Mud monitoring

This morning I did my first raptor monitoring transect of the season, in the NW Negev. This area too received large amounts of rain recently, and as a result the tracks were terribly muddy. By the end of the day I was pretty exhausted of fighting the mud. Got bogged a few times, one of them seriuosly enough that I had to be pulled out of the mud by a tractor after another 4WD that tried to pull me out got bogged himself (thanks Harel and Itai).

But in between I did see some raptors and other birds along the 20 km transect.

Saker - 1cy

It seems that the Sakers that overwinter in NW Negev have very low survival rates as every year we have there almost solely fresh juveniles.

Other falcons I had were three Peregrines and one Merlin. I had three Eastern Imperial Eagles, two adults and a 1cy. This is an adult of course:

Buzzard numbers are lower this year compared to last winter - I had only 11 Long-legged Buzzards and 9 Common Buzzards.

Long-legged Buzzard - 1cy (pale eye), rufous morph

No pallids but four Hen Harriers:

Found the regular Sociable Lapwing flock but they were too deep inside a muddy field surrounded by muddy tracks, so gave up on the photo op. Had 11 Golden Plovers among the many Northern Lapwings:

Some nice mixed flocks of seedeaters including Goldfinches, Linnets and Spanish Sparrows:

Steppe Grey Shrike!

Israel (and the Middle East) experienced the most dramatic storm in about 100 years. This caused some disasters in parts of the country, especially in Jerusalem and Safed - heavy snowfall collapsed many trees that ripped powerlines. As a result tens of thousands of families were left electricity-less during the freezing cold storm. In my part of the country it didn't snow (too low) but rainfall was massive - about 300 mm of rain in three days; it just never stopped raining. My village was cut off for half a day after two trees collapsed on the main road and a tiny creek collected so much runoff water that it went overflowing, and blocked the road. We hosted some refugees who couldn't make it to Jerusalem (all roads to Jerusalem were closed for three days) - my brother's family and my mother, so our house became a refugee camp for the weekend. But it was nice and cosy, sometimes a bit too cosy. 

Today the weather was fine at last and we could all go out. When I left home I was greeted with this fantastic view. Visibility was superb and I had these views of Hebron Mts. about 30 km away.

I was supposed to do a raptor monitoring transect this morning but the mud was so bad that I had no chance to do it, will have to wait for another day or two and let the mud dry up a bit. Instead I drove to look for the Steppe Grey Shrike Eyal Shochat found yesterday near Hanegev junction. For about an hour I couldn't see the bird despite intensive searching. Had some other birds while doing this. Two Desert Wheatears:

Two Finsch's Wheatears. This bird looks like a female but it sang continuously. Is it a 1cy male?

And a more classic male:

Isabelline Wheatear to complete the wheatear theme: 

Two Tawny pipits: 

And two flyby Calandra Larks among a flock of skylarks.

Eventually I got in touch with the shrike. It was extremely mobile and shy. I had good enough views but photography was difficult - these are the only half-decent record shots I got:

Steppe Grey Shrike - 1cy

Steppe Grey Shrike is rare (but not mega) in autumn, typically in southern Israel, but there are only few winter records. though it must be overlooked in remote parts of the desert. Anyway, great find by Eyal, and a fine individual with this pinkish wash on underparts.

The Dead Sea

First seawatching attempt of the season this morning was fruitless, despite good stromy conditions. A short visit to Ashkelon produced very little, and nothing pelagic - some gulls (Baltic, Heuglin's, Caspian, Armenian, Slender-billed and Black-headed) and five Sandwich Terns on the beach. Don't worry, my counting abilities are OK, one took off before I got my camera on the group...

Sandgrouse monitoring

This morning I took part in the Sandgrouse monitoring project organized by IOC / NPA. I counted at Nizzana sewage ponds. Arrived early, before the sandgrouse, and birded for about an hour. Didn't see anything special but it was so good to be out birding again after too long without porper birding. Still I had 1 Ferruginous Duck and 4-5 Moustached Warblers.

Eurasian Sparrowhawk at first sunlight

Pretty low numbers of sandgrouse came in to drink later on. I guess it's the result of heavy rain in the area a few weeks ago, and cold temperatures, which means the birds probably couldn't bother flying long distances to drink. I had only 33 Black-bellied Sandgrouse - that's it.

A third of the total number of sandgrouse I had this morning:

Northern Holiday

Spent the last three days with my family up in the north on holiday. In order not to destroy the family part of the holiday (Like I did in summer at Eilat), I decided to leave my big lens and scope at home. On Tuesday afternoon we visited Agamon Hula. The weather was pretty bad but still I took the kids on the mobile hide tour which was awesome. I had OK views of the long-staying Bean Goose (3rd record for Israel; am I the only Israeli birder who has bothered to see all three?) feeding among the cranes. Nothing else extraordinary.

On Wednesday afternoon we visited Gamla NR which was beautiful. Apart for the scenery I had one Black Vulture among the 15 Griffons, the pair of Bonelli's Eagles showed well, and some winter classics there - Rock Sparrows, Little Swifts, Crag Martins, Finsch's Wheatears and Blue Rock Thrushes. On the way in we bumped into this Red Fox with beautiful winter fur - It was close enough for my 28-135 mm lens to get a shot.

Happy Birdday

This morning I left home too early for a non-birding day. Today was our annual national bird day, at the Tel Aviv University, with lectures and mingling in the recipe. It was an important day for me personally becuase today we launched our new website - the Israeli Birding Website. At the moment only the Hebrew version is online at http://www.birds.org.il/he/index.aspx . The English version (and app) should be ready in a few months, before spring. I have been working on this new system with my colleagues for two years, and the last month was really hectic, trying to complete everything before today's launch. 

My role today was to present the new system, which went OK I think. In addition I had another lecture (about my progress towards the first State of the Birds report for Israel), and I presented the winners in the Amit Geffen photo competiton I organize and produce every year. So all in all it was a very busy day for me but highly successfull, and great to meet so many good people from all over the country.

Now that I have this day behind me, I can go back to the field! Damn, I haven't seen a bird for three weeks now, and I'm really stressed. Hope to get some good birding done within the next few days.