B&W fall

Yesterday I worked in yet another remote wadi deep in the desert, this time in the high Negev Mts. west of Mitzpe Ramon. Same routine: leave home at silly o'clock, drive deep into the desert on rough 4X4 tracks, then walk the polygon and do point counts. Then drive back to road, and back home. Routine might sound a bit boring, but when I am treated to scenery like this, I can't complain:

Breeding birds were doing well, feasting on caterpillars in the lush wadis. Mourning Wheatear, Trumpeter Finch, Desert Lark and Scrub Warbler are the dominant species in this habitat, all evidently having a good breeding season. Scarcer breeding species included Lesser Short-toed Lark, Spectacled Warbler and Isabelline Wheatear.

Baby Mourning Wheatear

All along the walk on the hills, good numbers of Tawny and Tree pipits, and Ortolans were moving around. As we descended from the hills towards the lush wadi, it became clear that there's a big fall of migrants. The first Collared Flycatcher was spotted perched high up on a cliff. Then another, and another, and another, all in non-habitat, a small grassy wadi with scattered low bushes. Then quickly a Wryneck, Whinchat, Pied Fly, Wood Warbler, Redstart, nightingales, tens of Sylvia warblers - migration magic. More and more migrants kept showing up as we moved along the wadi. Scenes of five Collared Flys in one bush. Or another tiny bush hosting Collared Fly, Redstart, Nightingale and Wood Warbler. Like a total amateur, my camera battery died just then... While my main task was to record breeding evidence of local birds, it was such fun to dive in to this migration experience and forget all about breeding bird atlas...

One of many Collared Flycatchers

Wood Warbler

This fall of B&W flycatchers, possibly unprecedented, is generating a lot of interest in Israel:

Besides birds, there was some butterfly interest as well. I am not a butterfly expert, but the person I was working with yesterday is, and he introduced me to a range-restricted, interesting butterfly: Bladder Senna Blue (Lolana alfierii), that is specific to the bush Bladder Senna (Colutea istria), sometimes associated with the biblical Senna bush. 

In Israel the bush and butterfly are found only in this region. The bush is now in full flower, attracting lots of insects and birds. Each bush we checked attracted tons of Sylvia warblers and several individuals of this little butterfly, though most were found perched on the ground besides the bushes.

Day and night

What an excellent day this was. In the morning I checked Baths of Aphrodite, mainly inside the caravan park. It was alive with migrants - not huge numbers on the ground but cool stuff and some cooperative birds. Highlights were Barred Warbler, 6 Collared Flycatchers, 5 Wood Warblers, and good movement of hirundines out towards Akamas Peninsule - I assume from there next stop is SW Turkey. It's a lovely site - backdrop against the sea, Cyprus Junipers on the steep slopes - really enjoyable. eBird checklist here.

Collared Flycatchers - all 2cy males

Wonderful Warbler

Whinchat - female

Whinchat - male

Spotted Flycatcher

 

Several pairs of Cyprus Wheatear breed at the caravan park. Check out this neat male:

I was wondering whether their niche extends down to the coast - well it does:

In the afternoon we did a family walk in Paphos Forest, mainly around the Mouflon enclosure at Stavros tis Psokas and nearby Selladi Tou Stavrou. Beautiful scenery but I think that the cold weather reduced bird activity (modest eBird checklist here). Two out of three target subspecies were seen: Cyprus Coal Tits were quite active but never descended from treetops; a couple of dorotheae Short-toed Treecreepers showed quite well by the cafe at Stavros tis Psokas; no sign of crossbills. 

Orchis troodi (endemic) - thanks Matt for ID

Red Admiral

In the evening, back at our accommodation, Cyprus Scops Owl became very vocal after dusk. One individual sat on our chimney and sang so beautifully. I sound-recorded him from the living room through the fire place - quite cool...

While writing this he still is out there, doing his double-hoot. Goo-hood night.

NCT at BKA and YBW at JCT

Had some time for birding today before and between meetings. On the way out checked my alfalfa field at Bet Kama - impressive numbers of Red-throated Pipits (500), fewer Yellow Wags, some Bluethroats, Northern Wheatears now outnumbering Isabelline. Nice to see a pair of Caspian Stonechats (hemprichii or NCT is Svensson's new taxonomic study). The male was very active and showed well.

  

Yummy!

The female (I presume it's the same taxon like the male) was much more mobile and shy, and I failed to get a shot of the open tail. However through the bins the tail looked all black.

Then I had a few meetings in Jerusalem. Yesterday my brother Gidon found a Yellow-browed Warbler in front of his balcony in the heart of the city, so today I paid my brother and the warbler a visit. It spent most of its time today on different trees, and visited the flowering Carrob tree in front of my brother's balcony only briefly, and most of the time too close for me to focus. Did get these record shots:

Yellow-browed Warbler 

It was very cool to sit down, drink coffee, eat a delicious cake, and watch this bird at eye-level. In this urban environemet, residential houses perform like canopy towers, hence the new name to my brother's house - Jerusalem Canopy Tower (JCT). On that same tree four Phylloscopus species, including this Wood Warbler my brother ringed yesterday.

Nizzana - another terrific day in the desert

Yesterday I surveyed another beautiful atlas box south of Ezuz. Again, beautiful habitat, many quality birds and fine weather.

I had two female MacQueen's Bustards with young chicks - good to see they had some breeding success (so far...). This male and myself surprised each other when I climbed over a hill:

Again, quality larks were the bon-ton. I had two breeding pairs each of Temminck's and Bar-tailed Larks, and even larger numbers of Lesser Short-toed Larks than my previous box - 30 singing males!
As always, migrants are very few in the desert wadis. Not even a single lesser white or blackcap in my box. The only species that was present in good numbers was Tree Pipit with over 40 birds:

This Wood Warbler was very sweet - I really love them:

After the box I had ten minutes to check Be'erotayim grove near Ezuz, and it was just packed with migrants, in contrast to the desert surrounding it. Many hundreds of sylvias were feeding on the Eucalyptus trees. Lots of good stuff around like shrikes, wrynecks, a couple more Wood Warblers, two Collared Flycatchers and this Semi-collared Flycatcher captured in this fantastic, prize-winning image:

This morning I added a new species two my garden list - two Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters flew overhead. Another interesting sighting was a lingering Siskin.