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! 

Cyprus pilgrimage

This morning Meidad and me paid Wadi Mishmar, by the Dead Sea, its annual late February visit, coinciding with peak migration of Cyprus Warbler. Soon after we started walking in, we heard a deep, distant raven croak and then spotted two Common Ravens perched on a dead tree in the distance - nice start.

We started checking the lush Taily Weed (Ochradenus baccatus) bushesץ At first it was big numbers of Sardinian Warblers; then as we continued climbing up the dry wadi bed, we encountered more and more Cyprus Warblers, giving their metallic chattering from deep inside bushes:

During the first hour or so, we encountered so many Cyprus Warblers, which was great, but from a photographic point of view they were real bastards, giving frustratingly bad views like this

or like this

or like this

Eventually I bumped into a male who wanted to play ball. I first spotted him looking all gorgeous in an acacia tree:

Then he decided to make the decent move and flew straight towards me:

And settled for a couple of minutes in a bush just few meters away, feasting on what the bush has to offer - fruit, arthropods, pollen. He was just brilliant. What a performer.

We ended up with 22 Cyprus Warblers - good tally. There were a few more migrants in the wadi - both cuckoos, Eastern Orphean, good fun. eBird checklist here.

On the way back home spent a midday hour in Lahav NR, which looks stunning now, flowers wall to wall, good birds singing, I had a good time.

Pink Butterfly Orchid

Finsch's Wheatear with Poppy Anemones in the background

Corn Bunting singing on Branched Ashpodel

Spectacled Warbler on Dominican Sage, accompanied by Xerocrassa seetzeni snails (thanks Nitai)

eBird checklist here.

Batha fix

In recent days I have been doing fieldwork and guiding, which means busy and enjoyable times. Spending much time in the precious Batha habitat, which is so beautiful and productive these days. On Sunday I met up with the Eilat Bird Festival group, first at Har Amasa. It was horribly windy and the birds kept quiet and hidden. Despite missing some key species that are present there (Rock Thrush, Pale Rock Sparrow) and seeing relatively few birds, we still had some good encounters including a copulating pair of Common Cuckoo, female Subalpine Warbler, many Finsch's Wheatears, Persian Wheatear still, a cracking male Ehrenberg's Redstart etc.

This returning Finsch's Wheatear is a real performer

Yosef did a good lob with wheatears there. This is a returning Eastern Black-eared Wheatear:

Black Kite 

We had a great end to the evening with brilliant views of Nubian Nightjar at Neot Hakikar.

Yesterday morning I worked in the batha survey north of Jerusalem. Again stunning scenery, quality breeding birds and good number of migrants.

Cretzschmar's Bunting is a stunning bird

Rock Sparrows breeding activity was in full swing

On the way home stopped to check for Cinereous Bunting - Tzur had found two near Kfar Adumim the previous day. I got there when it was already hot and windy, so managed only frustratingly brief views of two birds. Despite seeing many of these scarce migrants over the years, I have yet to obtain a photo. Next time... A pair of vocal Great Spotted Cuckoo was entertaining:

BTW in Hebrew they're called 'Crested Cuckoo' - here it is possible to see why.

Persian revisited

I spent an enjoyable morning birding with my good friend from Holland, Gert. Gert needed the Persian Wheatear that returned for a second winter. As I love birding at its chosen site, Har Amasa, it was not hard to convince me to pay the wheatear another visit. It was Euro-cold when we got there, windy and overcast, so it took us a while to get some bird activity. Eventually we found the bird where it was supposed to be. It spotted us from a distance and flew directly at us to check us out - is it being fed mealworms by intrepid photographers? Anyway, it was disappointed that we had no offerings for it, so it kept a medium distance away. With the grim light conditions my photographic results are rather poor, but the important thing is that Gert enjoyed great views of his lifer. Fantastic bird, whatever it is - still waiting for DNA analysis results.

Shame about the no-focus and composition...

There was a brilliant density of Finsch's Wheatears there - we counted 17 in a rather small area. 

Other quality birds included several Spectacled Warblers and a Long-billed Pipit. eBird checklist here.

Because we were cold we decided to head down towards the lowest place on earth, the Dead Sea, to absorb some warmth. First we checked Lot/Heimar Reservoir that did not produce much (checklist here) but provided typically lovely views of stunning Arabian Green Bee-eaters:

A bit further south, Navit Pools were more productive with overall larger numbers of birds (see checklist here), 7 Ferruginous Ducks and one purple chicken that didn't play ball.

African Swamphen

I was impressed by the big numbers of Pallid Swifts this early in the season - we estimated 800 just over the wetland:

Note some important, less trivial ID features: prominent 'zoro mask', pale median coverts with obvious dark greater covert bar, and shallow tail fork.

Then it was time to head back. We checked one last reservoir near Gert's train station, Kfar Harif. It was OK (3 White-headed and 3 Ferruginous Ducks, checklist here). I was intrigued by two summer-plumaged White-winged Terns there. In recent years they have changed their status in Israel. Once a strict migrant, now they winter in fair numbers in various parts of the country. Interestingly, all photos I saw of these wintering birds are in immaculate summer plumage.

Mixed bag

Had a great morning at Lahav North NR again today - did another breeding atlas box and had double pleasure - good show of the breeding species, and tons of migrants on the ground and up in the air. Started off early - the air was cool and clear, and immediately I was surrounded by three singing Long-billed Pipits. Had a very good morning for them with six territories, including a nest I found - no Cuckoo chicks in it, just three sweet LBP chicks (Cuckoos parazitise Long-billed Pipits in Israel).

Long-billed Pipit

Pair of Long-billed Pipits

 In early morning light

Other breeding species included many families of Spectacled Warbler, several pairs of territorial Cretzschmar's Buntings among the many tens of apparent migrants - difficult to tell who's breeding and who's passing through. Had only one singing Eastern Black-eared Wheatear - I was expecting more pairs:

Corn Buntings are ubiquitous in the reserve:

Many migrants were on the ground early in the morning. Highlights were flyover Cinereous Bunting and Syrian Serin, 15 Tree Pipits, and this singing male Rueppell's Warbler:

Two Blue Rock Thrushes - very pretty but demonstrated no breeding activity whatsoever:

Two lingering Finsch's Wheatears: 

At about 08:30 the air heated up and the skies quickly filled up with migrating birds. Really impressive migration for the next couple of hours till I left - a few thousand White Storks, tons of Black Kites, 200 Lesser Spotted Eagles and 150 Short-toed Eagles, few hundred Steppe Buzzards, thousands of swifts (common, alpine and pallid) - fantastic. Sadly many of these won't make it through Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and the Caucasus - check this video and many other horrifying images here. The Champions of the Flyway birdrace in a couple of weeks is fundraising together with BirdLife International to prevent this - please contribute to this important cause!

 Lesser Spotted Eagle 

Short-toed Eagle

This long-legged Buzzard is one of the local breeding pair

Desert Fritillary (Melitaea deserticola)