Northern clean-up

While spending a few days up in the north, I had time for some birding, including a clean sweep of northern rarities, now safely nestled in my 2021 yearlist. 

Israel's first Wilson's Phal that nearly gave me a heart attack when it was found, is spending the winter in tranquility in the Bet She'an Valley. Now relocated to Kfar Ruppin fishponds, it chose a wonderful pond full of birds.

Avocets with Jordanian backdrop

Nice flock of 19 White-winged Terns in summer plumage

Floating solar panels installed on nearby large reservoirs, functioning as comfy perches for birds

Up on the cold and windy Golan Heights, the Lesser White-fronted Goose is still around

Pure gold

Long-billed Pipit in Susita

Two Fire-fronted Serins still on Mt. Bental, with Euro Serins

בוקררררררר ברמת הגולן
Frosty morning on the Golan Heights pic.twitter.com/yq55dSAAmQ

— Yoav Perlman (@yoavperlman) January 24, 2021

Tons of storks, kites and starlings at Tovlan landfill site in the Jordan Valley:

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! 

Three days

Again, some stuff has piled up on my computer-desk, that needs clearing.
On Monday I had a chance to meet up with Nils who's doing a Big Bat Year, passing through Israel. With two hours to spare, I decided to check wadi Bet Arif near the airport that was actually quite good despite the heat. Migration was on, both on the ground and overhead, and local birds played ball too. Nils even had a mammal lifer (Mountain Gazelle) and a few bird lifers. Rather unexpected was this 2cy Bonelli's Eagle:

Long-billed Pipit

Locally-produced Blue Rock Thrush

eBird checklist here.

Yesterday was Election Day so I had the day off. In the morning I birded with Re'a the alfalfa field and reservoir near Tal Shahar, which was fantastic, as expected at this time of year. Numbers and diversity were really great. Highlights were a Richard's Pipit, Pallid Harrier and 90 species within three hours. eBird checklist here.

Chirp!

This young Peregrine bombed past us, too quick for me to focus

Lots of Savi's everywhere

Alfalfa fields are packed with wagtails and pipits now. In turn, the abundance of potential prey attracts harriers. We had three young Montys (one pictured here) and a blondie Pallid foraging very actively over the field early one before taking off.

This morning I worked with Sivan from NPA north of Ashdod. Highlights were an Oystercatcher and two Whimbrel, and Desert Wheatear among many other wheatears. eBird checklist here.

Not alboxillaris

Northern Wheatears

Lovely Whinchat

Still trying to find out what this dragonfly is

My eBird checklist streak is regaining speed, 35 days now.

Global Big Day

Yesterday I teamed up with Jonathan and Re'a to take part in Global Big Day. Our plan was to record as many species as possible, and also to connect with some specialties that are less likely to get recorded elsewhere. We did not plan our route too carefully, as this was not a competition but a challenge, and we were prepared to adjust and be spontaneous if necessary. Still, our plan was pretty ambitious - it included cross-country, night-to-night birding. I set off after 02:00 to meet up with the others. Just outside my town a European Nightjar was sat on the road - good start! We then drove al the way up to the Hula Valley. In Ayelet Hashachar we had a vocal family of Tawny Owls, but failed to find other owls. Luckily Jonathan had scops and long-eared before we met up.

Tawny Owl

We were joined by Hula-man Nadav for an hour of dawn birding at Agamon Hula which was pretty sweet. 76 species, highlights included White-tailed Eagle, Black Francolin, Marbled Duck, Golden Oriole, Spotted Crake and many more (eBird checklist here). Perhaps most impressive was a phenomenal roost take-off of Sand Martins. We VERY conservatively estimated 20K, but in the car quietly suggested six-figures. Quite a spectacle. A jungle Cat that trotted along in front of our car at dawn was sweet too.

From there it was up to Mt. Hermon. We first birded the slope above Majdal Shams. We clocked on first Hermon specialties quickly, most importantly Syrian Serin that I don't think was recorded elsewhere in the world. This area was also productive for quality migrants - Barred Warbler and Wood Warbler. eBird checklist here.

Wood Warbler

As soon as the military checkpoint opened up we sped up the mountain towards the lower cable station. We did a quick, clean sweep of Hermon specialties, including Western Rock Nuthatch and Sombre Tit (eBird checklist here). Even though we rushed it, it was still fantastic to take in the breathtaking scenery and cool temperatures at this altitude, where spring blossom has not diminished yet.

Rock Bunting

Too close

Next stop was at Susita, overlooking Lake Kineret. We quickly found there Long-billed Pipit and other batha specialties, and enjoyed a bit of raptor migration (eBird checklist here). During the entire Big Day we never connected with proper raptor migration - shame. Then it was on to Kfar Ruppin in the Bet Shean Valley. By then it was scorching hot and bird activity was relatively low. Took us a while till we found a good fishpond that contained many shorebirds, though variety was somewhat minimal ('only' 60 species in an hour of birding). Roller, Osprey, Curlew Sands were some notable birds - eBird checklist here.

Then it was the long, exhausting drive all the way to Ein Gedi. We easily found almost all desert birds we looked for - Fan-tailed raven, Barbary Falcon, Sand Partridge, Arabian Babbler etc. (eBird checklist here). Things were looking pretty good!

Fan-tailed Raven

We ended our daytime birding with two wetlands in the southern Dead Sea region - Heimar reservoir (Dead Sea Sparrow etc., eBird checklist here), and beautiful Navit Pools that were productive as ever - African Swamphen, Blue-cheeked Bee-eater, shorebirds etc. (eBird checklist here).

Stonking male Dead-Sea Sparrow

Brilliant Arabian Green Bee-eater

Too close - see below

After dusk we efficiently connected with two iconic nightbirds - Nubian Nightjar and Desert Owl (is it the first time ever Tawny and Desert Tawny were sen in one day?) - a fitting end to an epic day. 

Our cumulative total was 164 species - Jonathan missed few species Re'a and me saw before meeting up, and vice versa (my personal total was 160). It was so much fun - good, solid birding all day long. Our route was a bit extreme - I drove 870 km, and of course we ran out of time and had to skip one site (Mt. Amasa). But all in all I think we did pretty well. As in any Big Day, we missed many silly birds (such as Great White Pelican, Scrub Warbler), saw few birds we hadn't expected (Wood Warbler), enjoyed bird-rich sites and casual flybys and 100 kmph gifts (Raven, Little Swift) - that's what Big Days are made of.

A few thanks to summarize:

Jonathan, Re'a and Nadav - you guys rock. I thoroughly enjoyed spending the day with you, we never stopped laughing and our spirits were high throughout (when you were awake...). Thank you!

eBird Central organized this amazing event - I feel privileged to work with you guys and call some of you my friends.

Swarovski Optik - thanks, as always, for giving me the opportunity to use your supreme optics, that certainly made the difference.

See you in #GBD2020!

Spring fun

Yesterday morning I worked in Wadi Bet Arif, very close to Ben Gurion airport. I had a productive morning - lovey spring atmosphere with flowers, beautiful weather, good breeding activity and fine migration. Among the priority breeding species, Long-billed Pipit was most prominent - it's song was a continuous soundtrack of my walk. One of my favourite breeding birds; quality.

I managed to read the ring of this one - ringed by Yosef in 2016.

Other priority species, summer migrants, were present still in low densities:

Woodchat Shrike, singing softly

Blonde Eastern Black-eared Wheatear

After 08:00, typically, Sylvias woke up and showed in fair numbers and decent diversity. Star was Rueppell's Warbler - I had four including two males that were super showy. Smashing birds.

Lovely site - so close to the populated center of the country, yet such quality habitat, mammals and birds.

Mountain Gazelles

Looking west towards the Big Smoke - Tel Aviv in the distance

eBird checklist here.