. My elder son is taking an Open Water Diver course. I am escorting him, and between marine activities and work I manage to get some birding done. Main focus in on North Beach, that is in good form - in fact best I have seen it in many years. There's lots of seabird activity, especially in the morning. Biggest star is a Great Crested Tern, it's been here for a few days now. It's a big rarity in Israel, not even annual; a welcome year tick for me, and also a photo tick. As they always appear in Israel, it's a worn non-adult in non-breeding plumage. BTW it most probably belongs to ssp. velox that breeds in the Indian Ocean north into the Red Sea.

This morning when I arrived at dawn, I found Avi already there, and the bird was there too. It was perched near the Jordanian border, at a spot without good access, so views were a bit distant.

Every now and then, it flew out west across the bay, at some distance, for fishing. Then it headed back east to its perch.

It normally U-turned with the city and the mountains as a background - I find these photos more pleasing aesthetically, despite the bird being farther away:

Here it demonstrates why some people still call it Swift Tern - it has such long wings and is extremely aerobatic:

Other cool terns are Bridled, Lesser Crested and quite many White-cheeked.

The famous underwater observatory in the background:

Cory's Shearwaters are present in exceptional numbers. Others reported up to 35 in previous days, I saw max. 18. Still very cool.

eBird checklist from this morning here.

I am here for a few more days - stay posted!

Milestone celebrations

Yesterday I reached a significant milestone in eBird's checklist-a-day challenge. I completed 365 days of daily birding, i.e. 'proper birding' - not just submitting a checklist but actual daily significant birding activity.

I started this checklist streak when I was in the UK a year ago. Then, on August 14th, 2019, a one-day stutter shattered my previous streak of 234. Basically, since December 23rd 2018 I have been out birding every day except once. Some may say this destroys my life. True, I am in a constant semi-zombie state, fighting tiredness and fatigue. Others might argue that this daily birding activity keeps me sane. In the bottom line, this is my new life style, and I have no intentions to stop. 

To celebrate the 365-streak, on Wednesday I headed down to Eilat. I spent the evening at North Beach with Shachar and Shmuel. Terns included Bridled, Lesser Crested and many White-cheeked, but no too much else; eBird checklist here.

Yesterday morning I started early at KM20 flamingo pools with Itai. Shorebird numbers are building up there, and there was some interest too, in the form of a Sooty Falcon perched on the border fence, and a flock of six White-cheeked Terns circling over the saltpans - first time I see these strictly-marine terns inland. eBird checklist here.

My true reason for heading down to Eilat was to join the monthly monitoring pelagic trip in collaboration with INPA. I met up at IBRCE with the team. A very quick wander around the park produced a Lesser Gray Shrike and a checkered Western Reef-Heron.

We set out to sea, and reached our position near the border triangle, as deep as possible without a passport. We started chumming, and fairly quickly I picked up a Swinhoe's Storm-petrel that made a typically fast and directional fly-past. Better views than last year - shorter distance and slightly longer duration, but still no photos of this rarity. The rest of the trip was fairly quiet (eBird checklist here). Two lovely Cory's Shearwaters kept us focused (when will they be split from Scopoli's?). They certainly performed well. No wilson's, again...

Thanks to skipper Chen, Eran from INPA, and Noam and Gal from IBRCE for this great opportunity.

On the way back home I made a quick diversion for the Blue Pansies at Neot Smadar. They were extremely active at their spot, quite many of them. They kept chasing after each other, and refused to open their wings for me. What a contrast between the wonderful upperwings (see e.g. here) and the rather dull underwings. Incredible how they are found in Israel at one small roundabout in Neot Smadar ONLY.