Special post - birds and wildlife highlights of 2016

This has become a fun tradition, to look back at what I have done this birding year. This is a classic demonstration of the dissonance between my constant feeling that I don't bird enough, and the very clear evidence that I bird far too much for a PhD student, employee, dad...

So here we go:

January

The year started with an extreme twitch, that was a harbinger of a hardcore twitching year. No more statements 'I normally don't twitch'... My UK birding this year was dominated by twitching. With so little time for birding (honest!) I had to choose well what to do and where to go, and too often I made the easy choice to twitch. A stunning Siberian Rubythroat took up residence in a small Dutch village - a national first. After a couple of weeks that it was porned by all Euro photographers, I couldn't resist temptation anymore, and went on a sleek one-day Euro twitch with Nick and local Gert. And a super day it was:

February

The main event of the month was a trip down to Dorset, to give a talk to Christchurch Harbour Ornithological Group. It was a lovely meeting, and my WP list benefited from this trip with these two I picked up en route - Ring-necked Duck in Berkshire and Ring-billed Gull in Hampshire. Sorry for the crap record shots.

Ring-necked Duck

Ring-billed Gull

March

In the UK, it was a quiet month. However, towards the end of the month I headed over to Israel to join the Champions of the Flyway race for conservation. I was lucky once again to be part of the organizing team - such a great event and super team! I had so much fun with old and new friends from around the globe. And birding in Eilat was nothing short of spectacular. 

Semi-collared Flycatcher

Sinai Agama

During my short visit I compensated for my absence from Israel by adding two species to my Israeli list - Red-billed Teal and Rough-legged Buzzard:

April

After COTF, I had a few more days in Israel. One day, or rather night, was spent with Arjan Dwarshuis, who's almost ending his record-breaking Biggest Year in E Asia now. We had a magical evening in the Judean Desert with Nubian Nightjar and Desert Tawny Owl being the highlights.

Back in the UK, April temperatures slowly climbed to something tolerable. But birding was still pretty slow. Towards the end of the month, everyone was going to watch Adders mating. And so did I.

May

In mid May I went to visit my brother and his family in Vancouver, Canada. It was a brief but wildlife-packed trip. Truly spectacular. Too many highlights to include in this summary, but both birds and mammals made the trip so amazing.

Surf Scoters

Western Sandpipers

Raccoon

Spectacled Guillemot

Humpback Whale

Harlequin Ducks

Black Bear

Later in May a cracking male Firecrest favoured my friend James's garden, and I was invited over for a cuppa and a pap:

Late May half-term holiday was spent with my family in Yorkshire together with close friends Mark and Amity - another tradition. A trip to Yorkshire is incomplete without an obligatory visit to RSPB Bempton Cliffs. It is truly spectacular there. This was not my last visit of the year to Bempton...

Atlantic Puffin

Northern Gannet

June

In June a rather crazy run of rarities kept me going almost to the year's end. Most twitches were local thankfully, but some were slightly more long-distance... These twitches were characterised by poor photography... First was a Greenish Warbler in Suffolk - a bird I really wanted to see in the WP. So I was very happy to catch up with this one locally.

Next up was a Blue-winged Teal also in Suffolk:

Followed shortly by the first biggy of the year in the UK, a superb Great Knot at RSPB Titchwell in late June:

July

Most of the month was rather quiet; at last I could focus on work... A short family trip to Frankfurt allowed me a quick visit to the Natural History Museum there, to collect some data on Nubian Nightjars. Out of curiosity I checked some other skins too, and was amazed to find this mysterious 'black' wheatear, potentially the second-ever known specimen of 'Saxicola syenitica':

Putative 'Saxicola syenitica' (top) with Black Wheatear (bottom)

Towards the end of July I went twitching locally again, this time to RSPB Minsmere for an adult Baird's Sandpiper (again not my last visit of the year to Minsmere):

August

In early August I ventured slightly further south, this time to connect with the returning Bonaparte's Gull at KWT Oare Marshes Nature Reserve. The yank gull showed really well and I truly enjoyed the reserve - packed with birds.

Another annual tradition was my participation in the British Birdwatching Fair. It was good fun as always, and busy as ever. We launched COTF 2017, and I took part in Bird Brain of Britain competition.

My family summer holiday ended with a trip to almost birdless Switzerland for a week. But scenery was breathtaking:

September

September was the month everything started... Towards mid month, a high-pressure system settled over Western Europe for several weeks. Its easterly flows straight from Siberia delivered bus-loads of Sibe vagrants to UK shores. It led to an autumn that will surely be remembered in UK birding history as one of the best autumns ever.

In mid September I finally found myself a Greenish Warbler on East Hills, but weather was so bad I couldn't photograph it. 

Yellow-browed Warblers are always lovely. I didn't see as many this year as last, but I did have quite a few including one near my children's school in Norwich, and three ringed with the UEA ringing group at Waxham in late September:

October

The busiest month of the year. In early October I twitched the Eastern Crowned Warbler at RSPB Bempton Cliffs, found by my mate David. Super bird and brilliant find!

A few days later I found myself in Yorkshire again, joining the crowds to watch England's first Siberian Accentor at Easington. It was a mind-blowing day. My mind was blown away by the numbers of migrants at Spurn, and also by the number of birders and twitchers.

Siberian Accentor with Dunnock

This photo went viral on Twitter:

Later on in October, I was involved in a group-find of Isabelline Wheatear at Burnham Overy Dunes. When I say I was involved in a group-find, it actually means that I had screwed up and my mate Dave actually found the bird... At first it was pretty mobile: 

But I did go back for seconds a couple of weeks later, which is rather strange that I did because it's such a common bird in Israel.

There were some other nice birds at Burnham Overy - easterlies throughout the month produced more and more stuff. I really liked this fine Mealy Redpoll:

November

In early November I thought I could shut down my twitching season after this last bird - luckily another local twitch, the American Cliff Swallow at RSPB Minsmere. It did give us a bit of a run-around, but eventually showed exceptionally well for a hirundine:

One of my favourite birds is Waxwing. As this winter developed, fair numbers of Waxwing made it down to Norfolk. I had some nice encounters with them this season, but I am still waiting for the 'killer shot'. Some birds ringed by UEA ringing group allowed close inspection of their special waxy feather tips. Simply stunning. 

A smart drake Goosander added some quality to the normally dull UEA broad:

December

And after I had packed my birding gear up for the winter, the Dusky Thrush showed up in Derbyshire. Time for another twitch... What a bird!

My final birding session of the year in the UK was actually pretty good. Another great day out with James and Terry, we had both Red-breasted Goose and Todd's Canada Goose in the same scope view. 

I am now in Israel for a short family holiday. I was hoping to end the year with the potential first Asian House Martin in the WP, but dipped on it. However, it was lovely to be reminded how awesome birding in Israel is.

Black-necked Grebe

That's the end of another year, my sixth year operating this blog. I thank my followers and readers deeply - because of your support I continue writing here. Special thanks to my friends who shared these moments with me, and often drove me... And to my family and bosses who still tolerate me. 

I wish all, my readers and those few who don't read my blog, a wonderful 2017, full of birds, wildlife, love and peace. Happy New Year!

Two days too late

I arrived for a short family visit in Israel yesterday afternoon. This morning, completely knackered after yesterday exhausting day of travel, I did the obvious thing - I went in the early morning to Ma'agan Michael to see the putative Asian House Martin - potentially the first for WP. Since it was found by Barak, it remained extremely faithful to a very small area. I met up there with some friends and together we spent several hours searching for the martin amongst the thousand or so Barn Swallows. The only white-rumped birds we saw were two Little Swifts. The martin must have made a move - it was not seen yesterday either; last seen on December 27th.
Luckily for me, I enjoyed birding so much this morning. It is so great to be in Israel. Sooooooooo many birds. And the weather was lovely. I shot today using 3-digit ISO today! I have almost forgotten how to shoot in sunlight. And company was great too. I birded in a small area for about 2.5 hours, not really hard - we were mainly looking at hirundines, so all other stuff was picked up randomly. I had 82 species (and 1 additional taxa...). Highlights were 8 Ruddy Shelducks, some Citrine Wagtails, what I think is possibly a Steppe Gull (need to do some more homework on it) and some Pallas's Gulls, and on the way back home had two Black-winged Kites along route 6. How I missed this kind of birding.

Black Storks - just because they're so pretty

Super-tame Black-necked Grebe

This is the possible Steppe Gull. Almost cachinnans-like in structure. This neck streaking is typical. Dark bluish mantle. Medium sized bill with good gonys.

This flight shot is overexposed. P10 and P9 black all the way to PC. Black on P4, but pattern on P5 excludes YLG.

6 Pallas's Gulls and one Armenian

Marsh Sandpipers and Spotted Redshank

Thistle Mantis (Blepharopsis mendica) 

This is probably my last post of 2016. I had hoped to end the year with a bang, but hey - all part of the game. If the martin reappears while I'm here in the next week I will give it another try.

Birding Barbara

Had a great day in N Norfolk with James, Terry and Marie. Our main focus was geese - the large pinkfeet flocks attracted some quality geese over the last few days. We set an aim to see 14 goose taxa today but ended up with only eight... We started early around Syderstone and Docking. Scanning our own flocks produced little more than a few Tundra Beans, some Euro Whitefronts, a wild-looking Greylag, and a couple of funny hybrids. But hey, we didn't get bogged which was an achievement. As normal in these conditions, birds are distant and the best one can expect is crap digiscoped record shots. 

After some time others relocated the Red-breasted and the Todd's Canada side by side, north of Docking (thanks Ben for gen). We headed over there and the birds were on show. A mile away but scope views were good. Photos were, ehmmm... But great to see these two quality birds in the same scope view. This is my first 'wild' Canada Goose in the WP, and only my second-ever Red-breast. By the attention it receives from local birders, it should be 'wild' too. 

The Beauty and the Beast: Red-breasted Goose and Todd's Canada Goose, with Pink-footed Geese

Digiscoped through Swarovski ATX95 with Samsung Galaxy S5 and Novagrade adapter

Non-plastic Greylag? Who knows

Funny pigment-challenged (thanks Dave!) Pink-footed Goose. When I first saw its head, I thought it was a Lesser Whitefront. It clearly isn't. Sorry about the quality - a very long way away.

According to part of our team, the day's highlight was a brilliant breakfast at a secret N Norfolk spot:

While we had a quiet and cosy breakfast, outside things were happening. We moved on to Titchwell for some quality seaducks. When we got there, Storm Barabara had hit the coast and the weather was quite horrible. We were greeted at the carpark by this friendliest Robin, demonstrating pure Christmas spirit. James didn't miss an opp to pap him, and got down and dirty. Hardcore wildlife photography.

Braving the storm, we headed down to the beach. We had a quick look on the freshmarsh, and amazingly James picked up this adult Yellow-legged Gull, despite his frequent declarations that he doesn't do large white-headed gulls. 

One Water Pipit was on the freshmarsh too. On the beach it was pretty awful. The wind was so strong we couldn't stand up. Hunched under the concrete blocks, trying to find some shelter, we scanned the large raft of seaducks bobbing up and down on the choppy sea. The crazy wind had pushed them away from shore so views were less than great. But still it was quite fun with quality. There were over 25 Long-tailed Ducks, 6-7 Velvet Scoters, 1 Slavonian Grebe, 1 probable Black-throated Diver. I just love long-tails - great birds:

On the way back we paid a visit to the Ferruginous Duck on Pat's Pool. I would not twitch this bird independently, but the others were keen so why not. When we got there we scanned hard through the distant tufted flock and couldn't find the bird! Then we were shamefully told by other birders it was right under our nose, mooching about with the dabbling ducks. The sky darkened then as a result of the fading light and intensifying storm. Another set of excuses for rubbish photos. It was time to head back home.

 Ferruginous Duck 

With Gadwall

'Merry Christmas boys and girls!' says Mr. Fudge

Birds in the Holy Land - a new book by Thomas Krumenacker

In this post I want to present a beautiful new book published recently by my dear friend Thomas Krumenacker. This is not a book review (I write book reviews for Dutch Birding); it is rather a celebration of this wonderful creation by my friend. I am too involved in the book, and too close to Thomas to provide a critical book review. But anyway, it is not an ID guide, nor a generic 'Where to Watch Birds at...' book, so it deserves a differnt approach anyway. It is first of all a book full of beautiful photographs of the stunning birds of Israel. Thomas really is a very good photographer - and this is the foremost virtue of the book - the brilliant photographs. Through his endless visits to Israel, Berlin-based Thomas has captured some of the best wildlife photos I have ever seen taken in Israel. Already the front cover is gripping, demonstrating that the book contains not only field-guide photos, but also lots of artistic and aesthetic beauty.

In the book Thomas showcases his best photographs, some of which have become his trademarks, like this shot of Eurasian Cranes in the Hula Valley that won the 2011 Best World Press Photo in the nature category:

Or this dramatic photo of an Eastern Imperial Eagle giving a young crane the kiss of death:

But it is more than just a coffee-table book. The book is structured in a way that it takes the reader on a journey through Israel. Thomas treats some of Israel's main biomes in separate chapters (The Hula Valley, The Arava Valley and Eilat etc.), and combines introductory text, bird photos and landscape photos to provide a complete experience. I found the text very well written, full of life through personal experiences and feelings, and spiced up with some good humour. Though Thomas is not a native English speaker, the English is excellent. I must confess that only after scanning this page I found a Freudian German slip in the caption...

Though as I mentioned above this book has no proper site details and maps, it does provide a good introduction to the most important sites like Hula Valley and Eilat. The captions by each photograph are informative and often tell a little story of provide useful information:

As I mentioned earlier, I worked with Thomas in the field during some of his projects in Israel. He always produced better photos than me... But I am glad I could contribute a little to his book. We took the Moustached Warbler photo above shoulder-by-shoulder in the Hula in 2011. I held the torch when Thomas photographed this Desert Tawny Owl in a bloody night in 2014 (sorry about the dirty scanner):

In March 2009 Thomas started a fascinating photo-project on Sinai Rosefinches and other desert birds in the Eilat Mts., using fisheye lenses and remote controlled cameras capturing unique photos of the birds and their environment. Thomas attracted the birds to a small drinking puddle specially created for them:

To create stunning photos like this:

I sat away from the setup, and watched in awe how the birds perched on the cameras and tripods without a problem. Magic.

Thomas's main profession is a news reporter for Reuters. Through his work, Thomas got know all the different aspects of life in Israel, often complicated and less-than-idyllic. However, I think that Thomas truly loves Israel, not only its wildlife but also the country's people, cultures and diversity. This love of Israel is clearly evident in the book, and for this I personally thank Thomas.

If I could offer a small piece of constructive criticism to Thomas (which is unfair as Thomas has sent me an early draft and asked for my comments, but I failed to comment properly back then), I would like to see an index of species and sites, and perhaps a page in the book could be dedicated to more information about birding in Israel (useful websites, literature etc.). But maybe this can be done in Thomas's website.

I strongly recommend buying this book. If you have been to Israel before, this book will make you nostalgic and want to return to Israel. If you haven't been to Israel yet but have an interest in birding in Israel or in the region, hopefully this book will convince you to visit Israel for the first time. And if you just like beautiful books on birds - this is the perfect Christmas gift.

The book comes in two versions - English and German. The English version can be ordered through the Israel Birding Portal. Both English and German versions can be ordered through Thomas's website.