Ma'agan Michael

On Wednesday I had a day at Ma'agan Michael with meetings and stuff. I had little time for birding before and between and after the meetings. I'm still hoping to get Great Shearwater this winter - my IL bogey bird (nine records...) therefore I spend any time I can scanning the sea. That early morning at MM the wind was blowing from the wrong direction and there was lots of rain, so seawatching conditions weren't good. But the sea and the skies and the rainbow were dramatic and beautiful.

Because I had nothing better to do I spent my time checking gull legs. All I could find were two Slender-bills ringed by Yosef in Atlit. This one was ringed in April 2020.

With Sandwich Terns:

Pallas's Gulls are developing their black hood and are looking damn sexy:

Later my team joined me and me met up with a TV crew. We dragged them seawatching with us which was fun in the masochistic way:

The sea didn't improve much birdwise, still we had a couple of Med Gulls, a Parasitic Jaeger and an Arctic Skua.

Mediterranean Gull

Parasarctic Jaekua

Over the sand dunes flew around many swallows hawking for insects. One bird almost gave us a heart attack until we figured out it is a partially-leucistic Barn Swallow:

In one of the fishponds four Little Gulls were hanging out. They are such adorable birds, these wee gulls, with their little bills. The adult plumage is very attractive with that dark underwing:

Those snowy wingtips 💗

I find the first plumage very beautiful too

Fluttering over the water like a Wilson's Storm-Petrel

400

Those of you who have been following my Big Year effort might have noticed that until October I was doing well but not very optimistic about reaching 400. November was an amazing month, bringing me to 397. December was hard-going - my target, to reach 400, wasn't going to be easy to achieve. I had a Goshawk on Har Amasa on December 3rd (398), I twitched Israel's second Firecrest near Birya on 11th (399). Yesterday, a Red-breasted Merganser was seen off Acre - I couldn't go. This morning I was there early with Jonathan. The sea was rough and beautiful, there were many birds around, but no merganser! I played around with some Rooks, uncommon in Israel:

Eventually, after a proper search, I spotted the merganser swimming quietly at sea, beyond the surf line - boom! I quickly called Jonathan over - we were both super pumped:

Red breasted Merganser makes 400 species for the year! Very happy for you @yoavperlman brother, massive total! @BirdLifeIsrael pic.twitter.com/R8Cr8gLGAF

— Jonathan Meyrav (@JMeyrav) December 19, 2021

Eventually the merganser moved in a bit, and began fishing in the surf, still too distant for proper photography (unlike the showy one that shared the beach with Israel's first and only Snow Bunting, back in 2013).

What a great bird to reach 400 with. And the best feeling to share the moment with my brother Jonathan (who's on 392 currently!) - we saw so many of my 400 together.

Before leaving we spent some time seawatching, two Med Gulls being the best (eBird checklist here).

Mediterranean Gull 1cy with Armenian Gull 4cy (I think)

Blogging debts

With all the roller excitement, a few birding activities from recent days have been left out. Maybe not as exciting as a first for Israel, but birding has certainly been good. On Thursday, a few hours before news of the roller broke, I went birding with Meidad in Tel Aviv before our staff meeting at our headquarters. Early on we birded Hatzuk Beach coastal scrub, which was alright despite a noticeable departure of migrants. There were still plenty of shrikes, wheatears and warblers.

Typical Tel Aviv urban birding scene - Eastern Black-eared Wheatear, Northern Wheatear and Whinchat:

There were some young Honey Buzzards flying around - presumably birds that crossed over the Mediterranean. Much smaller numbers do this compared to the 500K that migrate further east overland, but still there are a few every morning there, often escorted out by the local Hooded Crows:

A few days ago I sold my big lens, ahead of a move to a modern system. More news on this to come. In the meanwhile, I am using my old 400mm f/5.6. I feel a bit crippled by the lack of focal length, and it is not as sharp as the big lens, but the advantages for shooting birds in flight are apparent.

Masked Shrike

Eastern Black-eared Wheatear

We did our best to relocate an Icterine Warbler that had been present for a few days (which I need for my yearlist), without success. eBird checklist for the morning here.

We had little time left for the Pacific Golden Plover that had returned for the third consecutive year to nearby Tel Barukh beach. By the time we got there, the beach was already super busy, so we found the bird roosting exactly at the same quiet spot where I had it last year, through the fence and into the sun.

Supporting cast was this adult male Rueppell's Warbler in nearby scrub. Uncommon in autumn (much scarcer than spring), but this is their time of year, and the coastal scrub patches north of Tel Aviv are certainly a good place for them.

eBird checklist here.

A couple of days earlier, before a meeting, I had a couple of hours to bird Ma'agan Michael with my boss (lucky me, how many people can do that?). The Red Knot was still present, I added Black Tern and Mediterranean Gull to my yearlist, and all in all had a good time. Ma'agan Michael (77 spp) and Ma'ayan Tzvi (57 spp) eBird checklists here and here respectively.

Med Gull with friends

Whiskered Tern

White-winged Tern

Dipedeedooda dipedeeyay

What to do when you dip? Ignore the dip and move on without mentioning it ever again? Or celebrate, masochistically, the birds that were seen other than the one wanted bird? I choose option B of course.

Yesterday was, as James well defined it, 'the best dip in ages'. 

We set off in the middle of the night towards Dorset - a group of busy middle-aged men. We arrived at Ferry Bridge right on time for the Ross's Gull daily appearence. The temperatures were truly Arctic, but the bird did not do what it was supposed to. We were so bored standing around. I started photographing common birds there.

Not a Ross's Gull

Not a Ross's Gull

Not a Ross's Gull

Not a Ross's Gull

There were quite a few Red-breasted Mergansers and summer-plumaged Black-necked Grebes in the bay, and a couple of Shags, but nobody gave a %$£&. Still I photographed them, and Chris typed them into eBird, because we had nothing better to do.

We then spent the rest of the day in pinky's other favourite haunts, without success. RSPB Radipole Lake carpark was a clear gull hotspot, but the little bugger wasn't there either.

Not a Ross's Gull

Not a Ross's Gull

Certainly not a Ross's Gull

Radiploe, and Lodmoor, held nice numbers of Med Gulls. Not as beautiful as White Angel Ross's Gull, it still is a pretty neat beast.

YAA2 (from Serbia probably)

Lodmoor Med demonstrated well how we felt like

Lodmoor held BIG numbers of Snipe - the largest number we saw at one time was 180 birds, flying around in tight flocks like Dunlin. On a normal day I'd be quite chuffed about this.

Lodmoor was quite alright (see our eBird checklists, religiously typed in by Chris, morning and afternoon). I like this reserve, but prefer it when it actually hosts rarities.

The better end of a Teal

Oh Ross's Gull. I dreamed about you since childhood, when I got Peter Grant's first gull book. The obsession grew bigger with every time I saw the Dutch Birding logo.This was one of my main targets in the UK. I had three previous opportunities to twitch this bird, but I didn't go for various good reasons. How much I regret those responsible decisions now.

Many thanks to Mike (who drove most of the way), Chris and James; despite the painful dip, it was a fun day. Certainly a dip to remember.

East Norfolk class of 2017

Went birding with Nick today in East Norfolk. We checked a few sites in unsettled weather - got gloriously wet eventually. Birding was nice but relative highlights were painfully familiar species. Started off at Rush Hill Scrape that was rather empty with high water levels and nothing special.
We arrived at Breydon Water about an hour too late, when the tide was fully up and birds were difficult to see roosting in the tall vegetation. Still great there with large numbers of shorebirds and gulls, including Little Stint, 6 Greenshank, Wood Sand, 1 Barwit, 10 Whimbrel, Grey Plover and 70 Med Gulls. As always, birds at Breydon are very distant. Today the camera stayed in the bag and these photos are phonescoped through Swarovski ATX95.

Part of a 200-strong Avocet flock 

Part of the Med Gull concentration

Before heading back to Norwich we returned to Potter Heigham Marshes. Lovely site but we were somewhat disappointed by the small numbers of short-legged shorebirds. Good to see lots of babies of all sorts - evidently the predator fence did the job. I was never so excited before by two Israeli trash birds - Black-winged Stilts and Cattle Egret. We saw all four baby stilts and one parent; then the egret flew into a tree from a cattle grazing marsh. Boom.

Class of 2017. #4 behind these bushes

Compact-looking Intermediate Heron. Quality

Other highlights were 5 Little Ringed Plover and 3 Garganey. Wow.
Because of the heavy rain few butterflies were on the wing and I don't think I saw a single dragon this morning. Among the more numerous Red Admirals and Painted Ladies we found this female Gatekeeper: