Little gullfest

Since the start of the year, a series of storms have been hitting our shores, bringing some good seawatching opportunities. Only today I managed to free some time for seawatching, and went over to Palmakhim, south of Rishon Letzion,  where I joined several others. The wind was blowing hard, but the direction was not ideal - too much southerly element to it. There were few true pelagic species - six Yelkouan Shearwaters and an Arctic Skua. Main interest was in gulls, specifically small ones: There was a lovely concentration of Little Gulls, fishing in the sheltered bay with Sandwich Terns. They are rather scarce in Israel, so their numbers were pleasing: At most we had 13 together, in total about 17. Beautifully-patterned, elegant - I love Little Gulls, especially when they're young (there was only one adult).

M or W?

There was also varied large gull action:

Proper cachinnans, near adult- very pale mantle, lots of white, little black

heuglini - adult

armenicus - 1st cycle

armenicus - adult

I think this is barabensis - tricky gull

Dark underwing secondaries indicate this is a fuscus-thingy

eBird checklist here.

Nostalgia

Those who have been following my blog for some years might remember that I used to spend a considerable amount of birding time in Ashdod. Ashdod is Israel's fifth largest city. Despite its rapid growth and development, it still hosts several excellent wildlife sites. For a few years I ran a city project to enhance conservation within the city boundaries, focusing mainly on Lakhish Park and Yavne 4 ponds. I had some good birding years there, but times and fortunes shifted in the city, the project ended and I relocated to the UK. Since my return to Israel and never really had the chance to revisit those sites properly. During the brief visits I had, I was depressed by the amount of recent development, causing loss and degradation of so much habitat.
This morning I had a meeting in Lakhish Park, so decided to invest  bit more time in my old stomping grounds. I started off at Yavne 4 ponds, and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of birding there. Gulls, shorebirds, waterfowl, raptors, passerines - the place was whopping with birds (eBird checklist here). Highlight was a Siberian Buff-belied Pipit that showed well through the scope. Gulls were present in decent numbers, though I am concerned by the low numbers of Baltic Gull, probably reflecting the dire state of this taxon on its breeding grounds. Siberian Gulls were present in nice numbers, and there was also a lovely Pallas's Gull. I couldn't find any rings at all.

Three Siberian Gulls and a Baltic Gull

Pallas's Gull and three young Armenian Gulls (and teal and stilt)

My meeting in Lakhish Park was outdoors, so I casually birded the park, and quite enjoyed it (eBird checklist here). The native White Acacia trees were in flower, attracting Chiffchaffs, Sylvias and many sunbirds:

A dramatic change that happened during my years of absence is the colonisation of Striated Heron along the Mediterranean coast. They are now breeding at several sites along the coast, including Lakhish Park. I had three individuals:

And a late Squacco:

South coast

Today I worked with NPA marine rangers on seabird identification near Ashkelon. There were no proper seabirds around, so we made do with gull identification. Can't get any better than that. We spent a bit of time inside Ashkelon NP, then checked for some gull rafts inside the coal depot. At one secluded spot a nice mixed group contained, among the striking Pallas's Gulls, a few other taxa, especially fuscus and heuglini. A metal-ringed cachinnans, metal ringed Pallas's and two darvic ringed fuscus were out there, but frustratingly too distant to read.

Armenian Gull is less frequent down the southern coast compared to the northern coast and northern valleys where it is the 'default' large gull. As spring comes, adults like this gradually lose the diagnostic black bill band. I have seen individuals with a more convincing P3 pattern, but the overall solid black wingtip (very limited grey tongues on P7/8) and deeply hooked bill leave no doubt that it's armenicus:

Large numbers of Loggerhead Sea Turtles were washed up dead or dying on the coast over the last few weeks. This one was washed up on the beach this morning.

Some of the few remaining Mountain Gazelles still roam on the vegetated coastal dunes. Sad to see numbers of this globally Endangered mammal dwindling.

Thanks to Guy (NPA) and his team for a great day out.

Champions of the Flyway - day 4 - race day

Sitting here in Schiphol Airport waiting for my next flight back home, and my head is still buzzing with Israeli birds and people. What an amazing climax to the pre-race days. It was a tough day with high temperatures and strong winds, but there were more migrants around than in previous days. I spent the day race with teams in the field, helping teams to get on birds, to stay focused and to keep motivated. Pre-dawn I was with some teams at IBRCE. Sadly the Lesser White-fronted Goose did not roost there that night. After dawn I went up to Seifim Plains but had to stop to admire the fabulous raptor migration low over the Eilat Mts. I saw a many hundred Steppe Buzzards in few minutes - daily total counted by IBRCE team was over 40,000. I failed to photograph impressive thermals / kettles.

Buck Ibex not understanding what all the fuss is about

Sunrise in Eilat Mts.

Seifim Plains were fairly quiet but we had there one Bimaculated Lark and several wheatar species. Late in the morning I went with Jonathan to Yotvata. The Turkestan Shrike settled down in a pumpkin field that was whopping with birds, mainly wheatears (lots of Black-ears) and about 50 Lesser Kestrels. The shrike looked good in sunlight rather than dust-storm light. 

Short-toed Lark

Spanish Sparrows

In the early afternoon I went to have a quick look at a White-tailed Lapwing that had been found near IBRCE. It looked pretty knackered in the heat, and light was very harsh for photography. Fine bird nevertheless.

Then teams started to assemble in KM20 saltpans, picking up important species. We did our best to assist the teams struggling with time to find the key species quickly. The Lesser Flamingo was showing alright in the afternoon sunlight:

Wind-swept Glossy Ibises

In the evening North Beach held many teams, using the last minutes of light to catch up with North Beach regulars.

Heuglin's Gull

After dark some teams went for more nightbirding, but I had to attend early retiring teams and play the Bad Cop role. My night ended very late after all the teams had returned and handed in their lists. Incredible efforts!
To be continued...

From desert to gulls

Yesterday afternoon I drove down to Neot Hakikar. On the way down near Mamshit a group of seven Hill Sparrows crossed the road in front of my face - almost hit one of them... (Lior - Just almost...). Good start!

When I got down to the valley the weather was unstable, with gusting winds from changing directions. Even though it was monsoon-like hot, soaring conditions were bad and I had some Steppe Eagles going down to the ground (out of view) and some White Storks as well.

The evening tour was very good with about 10 singing Nubian Nightjars, and good views of the owl as well. Namaqua Dove before dusk was a nice bonus for the clients.

Today I had a quick look at the gull flock at the Safari park. About 50 armenians, 25 yellow-legs, 2 heuglin's and 2 caspians. Even though the armenians don't breed in Israel, the adults are already busy courting:

Armenian Gulls

Heuglin's Gull - very small individual, perhaps female

I had in total five ringed Yellow-legged Gulls. In the next image, the bird on the right hatched in 2010, and the bird on the left hatched in 2011. The seemed to be paired - the one on the right is the female. They both look adult-like, apart for the wing - note here the heavy wear:

And when the 4cy bird takes off the wing details are apparent:

This one hatched in 2012:

This one hatched in 2013:

And I ringed this female in April 2013 - check the size difefrence to the male:

The males are real brutes now: 

I am the boss!

I love you baby

This poor 2cy armenian probably won't make it very far with this fishing lure stuck to its face:

Kites, owls and gulls

Yesterday I joined a tour organized by Yossi Leshem with some leading governement officials, to promote conservtaion and birding in southern Israel via the new government-supported network of bird observatories. It was an interesting group and we had a good time together.

Met up with them in the afternoon at the Dudaim national rubbish dump, in the N Negev. The site hosts about 35,000 Black Kites every winter - they feed mainly on the garbage but cover a huge radius around the dump daily, creating some serious flight saftey hazards. Smelly and noisy experience but still an awesome sight: 

  

In the evening I took them to a remote wadi in the Judean Desert. We tried to see Hume's Owl - we had a responsive male calling back at us instantly, but he never showed himself. It was an inspiring experience neverthelss.

Today I visited the Ramat Gan Safari zoo to collect a rehabilitated gull for release. Checked the regular gull flock that was bigger and more varied than usual today - about 300 gulls, including Armenian, Yellow-legged, Caspian, Siberian, Baltic and Steppe Gulls.

Armenian Gull

Siberian Gull

Caspian Gull

Putative Steppe Gull - dark bluish mantle, small, front-positioned eye, awkward forward-leaning posture, long bill

 One of my ringed Yellow-legged Gulls: