My favourite mistake

 On Wednesday evening news broke of a first for Israel - Sharp-tailed Sandpiper found by Shachar Shalev at KM20 saltpans in Eilat. Excellent find by Shachar - well done! Shachar sent me breaking news from the field at 18:22, over three hours drive to Eilat, too late...

Few hours later I made my way down south to Eilat with a car full of hopeful twitchers. We arrived in Eilat at dawn, and started working the saltpans. The conditions were harsh, with very strong wind making all the shorebirds very flighty and viewing through telescope challenging. We did our very best, together with few other twitchers (less than 10...). We circled the saltpans for many hours, again and again and again. We kept finding new birds, coming in and shifting between sections, which gave us hope that the sharpie might be hiding somewhere. We also checked other wetlands in the area, but sadly, after half a day of intensive searching we had to give up and admit a dip. There was no sign of the bird - it may have departed overnight. 

Thankfully, it was not all gloomy. The KM20 saltpans were full of birds to the brim. They were moving around constantly, and it was clear that new birds were arriving through the morning. Scenes like a tight flock of Wood Sandpipers dropping out of the sky, or a graceful flock of Gull-billed Terns arriving low over the saltpans and resting on the track, are always thrilling.

Gull-billed Terns with lazy Slender-billed Gulls

Closer

A little closer

Not too close (big crop)

Wood Sandpipers fresh in - who knows how many miles they flew nonstop before landing here, seemingly exhausted

In central and northern Israel, Glossy Ibis is a trash bird, resident and often frolicking in horrible sewage ponds and other ugly sites. Down in Eilat I receive a good reminder that in fact part of the population are proper migrants, like this quartet (presumingly) arriving fresh in from Africa.

There were several goodies mixed in with the common species. Terek Sandpiper is always a treat to watch, I love their upcurved bill:

A few Broad-billed Sandpipers were present, some of them with more rufous plumage that this rather monochromatic individual, still very beautiful to my eyes:

Great Sand-Plover, likely a female

Ruddy Turnstone is a bit of a novelty down in Eilat, especially when in such bright breeding plumage

We also had a White-tailed Lapwing at IBRCE, and a Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse at their regular site, KM20 entrance grove. Then it was the long way back home, on the one hand disappointed by the dip, on the other hand quite satisfied after an excellent birding session (eBird checklist here). Philosophical thoughts about the meaning of twitching become even darker after a dip.

A few words about conservation:

KM20 saltpans are a world-famous and globally important stopover site and birding site. This site is well familiar to so many birders who have visited Eilat in recent decades. This fantastic migration hotspot is primarily a commercial salt production facility. Worryingly, the saltpans will go through serious changes in the next few years. We are working together with the salt company and other partners to find sustainable solutions that will maintain the importance of this site for migratory birds, as well as development of alternative solutions for migratory birds near IBRCE. More on this to come.

Super duper

On Monday I left home too early, to make it on time to a boat trip out of Eilat. At first light, while cruising through Hameishar Plains, I noticed a lovely herd of Onager by the road - had to stop and film them quickly. It was really dark; only on the computer screen I noticed there were some birds in the frame too - a Woodchat Shrike, and perhaps another shrike in the foreground:

A quick birding stop at Neot Smadar revealed a nice variety of migrants, albeit in small numbers - wagtails, hirundines, shrikes, wheatears, buntings, warblers - not bad. eBird checklist here.

23+20=RBS

I met up with Noam at IBRCE, where I parked my car as we had arranged to drive together to the dock where our boat was moored. When I stepped out of the car, Noam walked towards me out of the ringing hut smiling from cheek to cheek, holding a bird. Menetries's Warbler! Fantastic bird, extremely early (they're even rarer in autumn than in spring, usually in November), perfect timing for me... Time for a quick snap, under pressure, we had to shoot off; wrong camera settings and harsh light make the tail look less pitch-black and overall more warm-toned than it was in real life. 

Menetries's Warbler, 1cy, IBRCE, 7 September 2020. Pinkish flush on breast may suggest it belongs to ssp. mystacea

Then it was time for the main show. I joined the monthly pelagic monitoring trip, organised by INPA and IBRCE. On the boat were INPA's Chen and Eran, and IBRCE's Noam and Iris.We set off from Eilat at 08:30, and headed out towards our regular spot, as close as possible to the border triangle Israel - Egypt - Jordan. Strong northerlies made the sea relatively rough (not like southern ocean rough, but there were white crests), which made scanning rather challenging. We spent over three hours chumming, nada. Nothing came in to check the chum, and there were no seabirds around us at all. As we started talking about a pack-up and retreat, suddenly a storm-petrel was spotted fluttering over the slick, out of nowhere. It spent few seconds over the slick, about 50 m away, good light conditions. It showed a small size and big white rump extending down to undertail coverts - Wilson's Petrel! It happened all too fast for any photos to be taken, sadly. The storm-petrel then continued south and landed on the water, too far to get any details on it. We tried to edge towards it, but were immediately called out by the navy, warning us not to drift across the border. We waited for a while, hoping the bird would return to check the slick, but it didn't and we lost contact with it.

Wilson's and I have a bit of history together. The first record for Israel, in 1983, was before I started birding. Then 33 years of nothing, until in September 2016 Noam blasted with a fantastic record. In 2017, another tasty record, this time two were seen. During these years I lived in the UK, and watched with envy my friend's lists growing. These records suggested that Wilson's Storm-Petrel (and Swinhoe's) is a regular summer/autumn visitor to the Gulf of Aqaba. In 2018, shortly after my return to Israel, I tried a couple of times. Blank. In 2019, again, nothing, 'just' a Swinhoe's. July 2020 - again, a single bird recorded by Noam and INPA, photo by Gal Marinov: 

In August one more try - swinhoe's again but no wilson's. I didn't give up, and I'm glad I didn't - finally Wilson's Storm-Petrel is on my list.

We returned to shore, Noam smiling from cheek to cheek for the second time that day. It became very hot (43 ⁰C), I was very tired and wanted to get back home. Despite these, KM20 saltpans lured me for a quick check. I did not regret. The pans were exploding with shorebirds - best form I have seen them in many years. Many thousands of shorebirds, huge numbers of Little Stint and Ringed Plover, several more species in impressive numbers, quality in the form of two Terek Sands, four Black-winged Pratincloes, six Broad-billed Sands, a Red-necked Phalarope - very good fun. I wish I had more time in better conditions - not easy to quickly pick up a semiP in strong wind and scorching heat. Next time. ebird checklist here.

Class of September 2020, from left: Common Redshank, Wood Sandpiper, Terek Sandpiper, Western Yellow wagtail, Common Ringed Plover, Marsh Sandpiper

Thanks agaim to Noam, Iris and IBRCE team, and to Eran and Chen of INPA - I wish us all many more successful days like this one.

My Eilat fix

In most springs I spend a considerable amount of time in Eilat, around COTF - Eilat Bird festival, and other opportunities to bird in this incredible migration hotspot. This year, as soon as COVID-19 pandemic broke, COTF and festival were cancelled, and Eilat was sealed off completely to outsiders. Only on Thursday lockdown was lifted, and I took the opportunity to spend some time there with Jonathan. In the morning we actually did a ringing session at Ashalim Reservoir, in the southern dead Sea.

This site experienced a severe contamination event a couple of years ago. We're participating in a research that checks the presence of pollutants in feather of local birds. Ringing was somewhat slow, but this stunning male Collared Flycatcher certainly brightened our morning!

After we were done we headed south towards Eilat. We were left heartbroken after finding this beautiful young female Striped Hyena roadkilled. So sad.

A quick stop at Yotvata produced many Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters:

Down at Eilat, we birded the traditional sites - it was so good to be back. Passerine migration was a bit slow, bar Blackcaps that were everywhere. However, KM20 saltpans were exploding with shorebirds (eBird checklist here). There were lots of good species there too, including incredible numbers of Broad-billed Sands, Red-necked Phalaropes, and the star was a Terek Sandpiper found by Shachar:

Jonathan and I did a live birding session for Swarvoski Optik. We had found the perfect spot, tons of close shorebirds, and just as we started the live session a Peregrine decided to land exactly there and flushed everything - frustrating! Still it was good fun.

Namaqua Doves - just for fun

In the late afternoon there was a terrific descent of raptors to roost down in the valley, mainly on Aqaba side. Thousands and thousands of Euro Honey-Buzzards and Levants drifted low, in golden evening light - fantastic. One of the local Oriental Honeys was seen too. At dusk, seven Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse flew over IBRCE to drink in Aqaba, excellent end to the looooong day.

Next morning (Friday) we started off at IBRCE, where Levants were darting between the trees, leaving the small passerines startled.

Quite many Honey Buzzards had roosted in the park too.

A surprising dark morph Clamorous Reed Warbler showed very well at Lake Anita:

Rufous-tailed Scrub-Robin is such a cool bird

Back at KM20, the terek was still around, but despite trying really hard, we failed to pull some real quality out of the hundreds of Little Stints. Here are seven (out of 26) Broad-billed Sands, with some friends:

Again, excellent raptor migration developed overhead.

The raptors drifted north, and we followed them, leaving back home too early due to domestic commitments. Till next time...

Terek

Long day today. Left home very early, met up with Barak and we were at Ma'agan Michael at 05:45. We birded mainly along the beach - checked several lagoons and puddles. Quite good numbers of shorebirds and nice variety. Best was this lovely Terek Sandpiper:

Other stuff included Whimbrel, Oystercatcher, 24 Greater Sand-plovers, 5 Sanderling. 2 Gull-billed Terns and 13 Gargeney coming in off the sea.

Sanderling

Still good tern activity on the beach:

Then I had a series of meetings, finalizing projects and saying goodbye to colleagues before leaving.

When I headed back home, Hamas fired two rockets towards my village. They were intercepted by Iron Dome. Today was a 'slow' day with 'only' 50 rockets fired by crazy Hamas towards Israel.

The moon is beautiful tonight: