I love my new camera

A few days ago I said goodbye to my old Canon 7D mk1. My followers know how much I have been complaining about it in recent months - it certainly took me far too much time to scrap it and geא a new camera. I contemplated making a big move to mirrorless Olympus system, but at the moment I have no mental capacity for such big moves. So I went for a rather uninspiring upgrade, to Canon 7D mk2. Since I got it I have been out twice but pretty briefly, and without time for proper photo sessions to get to know all its new features. Yesterday I posted some photos from the southern Arava that I think are pretty good. I was very pleased with the focusing system and with the shutter release speed. Makes shooting birds in flight much more efficient - my favourite type of photography.

On Wednesday I had a meeting in Ma'agan Michael towards the construction of a new bird park there. Conveniently, we had the meeting on an observation tower, at eye level with lots of passing birds. It was my first trial of the camera, and I was unfamiliar with all the buttons yet. My boss was rightfully annoyed that rather than contributing scientific wisdom to the meeting I fired off photos at every passing bird, like a child with a new toy. Well actually that's exactly what I am... Luckily my boss knows me well enough to forgive me for these minor incidents (I hope...).
Here's the first batch:

Great White Pelicans

Asian Black-winged Kite

Pied Kingfisher

White-winged Tern - still in full summer plumage

During this work visit we drove around the proposed bird park, and actually saw tons of birds. eBird checklist here.

Night beast

After three years of ringing bloody warblers like an idiot at my site in Ashdod, at last I figured out how to set a net across the Lakhish stream, and started catching some big waterbirds.
Yestrerday I had a very good ringing session. We caught two (stupid) juvenile Night Herons - big beasts...

This is Shlomo my loyal volunteer:

We caught this terrific Pied Kingfisher:

And about 10 Common Kingfishers, that are always amusing to show to the kids:

And yes, I still had bloody warblers, quite many in fact. 6 Savi's Warblers were good. We had an adult Marsh Warbler. Note the short and pale claws, the thick bill and the long and pointed wing:

Marsh Warbler

There were quite a few Willow Warblers, and I expect to get some big numbers of these long-distance migrants in the next few weeks.

Willow Warbler