Up and down and around

Over the last few days I have been out and about a bit. It is such an exciting time of year to be out birding. The thrill of seeing fresh migrants, first for the season, keeps me going year after year. It never bores.

On Saturday morning (March 2nd) I went birding with Piki to sniff some early migrants in Arsuf, north of Tel Aviv. The habitat was lovely, flowers aplenty. There's a patch of Coastal Iris there, which is endemic to Israel and Critically Endangered. Sexy. 

There were quite many wheatears about, including an outstanding total of four Desert Wheatears. They are scarce or even rare migrants along the Med coast. Looking so beautiful in the early morning sun, with an atypical green background.

Flushed from its favourite perch by the powerful Isabelline Wheatear

Tuesday morning (March 5th) I had a meeting at the Jerusalem Bird Observatory. The secret in scheduling morning meetings is to start at a time that leaves sufficient birding time beforehand. Before the meeting I checked two sites in Jerusalem that are hosting fine birds. First, Jerusalem's Botanical Gardens, the same site that hosted Israel's first Chinese Pond-Heron in 2021. In the past few weeks a very cooperative Redwing has taken up residence in the gardens and has become a bit of a celebrity, mainly because it is showing so well, unusually for such a scarce and shy bird in Israel (normally). Indeed, it showed on its favourite Pyracantha bush. In my case it was actually a bit shy and didn't show very well but I can't complain. 

Next stop was Australia Gardens, on the slopes of Mt. Herzl. It's actually a section of the Jerusalem Forest, afforested with non-native pines and cypress trees. However, now when everything is lush and flowering, the habitat looked quite attractive and indeed there were tons of birds there. Gabriel Cedar and Shalem Kurman, to excellent young birders, found there a flock of Olive-backed Pipits a couple of weeks ago. OBP is a very rare winter visitor, though this past winter has been quite good for them. In any case such a flock in central Israel is very welcome. Straight away I heard the pipits giving their tiny 'pip' call but it took me a while to locate them. Eventually I had nice views of them flying between the trees, occasionally dropping down to the ground to forage. However they were difficult to photography well.

Listen to the amount of birdsong in this sound recording:

From the highest peaks of Jerusalem to the lowest place on earth. Later that evening I joined a group of researchers from Tel Aviv University working on Pallid Scops-Owls. We trapped and ringed three individuals, and heard another one or two, in one corner of a date plantation near the Dead Sea. Discovered to breed in Israel less than a decade ago, it still is fascinating to see Pallid Scops-Owls in such densities. Very special birds, in special settings.

Only few hours after the night shift had ended, I found myself in Kfar Ruppin, admiring our newest restored reservoir, in partnership with the kibbutz. It's a large, amazing reservoir, always so attractive to birds and other wildlife - a great and welcome addition to our Start-Up Nature project. Yesterday morning the reservoir was packed with birds, as always. A flock of pelicans graced the reservoir, tons of ducks, shorebirds, raptors, passerines. In two and a half hours I saw in the reservoir and around it 104 species, so much quality, check the eBird checklist here.

I went live on Facebook when I was there (until I was interrupted by a local guy who asked for some photography advice):

The Magic Puddle

Yesterday I had meetings in Eilat, talking about monitoring there with Noam and the IBRCE team.  Left home super early to do some birding, with rarity finding on my mind. As always, this mental approach didn't really work... Started off at Neot Smadar. At first it was cold and pretty birdless. Only this inquisitive Red Fox scrutinized me from some distance.

When the sun came up, bird activity increased a little, nothing huge. I walked the alfalfa fields hoping to lush a rare pipit. First found only common ones.

Caucasian Water Pipit

Tree Pipit

Then my morning was partially salvaged by a familiar call from a pipit flying towards me - Olive-backed Pipit! It flew over me calling a few times and disappeared in the off-limits kibbutz. Too quick for a photo or sound recording. I was hoping for a bigger pipit, but I had to settle with this one. Better than nothing I guess. Encouraged a bit, I kept on walking both in the fields and at the sewage farm, but came up with little else. eBird checklists are here (fields) and here (sewage).

Next stop was Yotvata. Itai Shanni was there earlier and reported larger numbers of birds on the recently-ploughed northern circular field. It was birdy indeed but most birds were distant in the large field, and most were doves... I noticed better activity at a small puddle, attracting many birds. I parked my car appropriately in relation to distance and angle, and started waiting. Soon the birds came in, and I enjoyed lovely 45 minutes, with many and different birds coming in to drink. Shooting birds on the ground out of the car window is not ideal, but I can't complain...

There was a flock of about 40 Desert Finches on the field. At first they were distant - quite pleased with my new camera (canon 7D km2) focusing on them at a distance:

Then they started trickling towards the water:

Nice numbers of Red-throated Pipits in various plumages came in for a splash too:

2cy+, probably male

1cy

1cy, slightly more advanced

1cy Western Yellow Wagtail

One of many Spanish Sparrows, this is an adult male

Corn Bunting

Northern Wheatear

There were a few skylarks around. At first some Eurasian Skylark came in for a drink:

Up to 10 Oriental Skylarks have been seen there in recent days. Where I was sat I had two or three. They kept their distance when I was there - one did come in to drink briefly but buzzed off as soon as I pointed my camera on it. These photos are all large crops in unattractive setting, yet they illustrate some important ID features, including longer, thinner bill, lighter breast streaking, buffy belly and short primary projection.

Oriental Skylark 

eBird checklist here.

At IBRCE between meetings there were a few nice birds, including Steppe Eagles on migration and a Bittern on the lake. eBird checklist here.

Eurasian Cranes

On my way back home after the meetings I visited Ovda Valley. I failed to relocate the two returning rare wheatears, but enjoyed some beautiful desert serenity.

Patch OBP!

If I was super-chuffed to find a Richard's Pipit on my local dog-walk patch a few days ago, I can report that today I am mega-chuffed. My routine dog walk along wadi Ekron near my house started well with a distinct wave of Red-backed Shrikes - 4 birds right outside my house; then it got better by finding my first Spotted Crake for the patch:

A couple of minutes later I heard a familiar call, saw a pipit approaching from the north - Olive-backed Pipit! Got on it through the bins while I tried to reach my phone to sound-record it, but it was too quick. Managed to see a bold head pattern, and plain greenish mantle as it flew away. It did not drop down but continued to fly on low, disappearing between the houses. I spent some time trying to relocate it without success. I was over the moon - while Richard's Pipit is a fine bird but 'only' scarce, OBP is a proper national rarity and a local patch classic. I am so happy that my local patch delivers quality so quickly. Sadly no documentation for now - hope it reappears in the next few days.
The rest of the dog walk was actually pretty good, for the site. Wryneck was sweet, and I am happy to welcome Bluethroat and Chiffchaff - both species were first noted on my walk yesterday. Check my eBird checklist here.

Shame about the reed across the breast

Frontier birding!

Two examples of how useful it is to have your phone with you while spending time with family:

On January 21st I went walking with my younger son in the eucalyptus forest behind my house. I had a pipit high in the canopy, and without my bins I could see nothing on it. It gave some calls that were OK for Olive-bcked Pipit - but I wasn't sure as they were of the more difficult tree-pipit-like type. I got a terrible recording with my phone - but it was good enough for Martin Garner to confirm it was an OBP - village tick of course. How cool is that? This is what MG wrote: "The pitch reaches up to 8 kHz and has fading quality to it - just like an OBP. Tree Pipit pitches around 7 kHz and has strongly modulated end with less fading", Thanks Martin - also for the sonogram.

Olive-backed Pipit, Nir Moshe, Israel, 21 January 2013

And then, this afternoon I was having a picnic in the same forest near my house. Again, no bins. Just before heading home in the afternoon, heard a Hume's Warbler calling from a nearby Carob tree. I couldn't see the bird but got the phone out again - slightly better quality this time (thanks Barak). Again, village tick! Will try to see it tomorrow.

Hume's Warbler, Nir Moshe, Israel, 9 February 2013

OBP's!

This morning I went to Elkana, a small town east of Tel Aviv. Netanel Kave found three Olive-backed Pipits there almost two weeks ago, in a small park in the middle of town. The birds were showing nicely this morning. They are such neat birds. Their behaviour is really unique, very tame and very shy at the same time, in a very typical OBP manner - walking very low in the grass, flying up to trees. Photography was not easy - bad light (I really need a proper flash) and obscuring grass. But I cannot complain. OBP's are still pretty rare in Israel. I guess that these birds will overwinter there.

Olive-backed Pipits

 

  

Urban birding - Israeli style

Their calls are very sweet and typical - these soft contact calls and semi-harsh alarm calls. I managed to get this recording using my phone, here hosted by Xeno-canto:

Thanks Amir for the directions.

Pallid beauty

This morning I went with Jonathan to bird in the Eilat area. Our first mission was to see the Grey Hypocolius found by Barak Granit a few days ago near the IBRCE. We searched for it for a long time but at first with no success. We worked the nearby date plantation, in which we had an Olive-backed Pipit. I heard a very interesting Phylloscopus calling several times. It first sounded to me like an odd humei call, but after consulting with my iPod I found it closely matching proregulus! The bird was very mobile and stayed high in the canopies. I kept losing it, even with the help of Itai and Jonathan. I had a glimpse of it flying from treetop to treetop - it was tiny but I could get no plumage details. Eventually we gave up on it, but if a pallas's gets found tomorrow then it's mine!

We returned to the IBRCE, and soon after we had a few brief encounters with this beautiful bird. Unfortunately it was very shy and jumpy, and kept disappearing in the thick vegetation of the IBRCE. lucky I managed a couple of shots. I was very happy to see it - haven't seen one for many years.

Grey Hypocolius - male

While searching for the hypo I had quite a few Indian Silverbills:

We continued to Yotvata fields. In the southern field I had two Richard's Pipits, male Hooded Wheatear and a few Crag Martins. No sign of the recent rarities (Blyth's pipit and Little Bunting), but it was nice to see the couple of Hoopoe Larks that have been hanging around in the field for a week or so. Bizarre to see them feeding like Crested Larks in the dry field. I am used to find them in the remotest corners of our desert. Part of the time they were feeding with a small group of Ringed Plovers - interesting combo.

Hoopoe Lark

In the northern fields we enjoyed (too?) good views of two first-winter White-fronted Geese. The white forehead is quite developed for a youngster, but the lack of barring on the underparts and dark tip to bill indicate these are young birds.

White-fronted Goose

There was considerable size difference between both birds, but the small one was not small enough...

This seems to be a good season for white-fronts in Israel, with small groups recorded in several sites all over the country.

Other nice birds in the field were 1 Oriental Skylark and a couple of Caucasian Stonechats.

Caucasian Stonechat