The best show in town

 Sorry for neglecting my blog recently. Busy weeks, lockdown, lots of stuff going on. I have been out daily to marvel at the spectacle of migration, up in the sky and on the ground. It has really been great. However, to my eyes, one of the best shows Israel has to offer is the congregation of fresh-looking desert birds, post post-breeding moult, at desert springs. A while ago I went with Amir to Ein Salvadora, a famous little spring north of Ein Gedi. It holds water year-round, in stunning location, with soaring cliffs and the Dead Sea in the backdrop. It's a tiny spring, just a few drops of water trickling out from a crack in a wall, concealed behind a large Salvadora persica bush. That's enough to attract birds and mammals from far afield. It's not an easy site for photography - one needs to keep a fair distance away from the spring in order not to disturb the animals, and the drinking spot is in deep shade, red light reflecting from the surrounding sandstone rocks.

We climbed up the mountain trail before dawn, to position ourselves at an appropriate spot as soon as birds started to arrive. And they did, in big numbers. All quality. All so pretty and fresh. Those arriving in biggest numbers were Trumpeter Finch - fantastic breeding season for them all over the Israeli desert, so many youngsters around. Hundreds came in to drink, arriving in flocks, normally first perched on the rocks above the spring before descending to the water.

Another dominant species was Striolated Bunting - hundreds came in to drink too. Most were young birds, demonstrating the excellent breeding season they had. 

Sinai Rosefinch is another highly-prized specialty of this site. It is scarcer, and shier, than the other species. They spent more time perched up on the walls above the spring, and chose secluded spots for drinking. Again, most were young birds, adults, especially males in lower proportions. Still, out of the 75 birds in total, quite a few were pink jems.

Trumpeter and rosefinch

Desert Lark came in to drink in hundreds too:

Overhead, a Barbary Falcon cruised above the cliffs, a pair of Common Ravens kronked around, and a lone Long-legged Buzzard circled.

Kronk-kronk!

A large herd of Nubian Ibex came down to drink and hung around the spring. The herd included a dominant bull, showing off his swagger, dominating younger males and chasing after females:

Soon it became too hot for animals and humans, we headed back down to our car and back to civilisation. It certainly felt better up by the spring.

Skyfull of birds

Yesterday early morning I headed over to Ben Shemen forest, to witness the anticipated massive Lesser Spotted eagle take-off. In the previous afternoon massive numbers had been moving until late, so it was expected that they will roost at their traditional roost site. When I got there few eagles were seen perched on treetops. While waiting for the air to heat up and the eagles to take off, I walked around in the adjacent scrub and olive grove, where I enjoyed nice numbers of migrants and some favourite species too:

Eastern Black-eared Wheatear

Tree Pipit

Spotted Flycatcher

Many shrikes around, this male Red-backed Shrike was one of those individuals with some white primary bases:

Masked Shrike

Turkish Meadow Brown

Olive grove and scrub; non-native pine forest in the background where the eagles roost

Then the main show started. When the eagles decided it's warm enough to start searching for thermals, large numbers started pouring over from all directions. The skies were full of birds in all directions. First low, soon they started to gain height using the first thermals of the morning. Some individuals passed very close, allowing the assembled crowd to admire their plumage variation:

Lesser Spotted Eagle, made in 2018

When the thermals started forming very close to where we were positioned, the obligatory 'Whoooo' and 'Wow' were noted.

Soon the eagles were too high for photography, but the continuous stream intensified - many hundreds of eagles that had roosted in the forest were now on the move.

Mixed among them were some other species. There were a fair number of Levant Sparrowhawks, but all larger flocks were very distant and into the sun, so no photos of flocks sadly.

Go Ninja!

This lucky Levant probably made a narrow escape from a Lebanese poacher the day before:

Western Black Kite - 1cy

Dark Booted Eagle (with adult Lesser Spot)

Pale Booted Eagle (with adult Lesser Spot)

Long-legged Buzzard 1cy - possibly a local bird

Other than those species here was a Greater Spotted Eagle, and a group that stood in another spot had an Eleonora's Falcon.

Well that was awesome! Amazing to think that now the birds might be already across the Gulf of Suez after crossing Israel and Sinai. Migration Champions!

Check my full eBird checklist here.

Last days of fieldwork in Spain

I am almost back home, and have a lot of catching-up to do. In the last few days we worked in several sites in Badajoz and Caceres. We visited the SPA of La Albuera in western Badajoz, and were quite depressed to find there a huge vineyard planted right in the middle of the former lekking area. Back in 2015 this was a fantastic site - not anymore unfortunately. This is where the lekking area used to be:

Still quite many Montagu's Harriers there. This stunning male enjoyed the new perches in the early morning light:

We also worked in Campo Lugar which was actually quite beautiful. Large expanses of pastures and traditional cereal fields, and many steppe birds. However, I met a person monitoring grasshoppers there. The joy there is short-lived. In a few days the Extremadura government will send in an army of insect-busters to spray the entire SPA with insecticides, to combat 'grasshopper plagues'. Sad. Re'a did see a Pallid harrier there, most probably the same individual we had had in Sierra de Fuentes a few days earlier.

From there we moved on to a few days of work in Llanos de Trujillo. We were based in Casa Rural El Recuerdo. The plains are vast and beautiful, but densities of steppe birds were relatively low. I had some extra birding experiences there. First, I found this Long-legged Buzzard south of Trujillo on May 16th, a good-looking massive bird. A good national rarity. These are record shots from a huge distance. Here it's on the right, with a Common Buzzard on the left:

It was very shy and kept its distance, but in this long-shot the frontal pattern looks good:

Again, we encountered low densities of steppe birds in Llanos de Trujillo. Only a handful of Little Bustards. Few Great Bustards.

It was very hot

Llanos de Trujillo has phenomenal livestock density, which may be the reason for the few steppe birds. The vultures certainly enjoy all the animals - plenty of dead sheep to feed on. Among the many griffons on a dead sheep, this rogue individual kept me on my toes. Striking bird!

A more standard looking Black Vulture, very low above my head:

Before heading back home to the UK we made time for a cheeky visit to Monfrague - more on that in the next post.