He was looking kind of dumb with his crown and his...

Yesterday morning with Meidad to Nizzana area to do some things. Arrived early to look at some habitats under new risks near Nizzana. Saw there this impressive bull Dorcas Gazelle:

At the sewage ponds quite many tringas of four species already: green, wood, marsh and greenshank. This lost White Pelican has a nasty wound on the chest, didn't check whether it can fly or not:

Even when in terrible moult, they are still one of my favorite birds:

Desert Wheatear

Later on we checked a small drinking spot for Crowned Sandgrouse. They are relatively tame at this spot, but this was our first visit there and we were not able to get close without disturbing the birds, so images are rather poor. Hope to improve in the near future. About 40 birds came in to drink, no juveniles seen yet. I find the males to have this dumb face expression with the eye set well back in the middle of the head and a very 'open' face, but they are fine birds. 

Crowned Sandgrouse

I know nothing about moult in sandgrouse, so it is interesting to record moult with take-off images showing the moult stage nicely. This male seems to be in arrested moult: P1 to P4 moulted, P5 to P10 retained, with no signs of active moult.

This female is in much more advanced moult, apparently active: P1 to P7 moulted, P8 growing, P9-P10 retained:

Interesting to compare with this image taken on 18 October 2010, more than three months later, but very little advance in moult, though here it looks like active moult: 

 Francis, can you shed some light on these moult issues?

Turkish delight 5 - Eastern Rock Nuthatch

Our final target species for SE Turkey was Eastern Rock Nuthatch. We checked the dramatic section of the Euphrates gorge, above the picturesque village of Halfeti. I was expecting a difficult trek and some tricky identification issues, but eventually we saw quite many birds on top of the ridge but also right above the village (lifer #5!); some birds even flew down to forage on houses and roofs of the higher section of Halfeti. They are easy birds to identify, especially when seeing both rock nuthatches together. In fact we always saw them together. There seemed to be some kind of association between both species. Ecologically it is interesting to find two species so close to each other maintaining some kind of equilibrium. I suppose that their bills are different enough to reduce competition among species by using different food niches. 

Eastern Rock Nuthacth is just massive, with a huge bill. I have handled Western Rock Nuthatches in Israel, and hell, they can bite. These easterns must be real nasty birds to handle. They also have very thick and powerful legs - wonder what does that allow them to do.

Vocalizations are very different and their bellies are noticeably richer rufous, so they were easy to identify. Check those huge black braces running back on both sides of the neck.

One family of Eastern Rock Nuthatch showed extremely well, and were joined briefly by a pair of Western Rock Nuthatch.

Eastern Rock Nuthatch

Check those braces!

Underwing pattern similar to Long-legged Buzzard...

This is the first published image I have found of both species together. In this image you can really grasp the size and structure differences between both species.

Western Rock Nuthatch (left) and Eastern Rock Nuthatch (right) 

Western Rock Nuthatch (ssp?)

 

Family of Eastern Rock Nuthatches 

Typical habitat for Eastern Rock Nuthatch above Halfeti, SE Turkey. In the background is a dam on the Euphrates.

This is the last post from this short trip. On this occasion I'd like to thank my companions - Rami, Rony and Amir. It was great fun, lots of laughs, and good food (Urfa / Doner / Adana Kebab anyone?). No booze though. Rami was in charge of maps and intel. Rony did a great job driving, often on the wrong side of the road, but we returned in one piece which is the most important thing. Amir contributed some precious gases to the Ozone layer above Turkey. Thanks guys!

Turkish delight 4 - Chestnut-shouldered Petronia near Birecik

One more target species for Birecik area is Chestnut-shouldered Petronia AKA Yellow-throated Sparrow. Both names give this dull bird too much credit - it's almost as dull as an acro, but hey, it's a WP tick for me.

We found good numbers in the endless pistachio plantations between Birecik and Halfeti. We saw many families and lots of birds flying around. Some were very close to Birecik, right by the turnoff from the river road to Halfeti.

Here a male perched on a pistachio tree - the fruit should ripen in autumn.

We found this juvenile posing nicely on a treetop, and then its father arrived to feed it with a mulberry. Rony and myself got some good action shots, but I wish I was properly equipped for video photography - this scene is better displayed in video. Here the male arrives with the berry:

 And attempts to feed the youngster:

For some reason it didn't work, and the berry fell down. Luckily it got wedged on a lower branch, and papa stretched to pick it up:

Here we try again:

This time mission impossible, to stick a berry in juv's bill, was a great success. Papa wipes the juice off the bill on a branch: 

 

Yes, it has both yellow throat and chestnut lesser coverts. It calls more like a sparrow than a petronia, but elongated shape is like a petronia. 

Goodbye!

Forgot to mention previously the walk we did up the wadi from the Ibis center. Quite many warblers around - menetries's and upcher's. We tried very hard for See-see Partridge, and eventually saw two, albeit rather briefly, on the hills above the wadi (Lifer #4).

Turkish delight 3 - Iraq Babblers @ Birecik

After the fish owl success, we took an internal flight to Adana, collected a car and drove to Birecik - excellent highway so very fast and comfortable drive. Arrived at Birecik in the afternoon, checked in at the Mirkelam and drove straight away to the gravel pits on the western side of the Euphrates. We went there to search for target species # 2: Iraq Babbler. First recorded in Turkey only in 2006, they are now easy to see in the reedbeds of the gravel pits. On the first afternoon the weather was bad - very strong wind and thunderstorm plus rain, but next morning we easily located a family group of an adult plus four juveniles rather quickly (lifer #2). They are very sweet birds, very small and delicate compared to our brute Arabian Babbler. They really reminded me of Thick-billed Warblers - small, rounded wings and long tail, open face. We saw them very well as they were moving through the reedbed, feeding and doing some babbler-stuff like preening each other and socializing. We had brilliant views but I did not manage to get any good images - we were there twice in the very early morning, before sunrise, for rather brief visits (good excuses, ha?).

Iraq Babbler - juvenile

The reedbed there is good for passerines and other reedbed-birds.Unlike European birders visiting there, we did not get very excited by Dead Sea Sparrow, Black Francolin, Little Bittern and Great Reed Warbler, but still plenty of other good birds around. Unfortunately there is massive shooting taking place there, which made the visit less enjoyable. As a result we saw nothing larger than a passerine - no ducks, swamphens, herons, nothing. I hope Doga (BirdLife Turkey) do something quickly to protect this special site.

I did enjoy watching Menetries's Warblers there. Plenty of families were seen in the scruby edges of the reedbed at the gravel pits, and along the Ibis Center wadi (see next post). I managed to photograph only some 2cy males - note the very worn and brown remiges and GC. These are of the duller subspecies rubescens.

Menetries's Warbler - 2cy male

Amir

Another serious attraction at Birecik is the Northern Bald Ibis project (lifer #3, though slightly dodgy - see below). Critically Endangered, the population breeding at Birecik has enormous global importance. Once breeding inside town, now all 20-30 pairs (150 birds in total) breed in the colony on the cliff of the center. Sadly, each year the whole wild population needs to get trapped and prevented from migrating, as the risk is too high - massive hunting in all countries they need to migrate through means zero survival rates.

Northern Bald Ibis

Euphrates & Birecik

The Ibises are evident almost anywhere in town:

From Ashdod to Hantsholm

Received good news from the Israeli Ringing Center regarding a Lesser Whitethroat I ringed in October 2011 that was controlled in Hantsholm, Nordjylland, Denmark some days ago. 

Lesser Whitethroat is a classic loop-migrant. Massive numbers pass north through Israel in spring, but in autumn they probably take a more westerly route going south to Africa. However apparently even the smaller numbers in Israel in autumn are from W European origin. We have many controls of spring birds making their way NW to W Europe, but very few autumn controls.

Turkish delight 2 - Brown Fish Owls @ Oymapinar Reservoir

The main motivation for this Turkey trip was Brown Fish Owl. Until the 1970's Brown Fish Owl bred in riverine forest in northern Israel, but they were shot till the last one in 1975 and became extinct. I started birding just a few years later, so this is quite a mythical bird for me to see. I saw plenty in SE Asia but to see it here in the WP, and so close to Israel, is very exciting.

We took a boat tour with Ozcan Kilic of Vigotours - he certainly did the job, the boat was comfortable and suitable for this trip. Level of guiding (info treasmitted by the guide) was rather minimal though. Ozcan picked us up from our hotel at Yesil Vadi early in the morning. We drove to Oymapinar Reservoir, and sailed a boat to Grand Canyon (I think it's grand and not green but not sure...). No California Condors were seen. There is another pair of owls that bred in Little Canyon but apparenly their chicks had already fledged and we went for the Grand Canyon family.

The owls were found exactly where they were supposed to be. We were all very thrilled to see them - dream bird. So powerful and so beautiful. We had both adults (female huge! Like a bloody Steller's Sea Eagle) and one juvenile. The juv was in full size and already flying but apparently still attached to its parents.

At first light they were still moving around quite a bit, including flights accross the gorge, but light was too bad for my camera. Some nice poses on an exposed rock:

Brown Fish Owl - adult female

Later on they all settled down to roost - one adult out of sight, the second on an exposed branch, and the juvenile inside a Nerium oleander bush.

Brown Fish Owl - adult male

Brown Fish Owl - juvenile

We stayed there for about half an hour. The light did not improve much and all images were taken in very difficult condition, hence the mediocre results.

There were lots of other birds seen and heard during the trip. There's a nice colony of Yellow-legged Gull on an island at the entrance to the canyon, with one Baltic Gull among them. On the gorge wall we saw and heard Western Rock and Krueper's Nuthatches, Rock Buntings, Crag Martins etc. Rony enriched the aquatic fauna by dropping his flash into the water.

Grand Canyon

We had a good time on the boat. We were joined by some British celebrities - Lee Evans, Garry Bagnell and Keith Vinicombe (the latter identified only retrospectively from photographs).

So with Brown Fish Owl in the bag our trip was already a great success, and from here it could only improve. And it improved indeed...