Issy Wheatear and more

Yesterday was my birthday but I couldn't go birding. So today I cashed in on my birthday credit,  and went out with James (AKA The Driver), Dave, Phil and Will to Burnham Overy Dunes. Weather was looking good and we hoped to find Norfolk's first Sibe Accentor. But when we got there we started complaining how few birds there actually are. We had some crests in the Suedea, Robins, thrushes but really rather slow. We walked west towards Gun Hill, hoping to find yesterday's Pallas's Warbler, spread out and covered as much ground as possible. And of course as me and James walked across the crest of the dune, Dave calls, and quite nonchalantly tells us 'I have just found an Issy Wheatear'. This guy is amazing, quite a rarity magnet. We caught up with Dave and the bird very quickly, but it was really unsettled and didn't stop moving for the first half an hour or so - it must have just flown in. We got some good initial views that confirmed Dave's ID, but photography was difficult. I was really lucky to get these flight shots from a huge distance - surprising my old camera focused on the bird:

Isabelline Wheatear 

This is the original:

But as the first birders arrived, the bird settled down more or less, associating with two Northern Wheatears and performed rather well. We were gentle with it, hence the poor record shots. I think later on some photographers managed to get closer to it.

White underwing coverts, for what it's worth

This is Dave the finder - well done Dave! He asked to remain in the shadows

First birders on site

Not for the first time in the UK, I was in the scene of a big UK rarity that is a common bird in Israel. It is the first twitchable for Norfolk, so I really 'got in' and shared the excitement:

Me and The Driver

There was also a Pallas's Warbler and a Barred Warbler in the same are, but it was getting busy and we wanted to leave so didn't see them. We knew that with the growing crowd at the wheatear site, we will have all the other North Norfolk sites to ourselves. So we headed east towards Holkham Pines through the dunes, but first an obligatory visit to the rotting 12 m Fin Whale that had washed up on the beach a couple of days ago - we smelled it from a mile away. What a fascinating beast though! So sad to see it dead and dissected.

The eastern side of BO dunes was actually pretty good. More thrushes, an obliging male Mealy Redpoll, three Waxwings that flew over calling, a beautiful Shore Lark that refused to play ball, Jack Snipe and The Driver's bird of the day - GREAT WHITE EGRET ;-)
In the pines not much, heard a Yellow-browed Warbler.

 Mealy Redpoll

 Shore Lark

Great day to be out!

Boom mega whopping day on Mt. Hermon

What an amazing day it was. I joined the Hermon breeding survey today, coordinated by Nadav (with just a bit of help from yours truly). I was privileged to survey one of the most exciting corners of our country, right on the Syrian border very high up. Because of the sensitivity of the site we had to wait for military escort before we could go down, so we worked the Duvdevan ridge for the first couple of hours of the morning - it was very good. Most impressive was a high concentration of Crimson-winged Finches - we had about 15-17 pairs along a short stretch of the ridge (!), some of them already with fledglings. They are really stunning birds, so rare and so special. As always they were very mobile so this time I got only half-decent images:

 Croimson-winged Finch

Other highlights on the Duvdevan ridge were both Rock Thrushes (Rufous-tailed and blue) breeding, one distant singing White-throated Robin (new site), Spectacled Warblers, several families of Horned Larks and generally lots of birds. 

Horned Lark ssp. bicornis

After we met up with our military escort (late!) we climbed down the steep slope into a beautiful high-altitude valley, at about 2000 m. It was already late and hot and light conditions were very harsh, but we had a fantastic time there. Highlight was two pairs of White-throated Robins - we saw only the males that were feeding - possibly the females are still in the nest. 

Soundscape thing of the breeding area:

They are so rare so we were very gentle with them. During the first session of the survey a month ago Re'i and Lior had about five pairs in this valley. Today we struggled a bit to find them but eventually enjoyed great views and activity.

Other highlights included singing Upcher's warbler, several families of Spetacled Warbler, a couple of singing Cuckoos, Raven, and many more. The area was exploding with buntings - Cretzschmar's and Black-headed in very good densities, and also Rock and Corn.

Black-headed Bunting 

 Spectacled Warbler 

 Woodlark - big numbers

We got our adrenalin rush when we had a close encounter with an impressive group of 14 adult Wild Boars with nine piglets: 

Mountain Horned-poppy (Glaucium oxylobum)

Unidentified mushroon - will update when I get the ID from friends

This is the valley we worked in:

Amir posing with his military escort early in the morning before we split up:

Many thanks to Roei and Eran for a great day - hard work but well worth it.

Hermon breeding survey - post mortem

So what began as an epic day of birding on Mt. Hermon, continued with great phone excitement, and ended with acceptence of this a coming dip.

We surveyed today the higher elevations of Mt. Hermon. I worked with Amir and Arad in Bul'an Valley, that is one of the most fascinating birding sites in Israel. The combination of lunar landscape and super breeding birds there makes this place so special. 

Birding and surveying was pretty tough at first - it was very cold and windy up there at 2000 m, but later on the sun started working, and the wind slowed down a bit. Main stars of the morning were four breeding pairs of White-throated Robins - about one third of the entire Israeli breeding population in one small valley. They are much earlier breeding this year compared to last year - last year on this date we had none. Now they were very busy already - possibly with eggs. Stunning birds!

White-throated Robin - male 1

 White-throated Robin - male 2

The robins breed in these small scattered bushes strewn on the barren slopes:

Other highlights were three breeding pairs of Upcher's Warbler, three pairs of Crimson-winged Finches, two pairs of Horned Larks of the local race bicornis, pair each of Rock Thrush and Tawny Pipit, many Woodlarks, and the commonest bird at this elevation - Northern Wheatear of the local race libanotica.

Horned Lark of the local race bicornis

Northern Wheatear of the local race libanotica

View of Bul'an Valley from the overlooking Duvdevan ridge:

Lebanon Lizard (Lacerta laevis) of the endemic Hermon population kulzeri

Some prominent plants - thanks to Ouria Orren and Mimi Ron for their expert ID help:

Montpellier Maple (Acer monspessulanum)

Mullein sp. (Verbascum sp.)

  Foxtail Lilly (Eremurus libanoticus)

Mountain (?) Hound's Tongue (Cynoglossum montanum)

Just before noon I got an excited message from visiting birder and good friend Steve Arlow that he had just found a Chanting Goshawk near Yotvata! At the opposite end of the country! I quickly sent the news out. Soon it was relocated by several birders who were in the area, and it was identified by Itai Shanni as Eastern Chanting Goshawk - amazing first for the WP if accepted! Congrats to Steve on this crazy find! 

However I reckon that the first Israeli record of 'Dark Chanting Goshawk' from 1979 should be revisited.

It soon materialized that the bird is sticking to one specific area, and that I will not be able to go and see it within the next few days. I have reached my maximum capacity of long-distance driving and strenuous days in the field after 1-2 hours of sleep. I've been doing this for almost the whole spring, and today on the way back home from Hermon I really crashed and hit rock bottom - almost fell asleep on the wheel, and felt like shit. I really need to spend some time at home with family and relax a bit. If it stays for a few more days then I might give it a try, but for the time being I have accepted that I am not going to see this bird.

Hermon day 3 - wind!

This week is difficult. Hard work and lots of logistic problems and difficulties - got back home and I'm really exhausted. Finally we got permission from the military to survey parts of the higher elevations. But as soon as we got up there our motivation crashed becuase a sensational wind was blowing - something like 100 km/h. This hampered our birding efforts of course - birds kept very low, and hearing was difficult. Photography was almost impossible. But eventually I managed to see some of the species I wanted to find and confirm breeding - we had fledglings of Crimson-winged Finch, Horned Lark and Hill Sparrow. Other stuff included Spectacled Warbler, and one flyover Raven. At only one spot we sort of enjoyed our birding - we found a small puddle in a relatively sheltered valley, and quite many seedeaters came in to drink, mainly Linnet and Syrian Serin. One juvenile Hill Sparrow came in briefly to drink but I was too slow with my camera.

Mammals included a close encounter with Wildcat, and Caucasian Snow Vole (Chionomys gud).

Horned Lark

Rock Sparrow

Syrian Serin - male

Northern Wheatear - the commonest and most prominent bird today in the higher elevations.

Today the civil war in Syria was more apparent. Rebel troops attacked the Syrian Army troops in the town of Qunetra, right on the Israeli border. At one point we sat and watched the was in front of us. I felt really weird, watching birds and flowers while just 20 km away a bloody was was going on. Crazy world.

Qunetra on fire

Thanks Heidi for the company and help this morning.