Nostalgic photo-dump

 Once upon a time, when I was a young blogger, my blogposts typically went something like this: 'Today I went birding here and I saw this and that'. Then I matured and developed and started writing about deeper stuff like feelings and sociological observations. Today, before a meeting at Ma'agan Michael, I made time for my monthly point-count session at our evolving bird park there. It was a busy morning of point-counts, and the conditions were horrific with gale-force easterlies (listen to the background noise in the videos below), yet somehow photography went ok and I felt a need to share my photos with you, the world. Nothing to write home about, no special reason, just a representation of common and less common birds I saw today, like back in the days; some photos are decent, others less so... my eBird checklist for the morning is here.

Great White Pelicans

Pygmy Cormorant

Egyptian Geese looking very wild (they're not)

Late Squacco Heron

Ruddy Turnstone on the rock

Eurasian Curlew shared the rocks

Temminck's Stints

Avocets looking smart as always

Pallas's Gulls on the beach

Wait for it! Not easy to be a gull on Ma'agan Michael beach - constant disturbance

Check the wind blowing the sand in the video above - Google Photos stabilizer did a good job.

Different Armenian Gulls

National Waterbird Census

As in every year I joined the National Waterbird Census coordinated by NPA. As usual I counted the reservoirs in the S Coastal Plains, not far from my house. As always, nothing dramatic but a nice morning out with NPA guys.

Nothing interesting in the waterfowl section - some Great Crested Grebes, Wigeon, Gadwall, Ferruginous Duck etc. 

Some Egyptian Geese around - invasive but still impressive birds:

Only highlight was at Zohar Reservoir - found there the Black-winged Kite first seen a week ago. First it was perched on the tress on the far side of the huge reservoir:

Then it flew to forage and moved in slightly closer:

Not as rare as it used to be, so not so exciting as in the past, but still a very good raptor. Apart for that some Eastern Imperials and Greater Spots, a handsome callidus Peregrine and one Pallid Harrier.

Shikma Reservoir at sunrise

Ashdod July 14th

Nothing special to report. I'm being persistant with my local patch; I will not give up until I find a first for Israel there... Yesterday not too many shorebirds, and only common stuff (wood, green, redshank) with no Calidris yet.

This Spur-winged Lapwing was nicely back-lit:

This partially leucistic Black-winged Stilt has been around for a while:

A pair of Egyptian Geese bred at the ponds for the first time: