Ay up!

After IBOC was over mark and Amity came to stay over with us. Mark and I did quite a bit of birding in recent days. Mark joined me for a morning of monitoring with INPA at a proposed nature reserve along the Med coast north of Ashdod on Wednesday. The coastal scrub habitats were good for migrants (eBird checklist here). Good numbers of common species were seen and heard, as well as a Subalpine Warbler.

Masked Shrike

A migrating flock of Bee-eaters was nice to see - first-for-year are always fun:

The sandy coastal strip held several large groups of shorebirds and few gulls (eBird checklist here):

Yellow-legged and Armenian Gulls

A cute Red Fox was chilling out on a pillow washed on the shore. Sadly this section of coast is extremely dirty with garbage mainly from Gaza, Egypt and further west, and unattended by Israeli authorities.

Back at my patch, migration is evident with good numbers of common migrants as well as some enjoyable species such as Wryneck, Little Crake and Great reed Warblers. While walking there with Mark one morning we approached some large trees in a park adjacent to the creek. I told Mark that this is where I want to find today my first-for-patch Collared Flycatcher. A minute later, a black-and-white flash dashes through the trees. Boom! Image by Mark - thanks mate.

Yesterday we went birding in Hatzuk Beach north of Tel Aviv. Mark needed Cyprus Wheatear, and I was hoping for some good general migration. We were not disappointed. Meeting up with Stefan, we were soon alerted by Ori (a local young birder) that he had found/relocated a female Cyprus Wheatear. It was super mobile and restless. My photos are quite poor, but it's a right bird for sure. 

Further quality came in a similar form to my patch collared fly story. I walked with Stefan towards a large Sycamore Fig tree. Each time I walk there I feel that it's a perfect tree for Hume's Warbler. I shared this thought with Stefan, and sure enough few moments later we heard one calling! We failed to get any views of it - luckily it was relocated by others later on. My third in about a week... Other quality species included Citrine Wagtail, Woodlark and Siskin. Nice eBird checklist (here).

Woodchat Shrike

Spring is on! Stay tuned for more migration action.

From COTF to IBOC

In the last few days since my last post, COTF ended and IBOC started. Typically, right after the award ceremony at IBRCE wrapped up COTF events, two Oriental Honey Buzzard flew by, causing havoc. This is the same female I saw before, and a young bird:

In between the two events I headed back home for one night. Classically, a potential Brown Shrike was found by Shachar Shalev in Eilat just as I arrived home. Luckily, or not, it was not twitchable and was not relocated next day or since.
I stopped briefly at Hameishar Plains twice, on the way home and on the way back. Habitat is fantastic there, and there are tons of birds on the plains. Thousands of storks, clouds of Short-toed Larks, huge numbers of wheatears and pipits, Lesser Ketrels hovering - brilliant. Most impressive (IMO) are huge numbers of Pale Rock Sparrows - I had a flock of 300 at one point, and many others scattered across the plains, 'Zzzzzzzzzzzzz'itting their hearts out.

With Isabelline Wheatear - for you A

Other sweet migrants were Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush, Caspian Stonechat, a stonking male Whinchat, and many Sylvias including Rueppell's:

Caspian Stonechat

Whinchat

Rueppell's Warbler - missing two tertials on left wing

Among the numerous feldegg Yellow Wagtail there were a few supercilliaris-integrades:

Back at IBOC and Eilat, an early morning tour to IBRCE produced nice views of Baillon's Crake. I paid that shrike site (Shakhamon Park) a courteous visit. It was not present but a wing-barred leaf warbler that was found yesterday showed well and called. Yesterday it was identified as Yellow-browed Warbler, but I am 100% sure it's Hume's Warbler, based on its call. My sound recording is rubbish; luckily Jonas Bonnendahl kindly shared his excellent sound recording with me.

These are sonograms of the calls from this recording. This is the regular call - check the low pitch and shape:

This is a 'funny' little call it gave occasionally:

Its looks are somewhat misleading - it's a rather contrasty individual, but still OK for spring humei. In these images bring into account the green light reflecting under the canopy the affects the tones of the bird. In real light it is much greyer.

Shakhamon park was pretty good with many migrants, mainly warblers (eBird checklist here).

Balkan Warbler

Tree Pipit

IBOC itself is fantastic - well organised, great program. Looking forward to the next two days at the conference (and the few hours sneaking off birding).

47 minutes of joy

Spent the day in the Hula Valley today with some colleagues. We are seeking for solutions for an upcoming ecological crisis, in which man-made water bodies - fishponds and water reservoirs, that are so important to wildlife, are being transformed into industrial production sites, drained or covered with infrastructure. In an otherwise rather depressing day, I managed to produce another five eBird checklists, towards my Checklist-a-day challenge. Best bit of the day was 47 minutes of birding with Nadav in the Agamon, waiting for our boss who was having a meeting. We enjoyed good views of the now long-staying Barnacle Goose, the first for Israel (if accepted bla bla). After playing hide and seek with observers during its first couple of weeks in the Agamon, now it is easy as pie.

Who's your daddy?

Close to the entrance the Hume's leaf warbler that had been found a few days ago was very mobile and active:

I quite enjoyed this quick bout of birding, without really checking any of the habitats. Eagles, cranes, sunshine. Not bad. eBird checklist here.

Uncooperative quality Phylloscs

As I wrote in my previous blog, on Thursday a serious weather system hit Israel - the first storm of the winter. After a few quiet migration days, it was evident that this weather change knocked many migrants down. Yesterday and today farthest I could go was my local patch - there was a noticeable wave of Chiffchaff and Bluethroat. I birded hard to find something decent, or at least add new species to the site. The plan worked OK twice: While playing Yellow-browed Warbler music yesterday, suddenly a textbook Siberian Chiffchaff popped up in front of me - lovely grey all over with contrasting yellowish tertial and secondary fringes, and a neat, faint wingbar. By the time I got the camera up it was off and I could not relocate it. Today I walked past a park adjacent to 'my' stream - always when I walk past the big trees I listen out for a 'Tseeu-weet'. This time - bingo! Heard a very active Hum'es Leaf Warbler calling from a large tree - maybe 15 or 20 calls that enabled me to confirm the ID. It was a bit distant, and I had to walk around to a gap in the fence. By the time I got closer it became silent, aaargh! I searched the tree where I thought I heard it from - I saw a small, short-tailed Phyllosc flying away, but nothing more than that. I spent a while there, played music and did whatever I could to relocate it, without success. Frustrating, yet exciting to add another classic patch tick. It was actually a pretty decent morning - check my full eBird checklist here.

Cooperative Phyllosc - Common Chiffchaff

Most bizarre bird of the morning was a Peters's Twinspot - clearly escaped. It was very mobile so no photo but I got this sound recording, it's in the checklist.

Poll: birding or cherry-picking?

I had a week of torture. I sat in front of my computer at work, watching all those rarity reports pouring in from Norfolk, and I just couldn't get out until today. So today I had to decide what to do - to try and check an area with habitat to try and find my own birds, or go cherry-picking? What would you do? And there were many cherries to pick in Norfolk yesterday and today: 2 Red-flanked Bluetails, 3 Daurian Shrikes, Blyth's Reed Warbler, several Pallas's, Radde's, Hume's and Dusky Warblers, Olive-backed Pipit and a few other bits and bobs. That's an impressive line-up! I guess for the blog it would be wiser if I got great shots of these rarities, that I could promote on social media. But eventually I decided to go and try my luck in finding something new. I just know I wouldn't enjoy spending a full day chasing after long-staying rarities (that I don't 'need'). As I left home in Norwich a flock of 120 Redwings flew over, so my expectations were pretty high. I headed out to my regular hunting ground - walked from Stiffkey Campsite almost to Wells and back. The wind was too strong today which kept the birds silent and not very active away from the few sheltered spots. In the sheltered spots it was clear that there were huge numbers of Goldcrests - many new arrivals, feeding in less-than-optimal habitats, and some jumping right by my feet. I quite like this photo - the blackberries and the spider web:

They are just lovely aren't they? Can't have enough of them

In the campsite woods there was one Yellow-browed Warbler and a Firecerst with the goldcrest flocks. I then started walking west. After a short while I bumped into the Great Grey Shrike but it kept its distance and was very mobile, so no images. There were many thrushes in the trees and bushes, but because of the strong wind they refused to move out of bushes so I guess my estimate of 150 Redwings between Stiffkey and Garden Drove is conservative. There was one Ring Ouzel and one Fieldfare with them. Another Yellow-browed Warbler was somewhere halfway, and I heard and saw briefly the Pallas's Warbler at Garden Grove. It showed badly in the canopy of the large sycamores there, no photos either. There were many finches as well, about 15 Brambling. Other birds of interest were 2 Redstart and 2 Lesser Redpolls.

Lesser Redpoll

Only Brents showed nicely today, shame the light was crap. Large numbers already, and also several hundred pinkfeet were seen today.

After I was done I had time for a very quick look in Wells Woods. I couldn't bother chasing the rarities there - there were too many birders around, some running - not my cuppa birding. So I birded off the main track for a bit, more thrushes etc. and I bumped into the Hume's Warbler without planning to - heard it calling and it showed badly high up in the trees. 

Hume's Warbler visual & sound

This morning I returned to the garden near my house for the Hume's Warbler, this time I left the kids at home. I relocated the warbler immediately and tried to obtain a presentable image and a sound recording. Wow, this bird is a nightmare! So shy and so extatic, it took me about an hour before I got some crap record shots like this one. But at least you can see some ID features here - very limited pale base to lower mandible, dark legs, and no dark bases to secondaries. This is a 1cy (check the shape and wear of TF), that's why it's relatively bright. 

Of course the most important feature is the call - very distinctive:

Hume's Warbler

This afternoon, while playing soccer with my two sons not far away from our house, I heard the typical 'chew-wit' call of a Hume's Warbler from a large Carrob tree. Before my kids understood what's going on I ran home, grabbed my bins and camera and ran back to the soccer field. I spent the next hour or so trying to get something of it but the bird was very shy and restless - only got some brief views and one awful sound recording. Hope to improve that tomorrow.

My village is a Hume's hotspot - last winter I found (and later ringed) one about 1 km from my house. Today this one was closer - about 200 m from my house. Next one in the garden please.

Hume's Warbler!

This morning I went to try and ring the Hume's Warbler I found near my house, to confirm its ID. I tried and succeeded. I was joined by Roni Livne. In fact during the first two hours of the morning we heard it several times but didn't manage to see it at all. Until finally it made its way into my net.

This is a sweet little bird. Pretty bright on secondaries fringes, and rather extensive pale lower mandible, but otherwise quite typical looking - greyish above, buffish supercilium, tiny MC wingbar, narrow and ill-defined tertial edges, dark legs. The forehead is dirty from sticky eucalyptus pollen.

Hume's Warbler (Phylloscopus humei)

While setting the nets up before dawn I had a male Eagle Owl singing next to me for about an hour: "uhhh... uhhh... uhhh...". What a bird. A 'real' bird, not like the above.

And another real bird: 

Lesser Spotted Eagle 

Thanks Roni for the help.

Frontier birding!

Two examples of how useful it is to have your phone with you while spending time with family:

On January 21st I went walking with my younger son in the eucalyptus forest behind my house. I had a pipit high in the canopy, and without my bins I could see nothing on it. It gave some calls that were OK for Olive-bcked Pipit - but I wasn't sure as they were of the more difficult tree-pipit-like type. I got a terrible recording with my phone - but it was good enough for Martin Garner to confirm it was an OBP - village tick of course. How cool is that? This is what MG wrote: "The pitch reaches up to 8 kHz and has fading quality to it - just like an OBP. Tree Pipit pitches around 7 kHz and has strongly modulated end with less fading", Thanks Martin - also for the sonogram.

Olive-backed Pipit, Nir Moshe, Israel, 21 January 2013

And then, this afternoon I was having a picnic in the same forest near my house. Again, no bins. Just before heading home in the afternoon, heard a Hume's Warbler calling from a nearby Carob tree. I couldn't see the bird but got the phone out again - slightly better quality this time (thanks Barak). Again, village tick! Will try to see it tomorrow.

Hume's Warbler, Nir Moshe, Israel, 9 February 2013

Who, me?

This morning I went with Re'a and Meidad to give the 'rarity sites' in the high Negev Mts. another chance. We started off at Sde Boker. Lots of birds but nothing better than 1 Brambling. From there we continued to Mitzpe Ramon sewage. Very quickly we had a brown, streaked bunting - but alas it was a Reed Bunting. That's a very good bird for this region, but we were hoping for something more exotic.

We continued scanning the trees and bushes, when Re'a found a wing-barred Phylloscopus. I got on to it quite quickly. It was rather shy and very mobile, but we got reasonable views, and heard it many times. It gave the classic humei call - "dooip", like a drop falling on water. I managed to get some record shots, all into the sun that give it a very contrasting look, much more than it was in the field. Good bird!

Hume's Warbler Phylloscopus humei

Rather faint wingbar on GC, very faint wingbar on MC:

Dark legs, no dark bases to secondaries:

White supercilium without dark lateral crown stripes:

Some pale at base of lower mandible - seen from below:

Little contrast on tertials pattern:

After an hour or so of trying to relocate the bird and only hearing it for a couple of times, we moved on. We had a look at the Mitzpe Ramon park for the ochrorus Black Redstart I had had there two weeks ago, and were surprised to find a different, striking Black Redstart. This bird has a very prominent wing patch. However, this bird is too striking to be anything else than an Eastern Black Redstart. It has so much orange on the belly, sharply demarcated against a grey band across the lower breast. The mantle is very dark, and extensive black on the face and throat. Very interesting bird that needs more studying.

When we arrived at Nafha it was already pretty late and hot, thus we were very surprised to bump into this stunning Wolf, walking out in the open, quite indifferent to our presence. It has acquired an impressive winter coat already. My best ever views of a wolf.

Birding was quite good, and we regretted for leaving this site last for this morning. I had very brief flight views of a 'black thrush', that was either a Ring Ouzel or a Blackbird. I got the impression of paler wing flashes, and it gave a very thrush-like call, unlike a Blackbird. However it disappeared, and despite intensive searching (an ouzel would have been a lifer for Re'a) we never saw it again.

Lots of Mourning Wheatears today: