Pacific Diver-Loon!

Wow what a whirlwind of a day. Getting towards the end of the year, it's money time... I decided to go for one last push before the year ends and add a few species to my non-Big-Year list (check my special annual review tomorrow). Several quality birds accumulated near Eilat, waiting for me. With the news of a diver/loon found yesterday, the temptation was too powerful. It was a go. I teamed up with Rony and Arad. We left just after midnight. First part of the night was spent looking successfully for Pharaoh Eagle-Owl - we had wonderful views of a vocal male. Our next nocturnal target was Egyptian Nightjar in Yotvata. Despite being observed there in recent days we had no luck - maybe because it was very cold and pretty windy when we searched there. 

Anyway, we got to Hashalom Lagoon off North Beach in Eilat at dawn. Very quickly we spotted the diver swimming quietly in the lagoon. Forgive me Americans, it's diver from now on.

I got my scope on it, having in mind that yesterday it was identified as Black-throated Diver by Moshe Neeman who found it. But hey, the flanks are all dark - no rear flank white patch... And is this a chinstrap? Nah, can't be. Or can it?

Then the penny dropped and it all kicked in. Pacific Diver!!! Potentially the first for Israel, and what an astonishing record. Because of the enormity of the record, and lack of sufficient experience with both species, I was cautious about releasing the news too quickly. We alerted the Eilat birders, and within a few minutes several local birders joined us. We all watched it very well, swimming and diving for food. We all agreed that it always looked good for pacific, rather small and stocky, weak-billed, pale hindneck, and when it dove it showed the dark line separating the white vent from the white belly. The chinstrap looked stronger and weaker, depending on the angle. 

Interestingly it was loosely associating with an Indian Ocean Humpback Dolphin in the lagoon:

Photo by Shachar Shalev of the vent bar

With positive feedback coming to us from experts in N America and Europe, I released the news nationally, still with an astrix. Later on during the day a global consensus has developed, agreeing that this is the first Pacific Diver for Israel!

Highly elated after this great find, we continued to Nahal Ketura. Rotem Avisar found a male Menetries's Warbler there about a week ago. As soon as we started birding the site I heard it call, and very quickly we had lovely views of a 1cy male Menetries's Warbler. It showed really well and was very vocal, even singing a bit. My photos don't do it justice - it showed exceptionally well. 

I especially enjoyed listening to its subtle song:

And then it was back home - by lunchtime! Thanks to Rony and Arad for a great day out. 

See you tomorrow in my annual review - should be fun.

So long, and thanks for all the birds

After four years living in the UK, my time here is up. In less than two weeks I am heading back to Israel with my family. Amidst all the packing and farewells, I feel I should take some time to summarize the birding journey I went through in the UK.
We as a family, and me personally, had a great time in the UK. I appreciate the opportunity I got to live in this country, and in the fine city of Norwich. We moved to the UK essentially for my PhD studies. However, I tried to do as much birding as could in between all other duties, and I am glad I did. During these four years I had many lovely experiences, not all bird related. Over the course of my stay here, I was fortunate to travel the length and breadth of the UK, visit fantastic locations, meet wonderful people and see brilliant birds. In this post I will highlight the best birding experiences I had in a chronological order since moving here in September 2014.

2014

In October 2014 I had my first taste of east coast birding, with a good migrant fall along the north coast of Norfolk. This was also my first date with James. With Red-flanked Bluetail, Radde's Warbler and a self-found Little Bunting, this was sure to develop into a deeper relationship...

In November I enjoyed a typical seawatch in northerlies, that produced good numbers of fantastic Little Auks:

On a frozen late December day I headed up to West Yorkshire to see my first WP Blyth's Pipit:

2015

In the early part of 2015 my birding slowed down a bit, but I did enjoy wildlife spectacles in the form of high-tide roost on The Wash, at RSPB Snettisham in late January.

February went by without much birding, while in March I managed to get one WP tick in the form of Iceland Gull.

In late March and early April I first did some fieldwork in Iberia and then visited Israel. Back in the UK, I twitched the Isles of Scilly for the first time, for a Great Blue Heron than lingered on Bryher:

In late May we visited the Yorkshire coast for the first time, spending time with friends in Flamborough, RSPB Bempton Cliffs, and Filey. My friendship with the late and sorely missed Martin Garner, Mark and Amity, and many other local birders, strengthened my connection with this beautiful part of the UK.

Summer 2015 was rather slow, but in July I twitched a long-staying Greater Yellowlegs at Titchfield Haven in Hampshire.

In September birding certainly picked up. First, a quick-response twitch to Dungeness connected me with what was the rarest WP bird I saw in the UK, Acadian Flycatcher, and my first yankee landbird in the WP:

In late September I headed up to Shetland for a fabulous week with Martin, Sharon, Roger and Paul. Birding was a bit hard-going but I did see a wet Pechora Pipit, and self-found a Blyth's Reed Warbler two hours after I started birding:

2016

I know this isn't quite the UK, but in January 2016 I did my first and only Euro twitch, for the popular Siberian Rubythroat in a quiet Dutch village - such a fine bird that it had to make an appearance in this summary:

Winter 2015/16 ended without further drama; in spring I went to Israel again and then to British Columbia. Birding back home was pretty slow. Towards the end of May I enjoyed a brilliant Firecrest in James's garden. Not a big rarity, but what a cracker!

In June things picked up a bit with two WP ticks in Suffolk (Greenish Warbler and Blue-winged Teal) and a superb Great Knot at Titchwell on the North Norfolk coast:

 

In July Suffolk provided me with another WP tick, a Baird's Sandpiper at RSPB Minsmere:

In August I headed down to Kent for the returning Bonaparte's Gull at Oare Marshes:

Autumn 2016 was one to remember, and I was lucky to enjoy some of the headline birds along the East Coast. In October I headed up to East Yorkshire twice, first for the beautiful Eastern Crowned Warbler that showed superbly at Bempton Cliffs, and then for the first mainland Siberian Accentor at Spurn, amidst a brilliant migrant fall on the peninsula:

Towards the end of the month I was part of a group that found an Isabelline Wheatear at Burnham Overy Dunes (well, Dave found it and we just joined in):

In November action did not end. First, back to Minsmere it was for a lovely Cliff Swallow:

I really enjoyed my first proper Waxwing fix, with nice numbers in Norwich:

In early December I saw my final major rarity of 2016. I visited Derbyshire for the exciting Dusky Thrush in the small village of Beeley:

2017

2017 started with a bang - within a few January weeks I had three WP ticks - Pacific Diver and Black Scoter in Northumberland, and White-billed Diver in Lincolnshire - what a fine bird:

The tail end of the winter went by without further drama in the UK, and I went to India for a couple of weeks in February. Then I spent most of the spring doing fieldwork in Iberia. Back in the UK in June, I headed down to RSPB Pagham Harbour for the Elegant Tern:

In August I went up to Shetland with my family, where we had a lovely time with friends. Wildlife highlight was not a rare bird, but a heart-pounding encounter with Orcas:

In September I returned to Spurn Migfest. Among the many wildlife spectacles and experiences at this special event, headline bird was a Long-billed Dowitcher:

In mid-month I headed down to Dorset to twitch two storm-driven shorebirds at RSPB Lodmoor - Stilt and Least Sandpipers:

Towards the end of the month I worked hard to eventually see one of my most-wanted birds, found by my pub-mate Stu - Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler at Burnham Overy. No photos of it (I was lucky to see it at all); an Arctic Warbler nearby was a bit more obliging:

The rest of autumn 2017 was a complete opposite to autumn 2016 - weather was awful (for birding) and there were basically no birds along the east Coast. In November I visited Israel briefly, and soon after my return I saw several Parrot Crossbills along the border between Suffolk and Norfolk, in Thetford Forest.

Best bird of December was a lovely, frosty Coues's Arctic Redpoll in NE Norfolk:

2018

Half of the additions to my WP list in 2018 included American shorebirds. In late January I connected with the sweet-looking Spotted Sandpiper in Nottinghamshire:

In February I traveled in South Africa for a couple of weeks which was brilliant. A huge storm in late February brought in a welcome visitor from the Arctic - a fantastic Snowy Owl on the beach at Titchwell:

In March I headed to Israel again, for Champions of the Flyway. After submitting my PhD thesis I had more time but there were not too many birds to see, sadly. Very slow spring migration, and few rarities. In April and May I had luck with two American herons - American Bittern at SWT Carlton Marshes, and Green Heron in SW Wales:

In June I (most probably) self-found a Paddyfield Warbler on Blakeney Point, and later on added another most-wanted species to my list, that showed up exactly as I had anticipated it (albeit in horrible conditions for photography) -a lovely Buff-breasted Sandpiper at Potter Heigham:

In July I traveled in Sweden for a week with my family, and just before the month ended and my birding time in the UK was up I added a last-minute WP tick - Semipalmated Sandpiper at RSPB Snettisham.

Now it's time for some credits and thanks. When I moved to the UK, Martin Garner helped me a lot. One of the most amazing gifts he left behind is links and relationships he helped in formation. Martin recommended that I get in touch with James Lowen. I did, and we became close friends. James was my partner in crime in many of the above twitches. Martin casually invited Mark and Amity to meet me in his garden in Flamborough - what a deep friendship grew out of that first meeting. Thank you again, Martin. 

In this post I wrote 'I headed here' and 'I traveled there' but of course that's not accurate - I almost always birded with good friends. Nick, Mike, Quentin, Phil, Dave, Jake and Drew are just a few of the many generous, lovely people I was lucky to meet here. Thank you all!

So this is it. It has been one hell of a ride. Saw lots of good birds, never stopped learning and had many a laugh. But now it's time to move on. So long, and thanks for all the birds.

Loonacy

(I know James used this title a few days ago, but copyright is actually mine...)
This morning I left home at ridiculous o'clock to meet up with Alison and Chris. Our plan was a 5-diver-spp day and bonus Black Scoter. Our first destination was Druridge Bay Country Park in Northumberland for the Pacific Diver. I have a bit of a bad history with this species. In late April 2015, before boarding the Scillonian to twitch the Great Blue Heron, I scanned the bay and failed to find the diver there. Next day it was seen. A few months later, I had a seat in a car that went and saw it, but I couldn't go. So when this Northumberland star started performing, showing 'slightly' better than the Penzance bird, I understood that this is an opportunity I was not going to give up. Despite the long drive.
And a long drive it was! We forged through Newcastle traffic to arrive on site before 9, when the light improved and positive news already relaxed our tension. We got on the bird immediately, as it foraged offshore the visitor centre. What a great start to the day! WP tick #1. It was showing well all the time we were there, but not really close enough for proper photos. But I cannot complain.

Pacific Diver - 2cy. Nice solid dark flanks, lacking rear flank patch of black-throated

At some angles, chinstrap was sort of evident... I have seen more convincing chinstraps in my life, but hey-ho. We traveled so far to see it, so no doubts please...

At some angles, head shape was not so round... But forehead is steep and bill is petite.

Here the massive dark flank and vent bar is evident:

And then it was time to move on. Nice to see Tree Sparrows and Bullfinches in the feeders at the carpark

Druidge Bay Country Park

Our next target was the male Black Scoter at Goswick, about an hour north. We headed straight east from the golf club carpark. We joined some birders already on site, but there was no sign of him this morning. We worked hard, scanning back and forth. There were tons of seaducks, and there was clearly stuff moving around, but no show. The sun was bright and brilliant, and the frontal views of yellow bills of male Common Scoters fooled us, but no sign of the real deal. We split after a while, I went south, also to try and photograph a 2cy Glaucous Gull that didn't cooperate, and I scanned the south side of the bay. Nada. 

Glaucous Gull 2cy - phonescoped through Swarovski ATX95

Then, after several hours of searching (which meant we had no chance to get to the White-billed Diver / Yellow-billed Loon in Lincolnshire on time), I got a call from Alison that they had found our bird further north. I hurried to join them and the bird was showing well, albeit distant. WP tick #2! It was swimming with other male scoters (interesting to see single-sex flocks of scoters), and oh boy, that yellow bulge was huge! And it was nice and black too. Great bird and really satisfying to see it after working pretty hard - somewhat more challenging than the Druidge diver.

Black Scoter (right) with Common Scoter (left)

Looking north from Goswick - Berwick-upon-Tweed in the distance

Supporting cast was absolutely fantastic. Hundreds of Long-tailed Ducks and Red-throated Divers, nice numbers of Eiders and Red-breasted Megansers. Quality birds included an out-of-season Manx Shearwater, 4 Slavonian and 1 Red-necked Grebe, 3 Great Northern and 2 Black-throated Divers, and 4 flyover Twite. See my eBird checklist here.

Then it was the L O N G drive back. Many thanks to Alison and Chris for the good company and for the driving. The White-billed Diver will have to wait for another day. Now it's time to get some sleep. Good night.