Day and night

Last night I decided to take advantage of the abundance of waders and small moon; I organized a good team (Yotam, Ora, Hiller, Shlomo and Yosef) and we went mistnetting in the muddy Ashdod ponds. Night conditions were different from the morning, with fewer and more scattered birds, but the main pool was still good enough. we set our nets up quickly and by dusk everything was ready. We kept going until 23:00. We didn't catch too many birds, but we had a very good variety. Commonest species of course was Little Stint. I was happy to catch the single Broad-billed Sandpiper I saw in the morning. Such a great bird! Its bill is so unique.

Broad-billed Sandpiper

Another good bird for these inland ponds was this juv Turnstone. Again, I had only one in the morning, and we managed to trap it!

In the morning I did not see any Kentish Plovers at all, but we caught one - an adult.

Kentish Plover

We had one adult Dunlin too, losing its black belly:

Though present in large numbers, we had only two Ringed Plovers:

Of the tringas we had one Redshank:

And four Wood Sandpipers:

And this Spur-winged Plover added some colour:

Not quite a bird, this Kuhl's Pipistrelle was a real sweety:

After a short sleep, I returned in the early to my CES for 'normal' ringing. It was pretty good, with Willow Warblers dominating the catch. Two Tree Pipits were nice:

Early morning migrants included many Ortolans and Tree Pipits.

Nitzanim birding

Today I checked Nitzanim coastal reserve (south of Ashdod) together with Jonathan Meyrav. It was hot and sunny again, and we made a late start, so probably missed many sibes by the time we got there. While waiting for Jonathan I watched this White Stork preening. This bird was ringed by Yosef Kiat in September.

When we reached Nitzanim, we drove past an open field packed with pipits, wagtails and skylarks. There was one Richard's Pipit that got us alerted as it was a rather small and delicate individual, until we heard its 'chirp!' flight call. It was very shy and didn't allow even a record shot. The main pipit was Red-throated Pipit - about 100 birds.

Red-throated Pipit (adult)

Red-throated Pipit (1cy)

We birded the coastal sand dunes and scrub. Didn't see too much. There were hundreds of Chiffchaffs - an impressive wave is passing through Israel these days, but no wingbars at all... Other than that several Northern Wheatears and two Desert Wheatears - quite a few of this scarce migrant were seen along the Med coast during the last week or two.

Desert Wheatear

In a coastal lagoon there were many plovers - 100 Ringed Plovers, 50 Kentish Plovers, 2 Greater Sand Plovers and a single Sanderling.

Kentish Plovers

Greater Sand Plover (1cy)

Ringed Plover