East Hills

Nice day on East Hills today - another one of those sites I had heard so much about. Low tide was at midday so we were forced to a late start, which was a good excuse for us lazy and mildly hung-over birders not to make an early start. The weather was brilliant, too brilliant in fact - pretty strong easterly but sunny and warm, but no rain. We parked at Warham Green and had a look around - some migrants there, including 2 Pied Flys, Spotted Fly, Redstart and I also heard a Yellow-browed Warbler. Two Spoonbills were on the saltmarsh. We headed off towards East Hills and the walk was rather quiet, a few Wheatears and a Whinchat, and some Greenshanks in the creeks. East Hills themselves felt rather quiet, but eventually we picked up some migrants in OK numbers. Some of my UK friends called it a fall but it certainly didn't feel like one, birds were quite few and far between. Total migrant numbers were 10-12 Pied Flys, 20 Wheatear, 5 Redstart, 2 Spotted Flys, 1 Reed Warbler (sadly just an out-of-place Reed Warbler), which is alright I guess but not more than that. One Hobby flew over and on the way back I flushed two Short-eared Owls - they flew off with the wind directly into the sun, and all I managed was some distant record shots, but they were the highlight of the day.

Pied Flycatcher

Wheatear

 Common Redstart

Short-eared Owl

Many thanks to Keith, Reg and Dougal for the great company.

Spurn Migfest 2015 summary

Over the weekend I participated in the third Spurn Migration Festival, better known as Migfest. On Friday headed up there with Nick. When we drove past the Blackborough End Landfill near King's Lynn there were many hundreds on large gulls sat in a field by the road but we were in a rush to get to Spurn and did not stop. Of course on the way back Mr. Murphy made sure that there were no gulls there. 

We arrived pretty late in the evening, and jumped straight in to the opening event. On Saturday the weather was quite bad - very cold and blistering NW winds. In the morning I co-led a short walk to Kilnsea Wetlands, that was nice without real highs. Quite many Mediterranean Gulls, and one Whinchat was the only true migrant passerine. Because of the exceptionally high tide large numbers of shorebirds flew low over our heads to roost in all directions - impressive 'murmurations'.

2cy Mediterranean Gull (right) and Black-headed gull (left)

Mediterranean (left), Common (center) and Black-headed Gulls (right)

Then we went for a magical hour or so of seawatching - it produced Balearic Shearwater, 3 Sabine's Gulls, several Sooty and Manx Shearwaters, 2 Arctic Skuas and generally good stuff. In the afternoon went to track down some scarcities - there were 3 Barred Warblers around but I saw briefly only one. There were a couple of Red-backed Shrikes around, and a few drift migrants - Spotted and Pied Flys, Lesser Whitehtroats etc. 

Red-backed Shrike

Rather spotless Spotted Flycatcher - it chose such a beautiful perch

In the evening I gave a talk about how fantastic birding in Israel is - I really enjoyed the evening and hope I enthused some people to come birding in Israel. It wasn't difficult because Israel really is an amazing place for birding.

On Sunday the wind dropped and birding became quite pleasant. I spent the morning birding with MG around the Warren, checked the ringing, did some vis-migging, kicked the Triangle bushes and a few other bits and pieces. 

Pied flycatcher - ringed by Spurn Bird Observatory

Around the Canal Scrape hide there were three young Yellow Wagtails. I think they are siblings, but note how different they look like. I guess these are two females and a male (the brighter bird).

Before noon co-led another wader walk that was nice. There was a probable hybrid Med X Black-headed Gull - funny looking bird.

After lunch headed back home, exhausted but very pleased. It was a great event, brilliantly organized - the organizers and volunteers worked exceptionally hard to make sure all were happy. The birding was good, but for me what made Migfest so special is the people. Spurn attracts special people, and I was fortunate to spend time with old and new friends. Huge thanks to Martin, Rob and Andy who invited to to take part in the epic event.

Challenge Series team - Martin Garner and Ray Scally

The Red Underwing went for a walk...

The rise and the (no) fall

Over the weekend weather forecast for Sunday and Monday was promising - strong easterlies and enough rain to knock stuff down. Expectations were high. Eventually the wind wasn't quite easterly, and the rain arrived too late. Despite the negative reports of no migrants along the N Norfolk Coast today, I headed out this afternoon in horrible weather with Graham, Nick and my son Uri, We checked Stiffkey campsite and the hedges towards Warham Green. At first it looked OK with large numbers of hirundines and quite many Pied Wagtail in the campsite:

Barn Swallows and 2 House Martins

It was very windy, we got very wet and saw very little. 

Next time.

Birdfair affairs

This weekend I participated in the 27th British Birdwatching Fair at Rutland Water, better known as THE Birdfair. I was part of the Israeli Ornithological Center team, together with my good friends and colleagues Jonathan Meyrav, Dan Alon, Meidad Goren, Richard Melzack and Anette Ashton. We promote birding in Israel, and this year the event was amazing. For me personally is was a very special birdfair. First of all, for the first time my family came along with me. My wife and the kids participated in part of the many family activities at the fair most of the time, but it was great to have them around. Second, it is my first fair as a UK resident. Since I moved here almost a year ago I extended my network of friends and colleagues even further, and it was so good to meet up with so many friends. It was especially good to meet Facebook friends in person and create real friendships. Another important factor that made this year's faie special is the main conservation cause - to tackle illegal bird killing around the Mediterranean basin. I was personally involved in the preparation of the recently published BirdLife International report, describing the horrendous slaughter of birds in the region - at least 25 million birds annually! This year we focused our efforts to promote the Champions of the Flyway birdrace, that is part of BirdLife's campaign to stop the killing. 

On friday I participated in the traditional BirdLife reception to all BirdLife partners, held at the RSPB stand. It was a warm and friendly event, and I feel proud to be part of this family. Here are the relatively new BirdLife CEO Patricia Zurita and RSPB director Dr. Mike Clark talking about conservation and friendship:

We had our own event as well. On Saturday we launched Champions of the Flyway 2016, and announced that Birdlife Greece will be the recipients of the funds raised by the teams. So many friends and supported showed up to the event - it was awesome. Last year's Knights of the Flyway, Next Generation Birders, handed their prize, Swarovski SLC 10X42 bins to Birdlife Cyprus, that hopefully will help them with their fieldwork to stop the crazy hunting going on over there.

Personally I took part in many meetings alongside the fair, mainly to try and gain more support for the Champions competition. Hopefully next year's competition will be even greater than previous years, including this bloke who might come over, either in the BTO team or independently. My boys are great fans of Chris Packham, so I took the opportunity to take a family selfie. My boys are in heaven.

This is one of the most impressive events of the fair - the famous mural depicting the beauty of the Mediterranean region and its birds, that are threatened by hunting. Many artists work on this mural, here are Steve Cale and Jackie Garner:

I can't walk more than ten steps at Birdfair without stopping to chat with a friend. It is amazing. The networking is incredible, and the constant talk and interaction with friends and colleagues was quite overwhelming. But in the end lots of laughs and smiles made the effort well worth it:

I will meet many of the friends again in two weeks time at Migfest in Spurn, looking forward to that very much. Birdfair was great but there were not enough birds involved in it, mainly bird talk. On the lake there were Black tern and Great White Egret, and flying around some Yellow Wags, and Red Kites, but that's it more or less. News of an elusive Booted Warbler not far from home got me slightly itchy and twitchy towards the end - hope to connect with it tomorrow.

So till next year, chapeau and many thanks to the organizers, mainly to the legend Tim Appleton. It was a superb event, and i am already looking forward to next year!

Wasted brownie points

After a few very busy weeks managed to get out this morning. As always, I had only one bird on my mind (Greenish Warbler). Met up with Quentin and we headed out to Blakeney Point. It was one of those day that either you see nothing at all or find a mega. Today (again) we say nothing at all. The Point was as empty as it gets. The plantation was completely empty. The only proper migrant passerine we saw was a Wheatear. At least there were some shorebirds around - Whimbrels and Curlews, Turnstones, Knots etc. Out in the bay there was one Black Tern, some Common Scoters and along the beach a couple of Little Gulls were flying back and forth.

Northern Wheatear

Little Gull 2cy

We had just enough time for a quick look at Cley. There was an increase in shorebird numbers. As e walked in I got onto a group of Dunlins, among them I think I had a smaller peep, first look recalled a white-rump but then everything flew off and we couldn't relocate it. Shit. There was one Curlew Sand and two Wood Sands. I can't believe that I get even slightly excited by these birds, in a way that i digiscoped them. pathetic. I am becoming an average UK birder. And for a UK birder a day with Black Tern, Little Gull, Curlew Sand and Wood Sand isn't a bad day. So I guess it wasn't a total waste of brownie points.

Wood Sandpipers - digiscoped from a long distance 

Spurn Migfest coming up

With great pleasure I received a few months ago an invitation to participate in this fantastic event organized by Migration Festival team (Spurn Bird Observatory Trust, Westmere Farm, Birding Frontiers and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust). I have visited Spurn only one before, in late August 2008, and enjoyed birding there very much. I clearly remember the tens of thousands of shorebirds on the Humber:

Had a bumper seawatch  one afternoon with some super-sharp local birders - Sabine's Gull, Long-tailed Skua, Roseate Terns etc. 

I am looking forward to the weekend very much - surely both the birds and the people will make it a superb experience. I am giving a talk on Saturday night but the main action is during the day. 

Looking forward to meet up with old friends and of course meet lots of new friends.

See you there!