Hula weekend

Spent the weekend up in the Hula Valley with my wife, my brother and his wife. No kids. Good food, wine, spectacular scenery and a little bit of birding in between.
In the Agamon, Barny is still present - patiently waited for my brother:

Nice to see the beautiful, petite Demoiselle Crane among the 47k Common Cranes, luckily outside the main feeding area:

A crane or two... Always a treat to be on a mobile hide tour

White-tailed eagle

5 Marbled Ducks in Hagome junction fishponds

The Beauty and the Beast

A young Black (AKA Cinereous) Vulture was found by Ezra Hadad in the Judean Plains about a week ago. It's been hanging around the area since, and this morning I went with Amir Balaban to have a look at this impressive bird. First thing in the morning it was already present in the regular reservoir, feeding on a jackal caracass. When it heated up a bit it moved around the fields, accompanied by an Imperial Eagle.

Black Vulture used to breed in Israel until the 19th centruy. In recent decades it's a regular but rare winter visitor to areas with griffons - mainly Golan Heights and Negev Mt. It is very rare in C Israel.

Yoram Shpirer got some impressive results of it a few days ago. Mine are not as good but I hope you can feel the power and beauty of this bird.

With a miniature Black Kite

 With and Eastern Imperial Eagle

 I wish I was sat in Yoram's hide early this morning...

Supporting cast included also the young White-tailed Eagle, several more imperials, and a few ten White-headed Duck.

White-tailed Eagle

This morning I participated in the national waterbird census organized by the NPA. My team checked several reservoirs in the S Judean Plains and coastal plains. We began late after we got a report on poachers shooting gazelles not too far away. Unfortunately the bastards managed to disappear before we arrived.
Birdwise, things were pretty slow with waterfowl numbers much lower than usual. This is somewhat surprising bringing into account the terrible weather conditions north of us this winter.
Zohar reservoir was the only productive water body. This beautiful reservoir is big and complex, with developed vegetation and always supports a great diversity. One of the first birds we saw was this huge White-tailed Eagle, spooking all the ducks and being harrassed constantly by crows. It was nice to see a 'real' bird, without rings, wingtags or antennas . I apologize for the miserable record shots - the bird was very distant.

Other quality birds there were two juv White-fronted Geese (my first geese this winter), 6 Ferruginous Ducks among the many other Aythyas, 3 Great Crested Grebes, and over 50 Wigeon.

There were about 500 cormorants and a single Pelican thrashing the fish in the reservoir in a real feeding frenzy: