Ma'agan Michael

Yesterday I spent the morning at Ma'agan Michael. I joined Itai, Ohad, Yosef and Francis to practice on a new net I am planning to use for gulls in Ashdod this winter. Setting the net was quite easy, and then we had the whole morning to sit around and wait for terns to land in our catching area; of course none did so. But in the meanwhile quite a few birds amused us on the beach.
This moulting adult Sanderling was almost pretty in the golden morning sun.

Sanderling

Among the several hundred terns there were 3 Gull-billed Terns. This juvenile was still being fed by a parent and was often begging.

Gull-billed Tern

While sitting around I wasted batteries and memory space on terns flying up and down the beach. 500 mm is really not the adequate lens for this type of photography.

Common Tern - juvenile

Common Tern - adult

This moulting adult Grey Plover was distant most of the morning but just before we left it got closer.

Grey Plover

I managed to read a few of Yosef's colour rings. First is IKP on a common, then PP on a little.

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.

Nitzanim birding

Today I checked Nitzanim coastal reserve (south of Ashdod) together with Jonathan Meyrav. It was hot and sunny again, and we made a late start, so probably missed many sibes by the time we got there. While waiting for Jonathan I watched this White Stork preening. This bird was ringed by Yosef Kiat in September.

When we reached Nitzanim, we drove past an open field packed with pipits, wagtails and skylarks. There was one Richard's Pipit that got us alerted as it was a rather small and delicate individual, until we heard its 'chirp!' flight call. It was very shy and didn't allow even a record shot. The main pipit was Red-throated Pipit - about 100 birds.

Red-throated Pipit (adult)

Red-throated Pipit (1cy)

We birded the coastal sand dunes and scrub. Didn't see too much. There were hundreds of Chiffchaffs - an impressive wave is passing through Israel these days, but no wingbars at all... Other than that several Northern Wheatears and two Desert Wheatears - quite a few of this scarce migrant were seen along the Med coast during the last week or two.

Desert Wheatear

In a coastal lagoon there were many plovers - 100 Ringed Plovers, 50 Kentish Plovers, 2 Greater Sand Plovers and a single Sanderling.

Kentish Plovers

Greater Sand Plover (1cy)

Ringed Plover