Brazil Pantanal day 1

After a long and exhausting trip, including lost luggage (still!) and delayed flights we finally arrived last night at Porto Jofre in the Pantanal. We are kindly hosted by Panthera.org in their lovely accommodation. I couldn't wait for first light, and my first hour of birding in Latin America was indeed mind-blowing. All those new sounds and sights. We took two boat trips today, with Pantanal Nature. Our main target was successful - we had awesome encounters with three different Jaguars - incredible! On top of that we saw tons of cool birds (eBird checklist here) and other animals. Here is just a very quick taster - so much more to follow:

Jaguar

Giant Otter

Capped Heron

 

Orange-winged Parrot

Pale-legged Horonero

White-headed Marsh Tyrant

Patch rosefinch

This morning I did my routine morning walk with Bamba (my dog) in my very local patch, wadi Ekron near my house. The autumn is coming to close here - at least for me, as tomorrow I'm going away for a couple of weeks. Weather was nice and there were birds around. While walking and birding I thought of the birds I found this autumn on patch, and of those that I really wanted to and did not, like Daurian Shrike, Siberian Stonechat and Common Rosefinch. I decided to give the rosefinch one last try and played music near a concentration of finches. No response. I walked on and birded without any dramas. While walking back, I heard that familiar call, and saw a finch flying towards me - Common Rosefinch! I was very keen to document it, but I did not carry my heavy camera system this morning. I shot off home, grabbed my camera and raced back to the spot. It took me a while to relocate the bird, but eventually it showed OK. Phew. Typically for this time of year it's in moult and not exactly attractive.

I seem to be having a good season for them - this is the third I have found. 

I love my new camera

A few days ago I said goodbye to my old Canon 7D mk1. My followers know how much I have been complaining about it in recent months - it certainly took me far too much time to scrap it and geא a new camera. I contemplated making a big move to mirrorless Olympus system, but at the moment I have no mental capacity for such big moves. So I went for a rather uninspiring upgrade, to Canon 7D mk2. Since I got it I have been out twice but pretty briefly, and without time for proper photo sessions to get to know all its new features. Yesterday I posted some photos from the southern Arava that I think are pretty good. I was very pleased with the focusing system and with the shutter release speed. Makes shooting birds in flight much more efficient - my favourite type of photography.

On Wednesday I had a meeting in Ma'agan Michael towards the construction of a new bird park there. Conveniently, we had the meeting on an observation tower, at eye level with lots of passing birds. It was my first trial of the camera, and I was unfamiliar with all the buttons yet. My boss was rightfully annoyed that rather than contributing scientific wisdom to the meeting I fired off photos at every passing bird, like a child with a new toy. Well actually that's exactly what I am... Luckily my boss knows me well enough to forgive me for these minor incidents (I hope...).
Here's the first batch:

Great White Pelicans

Asian Black-winged Kite

Pied Kingfisher

White-winged Tern - still in full summer plumage

During this work visit we drove around the proposed bird park, and actually saw tons of birds. eBird checklist here.

The Magic Puddle

Yesterday I had meetings in Eilat, talking about monitoring there with Noam and the IBRCE team.  Left home super early to do some birding, with rarity finding on my mind. As always, this mental approach didn't really work... Started off at Neot Smadar. At first it was cold and pretty birdless. Only this inquisitive Red Fox scrutinized me from some distance.

When the sun came up, bird activity increased a little, nothing huge. I walked the alfalfa fields hoping to lush a rare pipit. First found only common ones.

Caucasian Water Pipit

Tree Pipit

Then my morning was partially salvaged by a familiar call from a pipit flying towards me - Olive-backed Pipit! It flew over me calling a few times and disappeared in the off-limits kibbutz. Too quick for a photo or sound recording. I was hoping for a bigger pipit, but I had to settle with this one. Better than nothing I guess. Encouraged a bit, I kept on walking both in the fields and at the sewage farm, but came up with little else. eBird checklists are here (fields) and here (sewage).

Next stop was Yotvata. Itai Shanni was there earlier and reported larger numbers of birds on the recently-ploughed northern circular field. It was birdy indeed but most birds were distant in the large field, and most were doves... I noticed better activity at a small puddle, attracting many birds. I parked my car appropriately in relation to distance and angle, and started waiting. Soon the birds came in, and I enjoyed lovely 45 minutes, with many and different birds coming in to drink. Shooting birds on the ground out of the car window is not ideal, but I can't complain...

There was a flock of about 40 Desert Finches on the field. At first they were distant - quite pleased with my new camera (canon 7D km2) focusing on them at a distance:

Then they started trickling towards the water:

Nice numbers of Red-throated Pipits in various plumages came in for a splash too:

2cy+, probably male

1cy

1cy, slightly more advanced

1cy Western Yellow Wagtail

One of many Spanish Sparrows, this is an adult male

Corn Bunting

Northern Wheatear

There were a few skylarks around. At first some Eurasian Skylark came in for a drink:

Up to 10 Oriental Skylarks have been seen there in recent days. Where I was sat I had two or three. They kept their distance when I was there - one did come in to drink briefly but buzzed off as soon as I pointed my camera on it. These photos are all large crops in unattractive setting, yet they illustrate some important ID features, including longer, thinner bill, lighter breast streaking, buffy belly and short primary projection.

Oriental Skylark 

eBird checklist here.

At IBRCE between meetings there were a few nice birds, including Steppe Eagles on migration and a Bittern on the lake. eBird checklist here.

Eurasian Cranes

On my way back home after the meetings I visited Ovda Valley. I failed to relocate the two returning rare wheatears, but enjoyed some beautiful desert serenity.

Good effort

As my son's football coach used to say after their team lost 2-4...
Last night the weather finally changed. After two weeks of high pressure, hot and dry easterlies and no birds, at last a low-pressure system made its way across the Mediterranean and hit Israel with a glorious thunderstorm and heavy rain. I was so excited that I couldn't wait to wake up and witness an epic morning flight. Was today going to be THE day? Charts looked good. Weather and date were all perfect. And I had the perfect companion. Four years ago, almost to the day, Barak Granit had an epic morning flight. Today was his birthday - would he get the best birthday present possible?
We got to Hatzuk right on time. I opened the car door, first bird I hear - Penduline Tit! Followed shortly by a Song Thrush. Hmmm... bingo? We walked in, enjoyed a clear and beautiful sunrise, and sadly witnessed almost empty skies. Singles of several species, tiny numbers of pipits, where are the birds?!? We continued birding - also on the ground numbers were depressingly low. With our high expectations, disappointment was big. Then small numbers of Caucasian Water Pipits started to move through, shortly followed by small flocks of Chaffinch - at last some movement. But even Chaff numbers did not build up to anything worthy of any superlatives.

A beautiful male Hen Harrier sailed past - will it spend the winter here?

Not a Brown Shrike

Just before leaving I had a pleasant surprise-  a young Striated Heron stood by one of the large rainfall puddles, looking rather lost - not the place I was expecting to find one (though they are resident in Hayarkon Park, only 5 km away).

What will be the end of the story? Will tomorrow bring that fabulous migration peak? Or have those birds skipped over Israel this year? Or have these populations crashed? Time will tell.

For the time being, here's our eBird checklist.

Tel Aviv Pacific

Well, Tel Aviv has not been moved to the Pacific Ocean yet, but it's been hosting a Pacific visitor in recent days. But first thing's first. I started off early with Barak B. at Hatzuk, hoping that at last today would be the day that the skies open and winter migrants pour through. Not today. In Israeli standards it was pretty quiet vismig-wise, with meager numbers of finches, wagtails and pipits. Also numbers on the ground were low. Highlights were few and not truly exciting - Richard's Pipit, Caspian Stonechat, 2 Indian Silverbills. The only poser was this Red-backed Shrike during the Golden Hour:

My full eBird checklist is here.

After we were done, we moved just a bit south to Tel Barukh beach, where a Pacific Golden Plover has taken up residence for a few days now on the Vermetid Reefs there:

During the short walk down from the carpark I spotted the plover from a distance, but then several dogs and their humans started running into the water. The bird flushed with a few more shorebirds, made several circuits along the super busy beach and disappeared into the adjacent airfield. Managed to grab some distant, horrible record shots, displaying the grey underwing coverts and axillaries:

We then relocated the small mixed group inside the airfield, luckily just behind the boundary fence. I ignored the large red 'NO PHOTOGRAPHY!" sings and did my best - into the sun, through several thick barbed wire fences - less than ideal conditions. A few passers by were annoyed by thisdodgy activity, me breaching Israeli security like that. I had to give it up before airport security would be called on us. We waited around for a bit longer, hoping the plover and his mates would fly back to the reef where light is better, but it did not.

With 2 of 7 Greater Sand-plovers:

Full eBird checklist is here.

Pacific Golden Plover is rather rare in Israel, about 3-4 annually. Always nice to connect with this extreme migrant. This is surely a returning individual - last year one was seen here at the same time. PGP has featured on my blog several times before, including showy individuals here and here.