Almost there

The last days of summer (from bird migration perspective) are tough. Things just don't want to get going. First signs of autumn give hope for a flood of migrants soon to arrive, but the River of Birds in the Sky (yo Bill! Miss you bro) is still just an intermittent trickle.
Yesterday I went to Hulda Reservoir where things are building up nicely. Good array of shorebird, some ducks, a few migrant passerines - 72 species in total (eBird checklist here), not too shabby. Savi's Warblers, 12 Collared Pratincloes, Black-tailed Godwit were the highlights. It is not a good site for bird photography - scope job there and I hate digiscoping.
This morning I went to Tal Shahar - Tsor'a with hopes for more early migrants. Started off at Tal Shahar alfalfa and nearby riparian scrub. It was somewhat quiet, but still nice (eBird checklist here). No big highlights - 2 Indian Silverbills were the only birds of interest. I don't know what's their story exactly. They were absent all summer, and they seem regular in autumn. Last year I saw them a few times in my area. Let's see if they show some regularity this autumn too. I managed one horrid flight shot of one, making it look properly rare, like a quality vismig record:

This awful flight shot led to a series of just-as-bad flight shots of other common species:

Asian Black-winged Kite

Pied Kingfisher flying high towards a nest somewhere?

Squak

Syrian Pecker

Turtle Dove numbers were certainly on the increase, congregating post breeding/fledging before migration.

Woodchat Shrike (1cy) - I love this plumage

Large Salmon Arabs were abundant

Inquisitive Golden Jackal

Then I gave Pel'i Reservoir a thorough check, but came back with not so much.

Two more checklists today, day 214/365 of Checklist-a-day challenge, 223 days of checklist streak.

Southern Arava minus birds...

Yesterday (10/10/09) I went scuba diving at Eilat. Before my dive buddy woke up, I had a couple of hours of birding in the traditional birding sites of the southern Arava - Yotvata, Samar and Elifaz.

Contra to the situation in spring, when the whole region is teeming with birds, this period of autumn is actually very boring. It seems that most migrants stop for refueling in central Israel before crossing the vast deserts of N Africa.

So I started birding, with very sentimental memories from March. Both the sewage farm and fields of Yotvata were very empty. Also nothing to photograph, only this 1cy Masked Shrike posed in the early morning sun though too distant:

However, I seem to be having some luck with Red-breasted Flycatchers this season: I had four different birds this morning - one at Yotvata sewage, two in the Samar date plantations, and one obliging individual at Elifaz sewage:

Actually, Elifaz sewage was the only site which had good numbers of birds - it looks quite promising for November, when I'm sure it will host a good sibe. But till then, I had to settle with many acros (all those I saw well were reeds), several Savi's Warblers, Indian Silverbills etc.

So it wasn't too frustrating for me to end the morning's birding and go to Eilat for some diving...