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.

Spring alive

 This morning I had a meeting in Eilat, which is always a good excuse for birding down there. I left home before my elder son went to sleep, and arrived at Yotvata at 04:30. I checked the fields and had two Egyptian Nightjars and a Pharaoh Eagle Owl. I was alone, driving and holding the torch, so failed with photography. I snoozed for 15 minutes before there was just about enough light for birding. The sky was full of pipits and wagtails, and many hirundines and swifts were on the move. There were first splashes of spring - always elating, offering some hope in this screwed-up world. Wabi-sabi style.

eBird checklist here.

Then I continued to Nimra Valley, near Timna. Itai found there a male Menetries's Warbler a few days ago, which I was hoping to connect with - only a few annually in Israel. I met up there with Amit, an excellent young birder, and his dad Guy. We started searching for it, and I was surprised to find a female Menetries's at almost the same spot - very cool. My first views were through the scope - at first it was feeding out in the open. Not a top video but gives the idea:

When Amit and Guy joined me it became a real nightmare and was difficult to observe. We worked carefully and slowly, and bit by bit we managed to see it well enough to confirm ID. Impressively,  Amit managed sharp flight shots as it moved from bush to bush. Thanks for allowing me to share the illustrative photos here (check those tertials!). Later on they saw the male too.

Some nice desert birds and migrants there, including a couple of Rueppell's, Hooded Wheatear, Temminck's Lark and Striolated Buntings. eBird checklist here.

Conveniently, my meeting was at IBRCE, so I had time for a quick walk with Noam. It felt pretty active, birds were on the move. There was a steady trickle of Steppe Eagles, an Oriental Honey Buzzard, Long-eared Owl in roost - quite enjoyable really.

Desert weekend

This weekend I participated (and helped the organisers) in the annual Great Desert Survey, coordinated by IBRCE, INPA and Eilot Regional Council. As last year, the event was a huge success and great fun. About 40 teams covered the remotest parts of the southern desert, collecting valuable data for conservation. Personally, I had a great time. My polygons weren't the busiest, but between them and general birding outside the polygons, I got to see some top birds. It was a difficult weekend for photography - I was too busy and/or with other people, so photo opps were limited.

On Friday morning I worked southeast of Ovda Valley, in a nice sandy wadi. There were lots of wheatears about, but I couldn't find a basalt of my own. I enjoyed this male Hooded Wheatear:

Born in 2019 - check moult limit in coverts:

Typically, wheatears were followed by Asian Desert Warblers. None were obliging, but it's always fun to see theצ running on the sand like rodents:

 

I usually don't pay much attention to Cattle Egrets, but this one that appeared in the middle of nowhere, flew directly towards us and started foraging right beside us was somewhat special:

eBird checklist here.

After we were done, we went to pay respect to a new Basalt Wheatear found nearby by Rony:

In the afternoon I did a few more bits and pieces, hoping that the African Crake would get released, no joy. After dusk I went with Re'a to Yotvata that delivered the goods - Egyptian Nightjar and Pharaoh Eagle Owl, here showing the diagnostic barred underparts:

On Saturday morning, before my polygon, I quickly checked a wadi for Pallid Scops Owl (successfully, thanks Miguel!). My polygon was in another wadi deep in the desert. It was rather quiet - the weather was not enjoyable, neither for birds nor for humans, very cold and windy. We did manage a couple of Temminck's Larks and Desert Wheatears - gotta love 'em:

eBird checklist here.

On the way out stopped for a quick scan at a spot that looked promising for Hoopoe Lark - boom! After a couple minutes of scanning one walked into view, albeit too distant:

Our route out passed by yet another Basalt Wheatears found earlier by Ohad (#7 this season, all within about 10X10 km) - it would have been rude to drive by without stopping to say hello. 

On the way back home we stopped at Hameishar Plains (as many others did) - excellent birding there. Hameishar did not receive rain this winter yet, so there is no annual germination, but last winter's productivity left tons of seeds on the ground, and lark numbers are good as a response. Best were 23 Thick-billed Larks, also many Temminck's, Bar-tails, sandgrouse etc. eBird checklist here.

Thick-billed Larks

Temminck's Lark

Crowned Sandgrouse

Many thanks to Noam, Itai and the rest of the organising team, including Hai Bar staff for hosting the whole event. My team - Golan, Noga and Yossi were great, thank you! 

Eilat Festival update - what a day!

Yesterday was a bird-packed day. Hadn't done the day list yet, but I hope the bird racers next week will have such a good time!

My tour began in the late morning, so I started birding solo early. First north beach - lots of Finns and some birds too. The Brown Booby was patrolling along the Jordanian border, one Arctic Skua flew over, Barbary Falcon was after the Garganeys, two Heuglin's Gulls etc.

Brown Booby

Then I quickly checked KM20 saltpans - lots of shorebirds but nothing more exciting than Greater Sand-plover and Marsh Sandpipers. Outside the saltpans had this lovely flock of European Bee-eaters - added much-needed colour to migration: 

Before breakfast quickly checked Ofira Park which was surprisingly good with Semicollared Flycatcher, a few Wrynecks, several Tree Pipits etc.

Semicollared Flycatcher

Wryneck

After breakfast our long-distance tour began. Our first stop was at Yotvata - a Caspian Plover had been fund earlier on by British birders. We got to ths site and all the clients were on the bird quickly. It was a fine male, but it crouched down in the middle of a dry field, and viewing it through heavy heat haze was, well, you know... Here is a poor record shot of him:

While watching the plover good raptor migartion was happening overhead - Steppe and Booted Eagles, Several Lesser Kestrels plus lots of the commoner species.

Steppe Eagle

After Yotvata we drove to Hazeva where we met up with Ayla and Andrew who work there on the babblers. They took us to see a habituated group, which was great. But the main attraction was a pair of Arabian Warblers that showed very well - not the best images I have of them but the views were very good, and again - satisfied clients.

Arabian Warbler

Supporting cast was several desert Finches, Eastern Orphean Warblers, and raptors included two Eastern Imperial Eagles and a stunning male Pallid Harrier.

Desert Finch 

Eastern Imperial Eagle - into the sun - this one had jesses on his legs, must have escaped from trappers

On the way out bumped into this obliging female Namaqua Dove:

Then we drove up to the Judean Desert. We first went into a beautiful wadi. We climbed down before dusk and did some general birding in the wadi, that was fun with typical desert species and tons of raptors coming down to roost on the tall cliffs. After dusk we had a pair of Hume's Owl calling and communicating with each other. Rather early the male flew over our heads and we all had great flight views, and later on we all saw him very well, holding a rodent in his mouth. I was holding the torch (as always) so here is a great phonescoped shot by IBRCE volunteer Bas Kok  - thanks Bas for letting me to use your image here:

Very statisfied we left the wadi, and after dinner we headed down to Neot Hakikar. We arrived there when it was already too cold and dark, so there were no nightjars foraging whatsoever. After a couple of hours of intensive searching we had to give up but just before leaving we enjoyed several singing Nubian Nightjars around us - nice experience (though I'd rather see one than hear three...). However a major bonus was a Pharaoh Eagle Owl that gave several brief views.

The tour ended very late and the clients got back to Eilat very late at night, after a long but satisfying 'Rambo Tour'.

Many thanks to my co-leaders - Naom, Meidad and Paul, and to the IBRCE volunteers for the good company in the car.

Eilat Festival days 6 & 7 - rambo tours!

Got back home late last night - only now I have time to write about the two very intensive but highly rewarding days.

On Monday I led the Dead Sea Rambo tour with Meidad. We left Eilat before dawn, and early morning we arrived at Metzoke Dragot to witness the massive raptor migration there, like Noam had had with his NABU group on previous days. But Mr. Murphy worked extra hard, and we had almost no raptors whatsoever, only some local breeding Eurasian Griffons, Egyptian Vultures and Short-toed Eagles. But there was still some good birding to be done in the area. Nubian Ibex were presnt in good numbers, mainly females and cubs. 

Common desert species such as Fan-tailed Ravens, Scrub Warblers and Trsitram's Starlings preformed well near the village.

Fan-tailed Raven

We then went to the watchpoint overlooking the Darga gorge. We saw two Bonelli's Eagles - an adult male and a 2cy, interacting, flying, landing, collecting fresh nesting material - very good action. On the same hill, as usual, we had a singing male Striolated Bunting. Great stuff.

Striolated Bunting

After a lunch break at Ein Gedi, where we added Rock Hyrax to our mammal list and Bllue Rock Thrush to our bird list, we went to wadi Mishmar. It was hot and rather quiet but still quite a few migrants around.

Noam tipped me off on a purple patch at Heimar reservoir south of the Dead Sea. We arrived there in the afternoon and had a really good time. Very birdy site indeed with some quality stuff. There is a nice colony of Dead Sea Sparrows there - we saw only singing males; I assume the females are on eggs. Such lovely little sparrows.

Dead Sea Sparrow

The bloody camera focused on the wrong bird...

Lots of other good birds there, including Caspian Stonechat, Subalpine Warbler, two Citrine Wags, Clamorous Reed Warbler etc. 

Caspian Stonechat - 2cy male

In the photo above the tail looks completely black, but when he spread the tail much white was evident of TF.

Cretzschmar's Bunting

Before dusk we arrived at Neot Hakikar. We checked a good site where we had three singing Clamorous Reed Warblers. A Golden Jackal was very curious about us. A Pied Kingfisher was hovering against the pink sky. Very special atmoshpere.

Golden Jackal

Pied Kingfisher

After dusk we found Nubian Nightjars very easily and our group enjoyed great views of these rare birds.

Nubian Nightjar

We then headed to a wadi in the Judean Desert where we obtained  a permit to search for Hume's Owls. It was actually super difficult - tough walk in the dark, long search, deminishing adrenalin levels, but eventually presistence and perseverence paid off, and we had breathtaking views of a male Hume's Owl - wow. We returned to Eilat almost 24 hours after leaving, exhausted but very satisfied.

Next morning was one of the most embarassing moments in my birding career. After very little sleep, I woke up at 06:30 from a phone call from two European birders: "we've just found an OBP at imax park". Half asleep I grabbed my bins and camera and headed over. A small crowd assembled, including some of Europe's finset birders. We all watched a perfect Tree pipit, but because we had a pre-conception of OBP, and we were really eager to see a good rarity, we all dismissed the doubts in the back of our heads and said nothing! We discussed the amount of variation in OBP, especially after the bird flew up to a tree and gave a good OBP call, and were all very pleased. Only when I had my first coffee of the morning I understood what an idiot I was after reviewing my images. Lesson learned I hope.

Anyway, later on I checked Ofira park which was better now with Wryneck, two Rueppell's Warblers and quite many other migrants. Around midday there was at last good raptor migration over the city, viewable from my hotel room - my first views of proper raptor migration this week... 

Rueppell's Warbler - adult female

In the afternoon headed north for another rambo tour. On the way out of Eilat got a tip from an English friend  about a day-roosting Pharaoh Eagle Owl just north of Eilat. I found the bird easily thanks to the very percise directions, and later on all Festival tours saw the bird (thanks Chris). Fantastic!

Pharaoh Eagle Owl 

In the afternoon I met the Sunbird group led by Paul French. We checked again the Heimar reservoir site - still very good with little change from the day before. We met up with Jonathan who was with the Festival group, and this time we did the Hume's Owl first, in a different wadi. It worked really well and easy this time - we had extraordinary luck watching a pair interacting, calling, flying back and forth. Wow again.

Then down to Neot Hakikar. Nubian Nightjar was easy again; in and out in a few minutes. Quality birding.

That ended my role in this year's festival. Many thanks to all the festival guests - it was a real pleasure to meet you guys. Special thanks to the festival organizers and co-leaders - Dan, Itai, Jonathan, Meidad, Noam and Yuval.