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

Birds and butterflies

This morning I worked at Ma'agan Michael. In short, we are developing there a restoration project, in which we have reached an agreement with the kibbutz to manage a large section of their fish farm for biodiversity rather than fish production. The project is funded partially by Israel Ministry of Tourism. We are now in the 'Before' stage. Through monitoring, we hope to show what are best-practices for wetland restoration. Anyway, today was my monthly visit there. En route to my first point-count location, I drove past the same pond where Little Gulls put on a show last time - today the show was even better, with 19 (!) birds, in perfect, soft morning light - quite enjoyable. I just love them. This seems to be a good winter for them, yet 19 is an exceptional count.

Several more images in today's eBird checklist.

One White-winged Tern was showing the wee gulls how it's done

Birding was quite good, though migration wasn't pronounced yet, only few true migrants - Isabelline Wheatear and some hirundines. On the beach I found this Czech-ringed Black Stork (no details yet):

When editing the photo, I accidentally clicked the 'Black-and-White' button - came out quite nice, don't you think?

On the beach there was a nice gull gathering. I kept my distance not to disturb them - they suffer enough disturbance on this busy beach. Good numbers of Pallas's Gulls, quite a few Caspians (sorry for the poor footage):

On the rocks at the mouth of Taninim stream, a shy Bar-tailed Godwit was sheltering from the wind, Eurasian Curlew did its thing and there were a few Greater Sand-Plovers already getting into summer plumage:

Butterfly season has started here. After I was done at Ma'agan Michael, I had just enough time for a quick look for a special butterfly on a hill nearby. The hill is home for Levantine Vernal Copper, one of 14 protected butterflies in Israel. It is specific to Milk-vetch Astragalus macrocarpus, a rare and threatened plant in Israel too. The wind bas blowing quite hard, which kept them low. Still they are wonderful butterflies.

Not many other butterflies on the wing, because of the wind. This Green-striped White was perched on the Milk-vetch:

Not so red knot

This morning I birded with Barak in Ma'agan Michael - my first visit this autumn. It was alright, though we couldn't find a drained fishponds, so shorebird numbers and diversity were relatively low. Early on Barak spotted this wacky Armenian Gull flying around - at first when we saw it from a distance our hearts skipped a beat, until we figured out it's not a glauc.

On the beach there were some fine shorebirds, typical of the season. This 1cy Red Knot has been there for a few days now -  love this plumage though it has no red colour. Red Knot is quite rare in Israel (few birds a annually), typically showing up at MM in late August and early September.

Ma'agan Michael beach suffers from ongoing disturbance of joggers and walkers. This Red Knot was spooked by a passing jogger:

As was a huge-billed (male?) orientalis Eurasian Curlew:

Curlew Sandpiper - so pretty in 1cy plumage

With three adult Little Stints

Greater Sand-plover on the rocks, typically early moult into winter plumage

Adult Ruddy Turnstone

White-winged Tern demonstrating why it's called that way

Passerine numbers were actually rather low, with few shrikes and some Willow Warblers. Several Citrine Wagtails and some Penduline Tits added quality. As did this Lesser Grey Shrike.

Despite being a slow morning for both shorebirds and passerines, eventually we ended up with 87 species. Thanks to Barak and Bamba for the company. Full eBird checklist here.

Eilat day 4 - race day

What an amazing day it was, made even more mentally challenging with the sad news coming from across the pond of the departure of our dear friend and comrade BT3. I received the news while standing at a watchpoint overlooking the Arava Valley and Eilat Mts., watching a River of Birds pouring through the sky. How appropriate.

I did not race myself, as I am part of the organising team. I spent the day assisting teams, scouted key species and sites, and made sure that teams remained focused and on track. After spending much of the night at the start line, at dawn I gave one of the teams a lift to Amram Pillars. On the way out enjoyed a ram Dorcas and a Woodchat Shrike.

I spent a while at Yotvata fields. The circular field was packed with bird that hid well in the tall vegetation. I walked through a tiny section of the large field and had tens of Sedge and Savi's Warblers, mainly heard calling and singing but occasionally climbed up for brief views:

Sedge

Savi's

Also a few Bluethroats:

Squacco Heron resting outside the field

Also some White Storks

Several harriers cruised over the field, flushing pipits and wagtails:

Hen Harrier

Quality species included 2 mobile Pin-tailed Sandgrouse (very unusual here, found yesterday), Blue-cheeked Bee-eater and 3 Collared Pratincoles.

 Blue-cheeked Bee-eater

Collared Pratincole

eBird checklist here.

Then I headed back to Eilat checking a few more sites along the way. I positioned myself by the IBRCE; my main mission was, again, to connect properly with an Oriental Honey Buzzard. With some help from friends, I eventually had a lovely female - rather brief encounter but at last photos! Jynx removed.

In the afternoon I spent time with teams in the productive sites around Eilat. I was focused on getting teams on key species so had no chance for 'proper' birding. Still some nice stuff, such as a Peregrine skydiving at Slender-billed Gulls and a flock of 9 Eurasian Curlews - quite huge in Israeli standards.

Before dusk there was the traditional assemblage of teams at north beach, frantically using the last rays of light to add species to their lists:

After checking all teams lists, I can only say that the final results are incredible - wait till tomorrow! Kudos to all teams who made an enormous effort, both in the field and in fundraising.

It ain't over till it's over!

What a fantastic day! Who said spring ended?

Early in the morning I revisited an Arava atlas box, on a mission to confirm breeding of Dunn's and Hoopoe Larks I found there on my previous visit.

The morning began well with an impressive wolf running along a wadi.

Wolf

Soon the air filled with lark song. First were several Bar-tailed Larks, but soon they were joined by a dawn chorus of Dunn's Larks. I was happy to find this newly-fledged juvenile on the deck, though it was pretty distant hence the crap images. I think this is one of the very few ever documented, in Israel for sure.

Dunn's Lark - juvenile

I had four singing and displaying males. They spent much time singing from the ground.

Two males were constantly singing in each other's faces, chasing each other and basically being very annoying:

After having enough of each other they did some aerial song and display:

I saw no females. Could they be on eggs again? 3rd cycle?!?!

While watching the dunns, I heard the beautiful song of Hoopoe Lark not too far away, and soon I connected with a family - male, female and two juveniles. The male was singing and displaying intensively, but still had time to collect food for the babies:

This is one of the juveniles - so sweet:

Interestingly, one of the juveniles (a male?) constantly followed the father, and imitated his display, performing its' own short display flights. Here the juvenile can be seen observing the father:

After my mission was accomplished, I drove down to Eilat for some birding. I began with a very easy twitch of the Red Phalarope that was found at the IBRCE on Friday. It took me exactly two seconds to locate the bird - it was by far the ugliest bird in the pond. But still a good rarity! It refused to get close and I was too lazy to get my feet wet, so these images are large crops:

Here it is with it's pretty sister - Red-necked Phalarope. There were about a dozen present.

A short visit to North Beach was quite unproductive - it was late and hot and virtually birdless. The only birds of note were a Eurasian Curlew going north and this Reef Egret:

KM20 saltpans were quite birdy. The commonest shorebirds were Ruff and Wood Sandpiper with several hundreds each.

Wood Sandpiper

There were about 200 White-winged Terns, typically collecting insects from the water surface. By this time light conditions were terrible and I couldn't get any decent shots of this lovely bird.

This one was watching porn:

9 Little Terns were nice:

And it is always nice to see Glossy Ibises away from sewage canals and rubbish dumps: