Back to the hills

After the short Cypriot break, I resumed fieldwork in the Batha hills north of Jerusalem. On Thursday I surveyed some higher-elevation hills. While bird densities were somewhat low, perhaps due to higher levels of anthropogenic disturbance, I did find most expected breeding species including Long-billed Pipit, Cuckoo, many Eastern Black-eared Wheatears and Cretzschmar's bunting. As expected at these higher elevations, there was quite good activity of Woodlark - top quality bird IMO.

That wing pattern

Zoothera Lark!

Also Spectacled Warblers were pretty active and showed nicely, though light was a bit harsh:

On Prickly Thornet (Sarcopoterium spinosum)

With Red Everlasting (Helichrysum sanguineum) bottom right

Despite the near-shrubless habitat, there were hordes of Blackcaps in the low bushes, and Ortolans, mainly on the move but some came down to drink in puddles:

Black-veined White are very common in this habitat:

Pyramidal Orchid is one of the latest-flowering orchids in Israel:

Yesterday in the afternoon I visited Gazelle Valley in Jerusalem with Piki and my brother. We searched without success for a Great Snipe that is still there. Big numbers of swifts were impressive - those ultra-aerobats drinking in the main pond against the sun provided some photographic opportunities that I barely grasped:

Gazelle Valley eBird checklist here.

Today was super-productive at my local patch and at home. I had a Little Bittern surprise me in the garden while hanging up laundry, and a Red-footed Falcon flew over.  An early morning visit to my patch, Nahal Ekron (see checklist here) produced the goods - Little and Spotted Crake, Little Bittern and Barred Warbler on a fantastic Mulberry tree that also hosted 2 Golden Orioles.

Mt. Hermon ringing weekend

Spent the weekend ringing on Mt. Hermon. We did our annual monitoring effort at the large ponds near the lower cable station, and it was busier than ever. We had a good, large team that coped well with the huge numbers - we ringed over 1600 birds (!) over the weekend, and collected huge amounts of data. I hope to get the total figures later this week after all the data gets punched in. It was already evident that it was a good breeding season on the mountain, with large numbers of juveniles of all species. Linnets were the most dominant species, with higher numbers than ever. We had no great surprises, but caught most expected low- and mid-altitude specialties, some in relatively large numbers. I appologize for the few images - I was really busy the whole weekend. I also appologize for the dust on the sensor of my old 20D, I couldn't bother clearing all the particles out with photoshop...

Western Rock Nuthatch - juvenile Sombre Tit - adult

Syrian Serin - 2cy male

Woodlark - adult

As always, it was so much fun just watching the thousands of birds coming in to drink, enjoy all the Hermon specialties around, the weather and the scenery. I spent about one hour in bad light trying some field photography which was quite useless. I managed only these half-decent images:

Syrian Serin - juvenile

Syrian Serin - adult male

In the field we did not see too much interesting stuff. Only one Crimson-winged Finch came down to drink. A Grey Wagtail was a nice mid-summer surprise. Eyal had an adult Red-fronted Serin briefly, bastard.

Galilee - so many birds!

Spent a full week of non-birding but walking and driving around the Galilee, from east to west. There were sooooooooooooooooo many birds around. Many winter birds showing in exceptionally large numbers. It feels like we are going to have a good winter here after a few bird-less winters. One of the most dominant species around was Hawfinch, with many sites holding tens of birds. Siskins also in large numbers. Some scarcer species such as Woodlark (many singing) and Dunnock were seen in fine numbers, especially on the higher peaks.
Saw some nice stuff during the week, including three Rose-coloured Starlings on 10/11 near Eilabun, two Rock Buntings in two sites, and several Mistle Thrushes and Redwings. It was a very intensive week and I'm happy to get back home. Tomorrow hope to get some ringing done - maybe Hawfinch?