Cross-country

Since my recent post I have been out and about quite a bit. I have not seen anything too special, but a few photos and stories accumulated, qualifying for a new cross-country post.

Last week I visited the wonderful Gazelle Valley in Jerusalem with Piki. It really is a special wildlife haven in the middle of the city. The opportunities to photograph Ferruginous Duck are unparalleled. Their babies make the cutest bath ducks.

Little Grebe and Moorhen are trash common, but it's fun to get up close and intimate with them.

Note the dragonfly nymph skin on the left

There were some photo-opps for scarcer species too. This male Little Bittern paused in front of the hide for a few seconds:

Jerusalem is probably Olive-Tree Warbler capital of the world, and Gazelle Valley is an excellent place to see them. 

Gazelle Valley eBird checklist here.

Fast forward a few days, I visited Mt. Hermon for the first time this year. This year we're doing an elaborate breeding bird survey there, repeating an effort from 2013/14. When I worked there on Friday, again with Piki, it was very hot already early in the morning. The view looking down towards the Hula Valley is always breathtaking.

Birding was a bit hard going - bird activity was somewhat low, perhaps because of the heat. Yet, there were many family parties of Western Rock Nuthatch and Sombre Tit, Syrian Serins were active too, and we had a Finsch's Wheatear - the only site in Israel where they breed. In fact, Finsch's Wheatear may be the breeding bird in Israel with the smallest population size - 1-2 pairs... It was a tough day for photography too, and I don't have any good bird photos at all from that morning. Just this OK sound recording of an angry bird:

And a Wall Brown that posed momentarily:

eBird checklist here.

On Saturday, near home, I found an exceptional concentration of Black-winged Kites in a vole-infested field. I have never seen so many together before. At one point I counted 42 around me. Amazing!

16 in this photo - can you see them all?

Most were recently-fledged juveniles:

Some Lesser Kestrels were carrying food back to a nearby breeding colony:

Yesterday I had the rare opportunity to visit a remote oasis in the eastern Negev, made of two springs, Ein Aqrabim and Ein Tzin. This is a beautiful oasis, sadly contaminated by industry upstream.

 Yet, there is water running there, and wildlife responds to that. While bird activity wasn't amazing (eBird checklists here and here), there was evidence (mainly footprints) of intensive mammal activity, including Hyena, Wolf, Fox, Wildcat, Wild Ass, Dorcas Gazelle, Nubian Ibex and Porcupine. I am not sure why there were few birds there. By the swarms of mosquitoes that destroyed us it can be assumed that there's no food shortage. There were last few migrants present, including this exhausted Garden Warbler:

Spotted Flycatcher

Desert Bluetail (Ischnura evansi) - female and male in the background, thanks Re'a

Successful warblers

This morning I went with UEA ringing group to our constant site near Whitlingham. It's a lovely site with mixed habitat - wet marshy bits and nice scrub and low bushes. An early start (04:00) meant an impressive dawn chorus when we approached the ringing site. Especially nice were two reeling Groppers. Ringing was pretty good. In an era of declines, especially of trans-Saharan migrants, it was really nice to have a ringing session dominated by migrant warblers: Garden, Blackcap, Whitethroat, Chiffchaff, Willow and Sedge. All were present in good numbers and evidently had a good breeding season - lots of juveniles.

 Garden Warbler

Sedge warbler 

Willow Warbler - recently fledged juvenile

Reed Bunting - recently fledged juvenile

Our ringing site

Thanks to Iain, Phil and Thom for a great morning.

Normal autumn migration (which is fantastic)

Again, sorry for the slow rate of new posts. My regular excuses include no internet connection in my new house yet plus a minor flu that got me grounded for three days... I promise to be a good boy from now on...
Anyway I have nothing too amazing to report; ringing in Ashdod a few days ago was pretty slow due to the terrible heat wave. The last week has been so bloody hot and must have slowed passerine migration down. The only birds of note were two Garden Warblers.
There has been good Lesser Spotted Eagle migration over my house in recent days, with several thousnads seen every day. Many Levants among them too.
Unfortunately I missed an extraordianry ringing session at Ma'agan Michael on Thursday night because of my flu. The guys had tons of birds, the best being two (!) Barwits and a Broad-billed Sandpiper. Perfect timing for catching a flu... Ron posted some images on the JBO website.
Tomorrow I'm off to lead a tour up north, hope to get some nice stuff.

JBO iz da best!

The JBO is really at it's best these days. An early start produced two goodies - first this fine adult Long-eared Owl:

Yotam is still half asleep:

And then a 2cy male Eurasian Nightjar - what a terrific bird:

It agreed to pose for a minute on a stump before it flew to roost:

Later in the morning a good and varied catch, with birds of note being two Savi's and four Barred Warblers:

This Garden Warbler was nice too:

Other good stuff included a Balkan Warbler, many Sprossers, a few Masked Shrikes and lots of other stuff.