Pussycat

Today I officialy started my fieldwork season. My major project this spring is an ambitious breeding bird atlas of a very special habitat - Batha. It's chracterized by open rocky slopes with very thick but low plant cover (see image in the bottom of this post). This habitat is highly threatened in Israel. It depends on a very fragile equilibrium maintained by medium-level grazing and fire. Over most of the country this habitat has been developed or degraded through overgrazing on the one hand or undergrazing and under-fires on the other hand. Its unique bird species are all probably declining in Israel - Long-billed Pipit, Eastern Black-eared Wheatear, Cretzschmar's Bunting etc. but we don't have enough data on their population sizes and densities, distribution and trends. So this year we're doing southern and central Israel, and next year we'll do the north. I have a highly professional team working with me, and I will do quite a lot of fieldwork myself until mid May, so stay posted on how things are going with this project.

Today I checked the Batha at Lahav North reserve - one of my favourite birding sites locally. Arrived early and it was still crisp cold but already lots of birds singing at half light. During the morning I had three pairs of Long-billed Pipit. The females must be on eggs now as I hardly saw any - only once (see below). But the males were very vocal and performed display flights flying back and forth over the valleys and hills. As always, they were very mobile and difficult to photograph.

Long-billed Pipit

Good density of Spectacled Warbler - I had 12 pairs this morning: 

Summer visitors seem to be lingering - no Eastern Black-eared Wheaters yet, and only one pair of Cretzschmar's Bunting. The male landed near me for a second before taking off - crap photo of a lovely bird: 

But definitely the best bird of the morning was this Wildcat. I noticed it thanks to a pair of Long-billed Pipits that mobbed it. Stood there for a second and then moved on. Very cool!

Wildcat (Felis silvestris)

Other mammals included Mountain Gazelles, Golden Jackals, Red Fox and Cape Hare.

Almost as large as a mammal - Eggar Moth (Lasiocampa grandis) caterpillar - huge!

 Woodchat Shrike showing the way

Lahav North NR

Eilat Festival update day 5 - wheatear masterclass

Blogging on the road is not easy but I will do my best. Here are my adventures as of yesterday. I will post some more fresh stuff from today later on tonight.

So we (Dan, Martin G, Neil G and myself) started off early and went to check the Basalt Wheatear out. It has been showing only on and off over the last few days and has become less predictable, and we were not surprised not to find it in its usual spot. Only after extensive searching it was located some distance to the north by French birders (thanks guys!), and it showed very well in nice morning light. Martin started screaming like a little girl - it was one of his most-wanted birds of the trip.

Basalt Wheatear

Some bastard ringed it last week so I appologize for the ring (it was me...)

Big lens small lens - Rami and Martin

Satisfied we left for Neot Smadar. The place was just unbelievable - I have not seen such huge numbers of migrants for a long long time. In fact for the first time after many years I had the feeling that I am not keeping up with the speed of new exciting birds on show. It felt like a toy shop where one can choose a bird of one's choice. We did some walking through the fields outside the kibbutz and had a quick look at the alfalfa field inside the kibbutz. Hundreds and hundreds of common and scarce migrants of all sorts. The trend of quality wheatears continued and Martin and myself had a great time studying both Pied and Cyprus Wheatears.

Pied Wheatear - 2cy male - this bird showed very well just at the gate. Note the long, thick legs, relatively long and massive bill. Lots of white on the rump. Long primary projection. Pied Wheatear migrates longer distances than cyprus, so it has a different wing formula - longer primary projection, very pointed wingtip (P2 and P3 very close together), short P1.

Then this 2cy male Cyprus Wheatear showed exceptionally well inside the kibbutz, even singing occasionally. Another bird was in the same field, a female. Note more compact and delicate build - small sweet-looking bill, rounded head, thin legs, short primary projection with fewer visible primaries. Note prominent moult limit indicating this is a 2cy. Very limited white on rump, hardly climbing up the back.

Lots of commoner wheatears present too, including this very dull and rather dark female Eastern Black-eared Wheatear. Female pied would be much sootier and darker, with darker breast and some faint streaking on breast and upper flanks.

Another beautiful thrush - male Rock Thrush:

After a good breakfast Neil and myself headed to north beach for a quick look. Just outside the hotel we spotted this Osprey perched on a street lamp overlooking the sea, totally oblivious of the heavy traffic below it:

North beach was rather quiet but still had the two long-staying Brown Boobies, Western Reef Egret, Sibe and Baltic Gulls and this ugly Striated Heron:

In the evening I led the Rambo Night tour. Both nightjars - egyptian and nubian showed extremely well. Then off to the Judean Desert. This time luck was on our side and we had superb views of a male Hume's Owl, perched, hooting and then flying around, and heard another female nearby. Very special desert experience of walking on a moonlit night in a remote wadi. This time it was Neil's turn to scream like a little girl. When we arrived back at our minibus we saw a Wild Cat feeding on some rubbish left by campers - cool stuff. Arrived back at Eilat at 03:00, two hours of sleep and back in the field. To be continued...

Festival update - day 6 - Lesser Sand-plover!

I spent the morning doing non-birding stuff. After lunch I led a nightjar tour. We began with a quick look at the putative Lesser Sand-plover at KM20. To me this is the bird of the festival. Of course it is not an easy bird to identify, but to my eyes & knowledge this seems like a good candidate for atrifrons. In the field the bird really struck me as being different from all the petite Greater sands I had ever seen. Even though the bill is rather on the long side for atrifrons, I think it is still within the normal variation of this form. More details such as the state of wear and no advance in summer plumage, leg colour and wing pattern fit well. Unfortunately I had only my 400 mm lens with me, hence the crap images. Hopefully it sticks around for tomorrow morning when I will try to get better shots.

With Kentish Plover:

Showing its wingbars:

After that we had a good search for Arabian Warblers at Shezaf reserve, but only I managed brief views of a newly-fledged juvenile. Other local species showed well however.

We ended the day with a breathtaking performance of Nubian Nightjars - calling, displaying, foraging, all in a magical moonlit night in the desert. This performance was complimented by a close encounter with a Wild Cat!