Israel at last

I am so glad to be back in Israel. Came here with my family for a two-week visit. First day was devoted to friends and family but I was so happy to see all the birds around. Just casual stuff but lots of things - Long-eared and Scops Owls, Great Spotted Cuckoos, Pallid Harrier, Lesser Kestrels, Serins, Savis's Warbler, Quail etc. - all common migrants but such a difference compared to my regular experiences in the UK. Highlight was the Rough-legged Buzzard that thankfully stayed and stayed for me, sitting just along route 6 yesterday afternoon. Israeli tick! I was in a great hurry so no time for images. Returned again this morning but no sign of it. Unstable weather meant few raptors.

In the northern Arava I tried for the Red-billed Teal. I checked three sewage farms, and it was in the third. It was very jumpy and flew off just as I got out of the car to scan over the fence, 200 m away. Israeli tick - well, not quite sure about its origin but we'll see. A fine bird anyway. Here I think it is with a hybrid duck thing:

Also there a flock of 6 Baltic and 2 Heuglin's Gulls, and a White-throated Kingfisher.

In the Arava it was raining quite heavy so little passerine activity. At KM76 Rueppel's Warbler, two Lesser Kestrels and a large flock of 400 Spanish Sparrows, until I had to escape from the torrential rain.

Wet Lesser Kestrels

Spanish Sparrows

Down at Eilat it was pretty windy but nor rain. At IBRCE ponds two Gull-billed Terns and some Whiskered Terns:

Caspian and Gull-billed Terns, Slender-billed and Black-headed Gulls

Whiskered Tern

In the afternoon a very large movement of migrants was apparent around the city. Huge numbers of hirundines were grounded, as well as thousands of yellow Wagtails. At the ditch behind the cowshed three Citrine Wagtails and a Spotted Crake. 

Sand Martins and Barn Swallow

In the evening Leica Birding organized a great event - good to get the Champions of the Flyway show rolling, and great to meet so many new and old friends.

Looking forward to tomorrow!

Highs and lows

What a day, very intensive emotionally. One of these days that demonstrate to me how birding is the best therapy. This morning after seeing the boys off to school I headed up to Flamborough to say goodbye to my dear friend Martin Garner (see also here). On the way to King's Lynn I stopped briefly for the 2000ish-large gull flock near Middleton. I had wanted to check this flock properly many times before but never had the chance. Today I couldn't resist, but I was not focused - my mind was elsewhere. I had no time and patience to get the scope out and work them properly. A quick scan with bins revealed no unusual gulls, so I thought I'd be a wiseguy - I took a video of the flock planning to check them on the computer screen at home and fish out all the caspos hiding in there. Of course the plan didn't work - my video movements were too quick and shaky and it was impossible to identify anything. Later on some proper birders checked the flock and found a caspian and 6 yellow-legs in that same flock. Well done. 

In King's Lynn I met up with Terry who joined me for the drive up to Flamborough. The connection with Terry was immediate, as often happens with fellow birders. Sadly grim circumstances to meet for the first time, but it was great to meet Terry at last. Anyway, we started heading up, talking about Martin and about China and all kinds of stuff. About halfway I got a call from close friends advising us not to come. So we made a U-turn and head back, sad and frustrated. As I had already taken the day off and couldn't think about getting any work done today, we decided to go for Plan B and headed over to N Norfolk for few hours of birding. 

We started off at Brancaster Staithe (Terry you were correct - it's a place for loading or unloading boats), where a Red-necked Grebe has been showing for the last couple of weeks or so. We didn't even need to step out of the car - the bird was on show immediately in the canal by the beach carpark. But we did step out of the car. At first the grebe kept its distance but slowly it approached us and eventually was pretty close. Pity the light was poor. Quality bird, though I'd rather see this one in Israel. 

Red-necked Grebe

  

Quite a few other birds around. Of note was one Goldeneye.

We then continued to nearby Choseley Farms. We positioned ourselves on top of the hill. It took us some time to connect with a Rough-legged Buzzard after seeing about 10 Common Buzzards. At first we had distant scope views sat on the ground. Then we approached it along the road to get closer views. I walked out of the car without the camera to see if it is on view from the new angle. Then it decided to fly off, heading towards us. Dashed back to the car for the camera but by the time I got it out the buzzard was already heading away. And as if at noon the light wasn't bad enough, now at 15:00 it was getting dark. So these are horrible record shots of another quality bird.

Rough-legged Buzzard

Other birds in the area were about 30 Corn Buntings, and several Fieldfares. Nice to bump into James up there. Then Terry and I parted and I drove back home to Norwich.

Mr. White

So after the fruitless weekend I woke up to a crisp, sunny morning and decided I had to get out. Met up with Phil and Will near Great Bircham where the Snow Goose had been present for the last few days. Only few geese there this morning, but quite many birds knocking about there.

After a quick bite at Titchwell we got the news that the goose is at Holkham, so headed over there. It showed well along Lady Anne's Drive among the large pinky flock there - good scope views but really too distant for proper photography. Other than that some barnacles.

Snow Goose

Large crop

I had to return to Norwich early, but we had time to quickly check around Burnham Overy, where we saw the Rough-legged Buzzard hunting in the distance - again too distant for photography but decent scope views:

Another large crop...

On the way back home we had a quick at Salthouse. Very few brents around, but about 30 Snow Buntings and 10 Twite were nice though mobile in the freezing wind.

Nice, typical N Norfolk winter day. Thanks to Phil and Will for the company.

NL day 5 - proper birding at last!

At last had time today for a full day of proper birding. Left early with Gert and Reinoud Vermoolen and we headed west to Zeeland. We met there Pim Wolf. Pim is just awesome - he really knows every bird and stone on Zeeland (though there are no stones on Zeeland). 

We started off at the beach of Brouwersdam, despite the wind and cold. No sign of the hoped-for Great Northern Diver but lots of seaducks and divers. Highlights for me included two Long-tailed Ducks (male and female) that gave much better views than my previous bird, but still difficult to phtograph. Also five Velvet Scoters with the many commons, about 15 Slav Grebes, one Black-throated Diver among the numerous reds and two distant Ruddy Shelducks. Later on we found some Purple Sandpipers feeding on the rocky seawall - they are such tough little shorebirds. I really enjoyed watching this obliging individual fighting the waves.

Purple Sandpiper 

Something for my Israeli followers:

Common Goldeneye

And for gullers:

argenteus Herring Gull 2cy

We continued working our way through the island, where we encountered huge numbers of geese. This was the goosiet day I've ever had. We had in total today 9 proper species of goose and another two plastic species. So at first we started scanning through the large flocks of white-fronts, barnacles, brent and bean. We found one Pink-footed, and then we found two Pale-bellied Brents at Scharendijke - here's a record shot of one of them:

Pale-bellied Brent (center)

We continued birding and enjoyed a selection of geese, ducks and shorebirds, and some groups of Bewick's and Whooper Swans. Especially productive were the Polders south of Burgh-Haamstede. We had there some Hen Harriers, a Goshawk and best - a superb adult Black Brant. Much better than the two hybrids I had in the UK! Look at this full collar, almost connecting in the back of the neck. Also note how much the dark belly extends beyond the belly, and the solid dark mantle.

Black Brant - adult

A bit east of Burgh-Haamstede we found this fine adult Rough-legged Buzzard as it was fighting the wind for some minutes. Great views but light was shit. 

 Rough-legged Buzzard

This is the best I managed to get of the uppertail pattern:

After we said goodbye to Pim, we headed to Oudeland van Strijen in very poor weather. Again tons of geese. Couldn't find the red-breasted that was showing there in the morning - I guess perhaps we were reluctant to work the geese outside of the car because of the rain. We did manage to locate two Lesser White-fronts though - good views but again poor light conditions so the images don't do them any justice - they are very smart-looking geese.

Lesser White-fronted Goose

On the way back home checked the lake at Barendrecht but for the first time in eight winters the Bufflehead didn't show. Bummer.

But nevermind - it was a great day, good company, weather could have been better but could have been worse also. Tomorrow I return home - looking forward to some warm sunny weather. Many thanks to all of my friends and colleagues in UK & NL - BTO, Sovon, DBA, Gert, Martin, Tristan, Tormod, Chris, Nick, Andy, Rob, Vincent, Arjan, Reinoud and Pim are just few of the great people I met - you all made this trip highly successful and so much fun.