Kfar Ruppin

Today was one of those incredible mornings, with the best experience Kfar Ruppin could offer. I started early at the fishponds, had just under two hours to bird. The fishponds were packed with birds; the numbers, diversity and quality were almost overwhelming. There were so many birds (eBird checklist here). There's this one large reservoir, half-empty, that held a fantastic selection of birds, including finding seven Ruddy Shelducks and three Siberian Buff-bellied Pipits (eBird is great but their name, American Pipit (japonicus) sucks), Isabelline Shrike, several Caspian Stonechats.

The ruddies (ducks? geese?) were spooked by an explosion nearby and headed off strongly, to the disappointment of some local birders who were keen to see them. I hope they landed nearby. They provided nice flight views, not the greatest flight shot but gives a taste of the surroundings - alfalfa field with overhanging Black Kites, date plantations.

Reed Bunting is pretty scarce and shy in Israel, so it was nice to get this relatively showy bird, albeit sat on a wire:

Later on at Amud Reservoir, our restoration pilot project, things are looking very good - the reservoir is full of birds (eBird checklist here) and the habitat is great. Photo from this morning by Jay Shofet:

While we were talking about the project to our guests, this monster Bonelli's Eagle flew towards us. I ran to the car to grab my camera and got a nice flyby sequence.

Break the silence

Suddenly I noticed that it's been a month since I last posted here. Not that I haven't been birding, I certainly have. I felt like there weren't any blog-worthy highlights to report. I don't have very exciting stuff to share here, only some OK-minus photos from yesterday. I had work at Ma'ayan Zvi, just north of Ma'agan Michael. We are joining a large restoration project there, so I wanted to get to know better some spots . It was a great morning with enjoyable activity of migrants, winter visitors and resident birds. Breeding season is upon us! Clamorous Reed Warblers were very vocal, some males singing from tops of reeds:

Moustached Warbler is a winter visitor and migrant, not scarce but not common either. It is a very rare and sporadic breeder too. I had a singing male, that behaved very territorial. I will follow up to check if breeding takes place there.

In this sound recording a Clamorous Reed Warbler is audible in the background:

Reed Bunting is another scarce winter visitor, soon leaving Israel. At one spot I had a small group of six, very shy and mobile. The flock included a stonking male, even prettier than the one I managed to photograph:

All in all I had 92 species in a short session, including several new-for-year (no, I'm not doing another Big Year). eBird checklist here.

After birding I went to marvel at some wild flowers nearby, ahead of a meeting conveniently timed to start at 11:30... March is the wonderfulest month of the year, I must make the most out of it. 

Ashdod ringing

Nice ringing this morning, migration is picking up. Lots of Lesser Whitethroats and good numbers of Bluethroats and Chiffchaffs. Reed Warblers are back with some old recoveries. Had my first Savi's Warbler of the season.

Other good birds in the field included Little Crake, Reed Bunting and several Balkan Warblers.

Ashdod bits and pieces

Sunny and cold morning. Set the nets up in the dark, just to discover that the water level is too high and my wellies are of no help... Ringing was pretty slow, as expected for this time of the year when the reeds are dry. Still some nice stuff around - Long-eared Owl at first light, late Masked Shrike and Lesser Whitehroat, Reed Bunting heard and Moustached Warbler trapped late in the morning.
Later, virtually no gulls at the gull site. Seven minutes of seawatching produced a 1cy Kittiwake, 1 Yelkouan Shearwater sitting on the water, and 15-20 Sandwich Terns. Not bad!
Thanks to Re'a, Miri and Shlomo for the help.

IOC and brief Ma'agan Michael

Yesterday we had a great event - the annual ornithological conference, held at Tel Aviv University. This event grows every year - yesterday we had over 1000 guests! It was a nice but very busy day for me, had to smile to so many people and behave myself the whole day. But it was good to catch up with many good friends.
We had some superstar guests from overseas. Here is Marco Lambertini talking about his bird life:

And this is Thomas Krumenacker presenting his stunning images. One day I will photograph like him...

I was very proud of myself with the exhibition of the bird photography contest I had organized and produced:

Today I had the honour and pleasure to spend the morning with Ian Newton. I picked him up from Tel Aviv and we drove off to Ma'agan Michael. We had little time there, and the weather was quite British - cold, grey and windy, but we did quite OK I think. Ian had a good time for sure with four lifers (Ian - you owe me four pints next time we meet).

This Citrine Wagtail was very loyal to a small grassy patch which had tons of insects sheltering from the strong wind:

I totally screwed this image up - the focus stayed locked on the tail:

We had two male Siberian Stonechat. This one is a typical variegatus - note that at least half of the length of the rectrices is white:

Didn't get any images of the second bird but it was closer to armenicus, with very little white at the base of the rectrices - perhaps 1/4 of the feather.

Other good birds we had were four Pallas's Gulls (great views), one Yellow-legged and many Slender-billed Gulls (some were really pink - almost like a ross's - I wish...), many Water Pipits, Temminck's Stints, Sanderlings, Reed Bunting and lots of other stuff.

Fieldfares and other bits and pieces

Drove around a bit over the last couple of days and collected some nice stuff along the way. Yesterday at Ashdod not too many gulls or shorebirds, and nothing exciting among them. Single Greater Spotted Eagle and Short-toed Eagle (late!) were nice. These two female Mountain Gazelles showed me their butts as they sped away from my car. Are they being poached in that area? They were very very shy.


Later drove to Segula to look for the Fieldfare trio found by Re'a the previous day. The first look produced nothing, but after a short lunch break found them feeding quite relaxed on the lawn. They really let me approach - I never had such good views in Israel. These guys must have come from a village or town somewhere (in Russia?) - their tame behaviour suggested that. Great to see these Israeli rarities - hopefully we will have a good winter for them (and for their black-throated cousin tooo...)

This morning I was ringing at my local site in Ashdod. It was pretty good with many chiffies, Blackcaps, Bluethroats and Robins. A couple of Spanish Sparrows were nice, and this Moustached Warbler was my first for the season. Other birds about were a Reed Bunting flying around and dodging my nets, and several Water Rails heard calling.

Moustached Warbler

Spanish Sparrow

A short afternoon visit to Tsor'a didn't produce much. This female Stonechat posed nicely against the light:

And this late Isabelline Wheatear was pretty in the warm afternoon light: