Good old friend

Yesterday Piki and I paid a visit to a good old friend, Goldy, the Tel Aviv Pacific Golden-Plover. This individual bird has been returning to the same busy strip of coastal rocks for its eighth winter. Since 2017, when it was first found by Ilan Moriyah, it normally arrives in mid September, and stays until early March. Over the years, this bird has witnessed the adjacent landscape changing dramatically. In its early years, across the coastal promenade, an active airport was still in operation, Sde Dov. Back then, when the beach became too busy and disturbed by humans and dogs, the bird went to rest and roost in the open spaces buffering the runways, with other shorebirds. Check the blogpost from my first encounter with it, when I was attended by airport security trying to photograph it inside the airport ground. The airport stopped operating in 2019; a couple of years later development started in the abandoned land. Now it's all dug up with huge land works taking place. 

Over the years, Goldy has become fully accustomed to human disturbance on one of Tel Aviv's busiest beaches. In its early years it was quite skittish. Now Goldy is a true performer, so confident and relaxed. Piki and I found it first thing, before sunrise, on the exposed vermetid reef with a few more shorebirds. We sat down quietly, no hide or camouflage needed. The bird approached us, very calm, and did its thing, which was mainly foraging for little crabs and other invertebrates living on the rocks, resting and preening, waves crashing on the rock behind it. 

The sun rose behind the tall buildings of Tel Aviv, its early rays adding a beautiful golden tone to Goldys' feathers. 

After a long wait for it to complete its preening and grooming session, it finally agreed to stretch its wings for us, exposing the grey-brown axillaries. What. a. bird.

Spot that one tiny shed feather

Stretch!

Of course, with all the justified admiration to Goldy, it would be rude to ignore its neighbours. 

There were two Greater Sand-Plovers on the same rock, and another two further south. In the background of this photo is the tip of a sea kayak passing close by.

Two cute and round Common Ringed-Plovers shared that same rock too:

Several kingfishers, Common and Pied, were fishing around the rocks:

In the air that was little active migration of wagtails and pipits. Several White Wagtails were jumping on the rocks, happily chasing after insects:

A couple of graceful, fearless Little Egrets came in too close for a photo of their complete body:

Thanks to Piki for an enjoyable morning session, despite all the horrible news creeping in from all directions, threatening to shatter our nature-healing bubble.

Local PGP

Yesterday Carmel Ravid found a stunning summer-plumaged Pacific Golden-Plover in Hulda Reservoir. This reservoir is few minutes from home, and is sort-of my local patch: Piki and I have this Saturday morning tradition to bird the reservoir. I am also involved in the protection of the reservoir from future development planned there - tough challenge. In the meanwhile, it is a beautiful reservoir, especially during summer and autumn/fall when irrigation increases and water levels drop, exposing delicious mud to shorebirds. 

Pacific Golden-Plover is a good rarity in Israel, perhaps 4-5 records annually. There's this one individual that's been returning to winter in Tel Aviv for six years now, so it lost some of its rarity glory. However, being so close to home, and in such a stunning plumage, it would have been rude not to pay it a visit. I arrived there in the afternoon, beautiful light conditions, and the birds was there, showing wonderfully as it walked in the grass and down to the mud and water's edge. It was lovely to watch it feeding calmly, resting, preening, and interacting with other shorebirds that have already started their migration or post-breeding movement. I avoided disturbing the birds in the reservoir and kept my distance. I took this short video through my Swarovski Optik ATX85 from a long range - heat haze killed the quality a bit.

Five points if you identify correctly all the bird calls in the background. At one point aircraft from a nearby airforce base flew by, most birds took off momentarily, include the golden plover. When it landed, I used the opportunity to photograph it's graey-brown underwings.

Uncropped image showing the environment and nightbours

Hulda Reservoir - worth fighting for

eBird checklist here.

New Year Birding

It's Rosh Hashana here - Jewish New Year, which means a three-day-long holiday, that translates into more time for birding... These are fantastic migration days in Israel, and I try to make the most of it without driving too far. 

Yesterday (Tuesday) I was hoping to enjoy a good take-off of Honey Buzzards off the hills above Tzor'a in the Sorek Valley. 300K Honey Buzzards passed over Israel in recent days, and I was hoping for good conditions. I started early with Bamba, and enjoyed lovely autumn weather, much needed after the brutally-hot summer. 

The alfalfa fields in the bottom of the valley were packed with birds, especially the recently-cut sections. 450 Yellow Wagtails were busy providing ecosystem services (i.e. feeding on Egyptian Cotton Leafworm caterpillars), always spectacular to see. Among the wagtails were a few pipits (tree and tawny), Greater Short-toed Larks, Cretzschmar's and Ortolan Buntings, Rollers, Whinchats and Wheatears. Fantastic.

A single, beautiful, gingery juvenile Montagu's Harrier was sat in the field, chilling before moving on:

I then met up with Gidon, Amir and Dan and we continued birding together. The surrounding scrub and WTP provided excellent habitat for many more migrants. Tons of hirundines, many shrikes, warblers. It was fun (eBird checklist here). Before leaving I spotted two young Bonelli's Eagles. They were strongly associated with each other, probably siblings. They flew around for a while, playing around with pigeons and generally being immature. 

They gained some height, and circled with a Marsh Harrier. Suddenly, both eagles decided to have a go at the harrier - we thought they were going to predate on it. Eventually the encounter left the harrier destroyed, with injured wings and an injured leg, but still alive as it migrated on, somehow. The attack itself took few seconds - I managed to capture only a secondary encounter. Incredible to watch.

Sadly, young Bonelli's Eagles are really stupid when it comes to electric pylons, and they are especially susceptible to electrocution. This valley is a bit of a dead zone for these threatened eagles (CR in Israel). See for example here the sad story of a tagged eagle I found dead a year ago. Frustratingly, Israel Electric Corporation doesn't do enough to protect pylons against electrocution.

Eventually, the main Honey Buzzard stream passed to our west, and we say only few take off. However, when I got back home it was flooding straight over. In 32 minutes of sitting outside I counted 4420 Honey Buzzards (and quite a few other raptors) - always incredible to watch. eBird checklist here. How lucky I am to live bang on the main highway. The only problem is that when they arrive over my house they are normally very high and the light is harsh, providing difficult conditions for photography.

This morning (Wednesday) I had time only for a short session at nearby Tal Shahar, a bit west of Tzor'a. It was short but uber-productive and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Again, there was a huge, even larger, flock of Yellow Wagtails in the alfalfa. I estimated 550 but it could have been much more. Check this video  - I hope you can absorb the sensation of walking through the alfalfa, with clouds of wagtails jumping at my feet. You can also appreciate the habitat in the Sorek Valley where I bird often. Also, this video demonstrates that we are in the transition period between feldegg (early migrants) and flava, compare the two call types - clear (flava) and rasping (fledegg).

These are shrike days in Israel. Indeed, there were many shrikes in the surrounding scrub, mainly Red-backed and fewer Lesser Greys etc. I really love Lesser Grey Shrike - especially the young birds look so good to my eyes. None of them posed long enough for a proper video, all they allowed me was a hasty jumpshot. 

Again, the wagtail flock contained welcome guests, and the scrub provided a wonderful array of migrants, all lovely and so welcome. Migrate on safely you little heroes. eBird checklist here.

On Monday I did something a bit different. I went with Piki to Tel Barukh beach in Tel Aviv, where the Pacific Golden Plover returned for its sixth winter - see previous encounters here (2020) and here (2019). It is fascinating how this individual rarity survives, trapped somewhere far west of its original flyway, and returns to the same rocks on one of the busiest beaches in Israel. And it was a new addition to my Year List...

There were quite a few migrants moving around within the abandoned Sde Dov airport grounds, nothing massive (eBird checklist here). We hadn't enough time to enjoy some of the better habitats nearby, or watch active migration over the sea, reported by that other birders. But I guess we couldn't complain.

PGP

This morning I paid a mandatory visit to the returning Pacific Golden-Plover in Tel Aviv (needed it for my yearlist...). This individual returned a couple of weeks ago for its fourth winter - in previous years it stayed until March. Over the years it has become so tame and tolerant to humans - it just stood there. Beautiful bird.

Before the sun was up

Golden light

I checked the nearby coastal scrub strip for migrants. There were some shrikes, wheatears, whinchats etc. - nice selection but small numbers.

eBird checklists for beach and scrub.

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

Tel Aviv Pacific

Well, Tel Aviv has not been moved to the Pacific Ocean yet, but it's been hosting a Pacific visitor in recent days. But first thing's first. I started off early with Barak B. at Hatzuk, hoping that at last today would be the day that the skies open and winter migrants pour through. Not today. In Israeli standards it was pretty quiet vismig-wise, with meager numbers of finches, wagtails and pipits. Also numbers on the ground were low. Highlights were few and not truly exciting - Richard's Pipit, Caspian Stonechat, 2 Indian Silverbills. The only poser was this Red-backed Shrike during the Golden Hour:

My full eBird checklist is here.

After we were done, we moved just a bit south to Tel Barukh beach, where a Pacific Golden Plover has taken up residence for a few days now on the Vermetid Reefs there:

During the short walk down from the carpark I spotted the plover from a distance, but then several dogs and their humans started running into the water. The bird flushed with a few more shorebirds, made several circuits along the super busy beach and disappeared into the adjacent airfield. Managed to grab some distant, horrible record shots, displaying the grey underwing coverts and axillaries:

We then relocated the small mixed group inside the airfield, luckily just behind the boundary fence. I ignored the large red 'NO PHOTOGRAPHY!" sings and did my best - into the sun, through several thick barbed wire fences - less than ideal conditions. A few passers by were annoyed by thisdodgy activity, me breaching Israeli security like that. I had to give it up before airport security would be called on us. We waited around for a bit longer, hoping the plover and his mates would fly back to the reef where light is better, but it did not.

With 2 of 7 Greater Sand-plovers:

Full eBird checklist is here.

Pacific Golden Plover is rather rare in Israel, about 3-4 annually. Always nice to connect with this extreme migrant. This is surely a returning individual - last year one was seen here at the same time. PGP has featured on my blog several times before, including showy individuals here and here.