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):

Pine and Gold

Yesterday morning I visited Tzurim Valley NP in north-east Jerusalem. It's a unique little urban wildlife site, a beautiful valley sandwiched between the Old City, Mt. Scopus and Mt. of Olives. The political context is so complex, but I do my best to focus on the wildlife and stunning scenery. In winter, its ancient olive groves attract finches and other seed eaters; the large deciduous pistachio trees are perfect shelters for these birds.

Panoramic view from the top - Old City and Dome of the Rock on the left, Mt. Scopus on the right

About a week ago my friend Piki found a lovey male Pine Bunting there. It's a traditional site for this rare winter visitor - until few years back, every winter a flock of 30-40 Yellowhammers would normally host one or two Pine Buntings. Sadly, the Yellowhammer flock deserted the valley, so this lone Pine Bunting observation was a welcome surprise. I have a long history with this species in Israel - I am old enough to have experienced decent numbers in the late 1980's. Every childhood winter in Jerusalem, I'd appreciate 15-20 Pine Buntings in a beautiful valley not far from the house in which I grew up. Now this valley is lost under concrete and asphalt. I clearly remember a flock of 70 Pine Buntings within a flock of hundreds of Yellowhammers up on Mt. Hermon ages ago - these sights and sounds are lost too. In recent decade both Yellowhammer and Pine Bunting numbers have dwindled considerably in Israel, and Pine Bunting has become quite a novice species, especially such a lovely male.

Back to late 2018, I had a plan to connect with the bunting, and hopefully even get a decent photo -  I had no photos of it in Israel. I even had an ambitious wish to photograph it with the backdrop of the Dome of the Rock... I met up with Amir early and we started working the valley down, together with a couple more birders. At first it was cold deep in the shaded valley, but some finches were already feeding on the slopes with the spectacular backdrop of the Dome of the Rock.

Then the sun started shining on the northern slope, bringing it back to life, and finch activity increased there. We worked the skittish finch flock down in the olive grove very carefully for quite a while, without a sign of the bunting. I had a flyover 'funny' serin - either Syrian or Red-fronted (their flight calls are very similar to my ear), a few Siskin, Dunnock, Brambling but the star bird wasn't on show. I sat down to eat my sandwich, then heard the familiar bunting rattle. Sandwich back into the bag, and I went around the corner to see THE bunting sat up nicely on a pistachio about 40 meters away. What a stunner! The deep rufous rump and horn-coloured bill shining at me, beautiful facial pattern so lovely to see. I fired off a few initial photos - this is a large crop:

Then I figured out that a few steps to the left and I have my killer shot - bingo!

The bird perched for a mere 30 seconds, then flew off rattling for no apparent reason. I was joined by the others, and we had several more distant and rather brief views of the bunting - it was shy and mobile. But personally I can't complain.

Here it is, demonstrating its lovely rufous flank streaks and white belly:

Feeding on the ground with a Chaffinch:

Full eBird checklist here. A few more bird photos:

Syrian Woodpecker climbing up an olive trunk

European Stonechat doing the decent thing

Black Redstart

In the afternoon I had some work to do in the Dead Sea region - such a contrasting environment, only 30 minutes away. In one of the few unfenced date plantations several Mountain Gazelles were feeding:

After dusk we had two Pallid Scops Owls calling nearby - no views. Can't wait till June.

Desert Nights

Oh, how I missed these. Spent a night and two days with my family at Ein Gedi by the Dead Sea. Daytime birding was rather quiet, as expected for this time of year, but it was good to get reunited with 'my' familiar desert birds and mammals. The birding highlight of the weekend was a couple of hours of night birding in the northern Dead Sea region with my brother and Rami (thanks!). A small resident population of Egyptian Nightjars was found breeding there last summer by a team that included Amir Ben Dov and Ady Gancz. We went to check if we could find any on a chilly mid-winter night. They did. Very quickly we found three nightjars on the deck. They offered brilliant views. Quality!

We left them in peace and moved on to nearby date plantations to see if Pallid Scops Owls overwinter there too. They do... We had only brief views of one, but heard about three singing and calling. Great stuff. It is quite amazing how we can still learn new things about our breeding birds in Israel.

Here are few unimpressive wildlife images I got:

Barbary Falcon - perched on the tall communication mast in the kibbutz (huge crop)

Grey Wagtail

White-crowned Wheatear - 2cy

Disgraceful Nubian Ibex

Rock Hyrax