UK debt

I returned from a family visit to the UK quite a while ago, and since I have been super busy and couldn't find the time to post a little more about the birding I did there. This wasn't a birding trip per-se, but with my ongoing eBird checklist streak challenge, I went out birding every day, even in the quietest period for birding in the UK. My four years outside of the UK made me re-appreciate even some of the commonest urban birds, which was nice. We were based with friends in Poringland, on the outskirts of Norwich, so most of my birding was done in that area. Local walks around the village were nice, as expected didn't produce special, a singing Yellowhammer was of note as they are pretty scarce around Norwich:

Slightly further away in Norfolk, an early morning visit to RSPB Hickling Broad was good. High breeding activity of many birds including Crane with babies, my first documentation photos of Bearded Reedling (fantastic birds!) and a most probable pratincole sp. that flew away without documentation. eBird checklist here.

We travelled with friends to Somerset for a few night of camping. A glorious morning visit to the three adjacent RSPB reserves of Shapwick Heath, Ham Wall and Greylake produced a singing male Little Bittern, and many Great Egrets, among many other breeding birds.

Western Marsh-Harrier

En route we stopped at Stonehenge, everyone was admiring the rocks and I was admiring rooks, and high densities of Corn Bunting and Skylark; no Great Bustard seen.

Rooks pic.twitter.com/hOiXdRENJi

— Yoav Perlman (@yoavperlman) May 27, 2022

I met up with Mike and we visited Dicklebburgh Moor OT NR, where we dipped on Turtle Dove (...) but were happy to find breeding Spotted Flycatcher in the nearby churchyard. So sad that this is the current state of the birds in the UK - and elsewhere, once common breeding birds are now something to write about.

On my final morning in the UK I visited RSPB Strumpshaw Fen, that was again bursting with breeding activity - so much bird song!

Till next time!

Fine bunting

This morning I went birding at Wadi Kos which is in southern Jerusalem, near the neighbourhood of Gilo. Avner Rinot found there last week two Pine Buntings among a nice flock of Yellowhammers. Arrived there in the morning and was joined by Ron Haran. Together we worked our way down the wadi birding the slopes covered with almond and olive trees. Took us some time to get onto the bunting flock but eventually we found a flock of 15. They were very very shy and mobile, like they usually are here in Israel. Took me a while to scan through them but eventually managed to get only brief views of a female Pine Bunting - no image. 

Yellowhammer

Other than lots of common finches and thrushes, one Fieldfare was the only other bird of note.

So common that Ihave never bothered photographing them before - Hooded Crows:

This was quite a sentimental morning for me. I grew up in Jerusalem, very close to where we were birding this morning. I used to bird this area as a kid almost daily. In winter we had a regular flock of about 100 Yellowhammers and 25-30 Pine Buntings in that area, but since the huge developement in that area, buntings went missing from this area for some years. So it was really good to be back in the area, bird in the habitat I know so well from childhood.

Wadi Kos

Birding in the Upper Galillee

This morning I met up with Nadav and his team up in the Galillee mountains. Our main mission was to ring Goldcrests. This seems to be a very good winter for this rare bird in Israeli standards. In this particular spruce grove, we had 10-15 birds, which is an Israeli record I guess!
As you understand we caught nothing; the birds just wouldn't come down low enough to get caught. I spent some time trying to photograph them but no results at all - they're so fast! This is how my images looked like:

But this is not totally useless as these pretty spruce branches could make excellent perches for future projects:

Anyway, after that failure we had some time to check the beautiful pistachio and almond orchards of Birya. This is Israel's prime site for Pine Bunting, and indeed we had two - I had a female (all too brief) and Nadav had a cooperative male. They were hanging around with 30 Yellowhammers - another good bird:

Apart for that a flock of 20 Woodlarks were nice:

They actaully perch on trees!