Eilat day 1 - photo-bogey busted

Today (actually already yesterday - it's late!) I headed down towards Eilat with Mark and Amity to join the Eilat Bird Festival /COTF / IBOC events. We made a quick stop at Har Amasa that was simply brilliant. There were birds everywhere, and what quality. I was really looking forward to arrive on site and hear the cicada-song of Pale Rock Sparrow as soon as I open the car windows - and that's exactly what happened. One of my favourite birds. Tens of them present, singing and displaying. Bliss.

The bird with a thousand name - Pale Rock Sparrow / Pale Rockfinch / Hill Sparrow

We then birded the slopes and enjoyed every minute. On the ground and up in the air. The Persian Wheatear, still present, showed very well:

Still no success with that jump-shot exposing that tail pattern and pale underwing coverts: 

Normal Rock Sparrow

Lots of gorgeous Cretzschmar's Buntings present. The females get photographed less - that's unfair and discriminating:

Male

Among them managed to find one Cinereous Bunting - at last grabbed a few snaps. Not the high quality I wanted, yet a photo-tick...

Photobombed by a fritillary

Jerusalem Fritillary (Melitaea telona)

eBird checklist here.

Drove all the way down to Eilat only to head straight back up to the Dead Sea region, leading a tour for the Eilat Bird Festival. It was a great tour, with top-quality species - African Swamphen, Desert Owl and Nubian Nightjar.

Now time to sleep. Good night!

Batha fix

In recent days I have been doing fieldwork and guiding, which means busy and enjoyable times. Spending much time in the precious Batha habitat, which is so beautiful and productive these days. On Sunday I met up with the Eilat Bird Festival group, first at Har Amasa. It was horribly windy and the birds kept quiet and hidden. Despite missing some key species that are present there (Rock Thrush, Pale Rock Sparrow) and seeing relatively few birds, we still had some good encounters including a copulating pair of Common Cuckoo, female Subalpine Warbler, many Finsch's Wheatears, Persian Wheatear still, a cracking male Ehrenberg's Redstart etc.

This returning Finsch's Wheatear is a real performer

Yosef did a good lob with wheatears there. This is a returning Eastern Black-eared Wheatear:

Black Kite 

We had a great end to the evening with brilliant views of Nubian Nightjar at Neot Hakikar.

Yesterday morning I worked in the batha survey north of Jerusalem. Again stunning scenery, quality breeding birds and good number of migrants.

Cretzschmar's Bunting is a stunning bird

Rock Sparrows breeding activity was in full swing

On the way home stopped to check for Cinereous Bunting - Tzur had found two near Kfar Adumim the previous day. I got there when it was already hot and windy, so managed only frustratingly brief views of two birds. Despite seeing many of these scarce migrants over the years, I have yet to obtain a photo. Next time... A pair of vocal Great Spotted Cuckoo was entertaining:

BTW in Hebrew they're called 'Crested Cuckoo' - here it is possible to see why.

Big cliffs, cool migration

Yesterday I worked with Re'a in the Judean Desert. We assisted efforts by INPA to locate and monitor nests of some of Israel's most threatened raptors. I can think of worse ways to spend the day - we had a long, beautiful hike through some of Israel's most scenic spots, looking for iconic species. We also had brilliant migration low over the desert plateau - mainly Black Storks and also several hundred Steppe Buzzard. A few small, mobile flocks of Pale Rock Sparrow zoomed through. The skies and cliff faces were full of swifts and hirundines. Bliss.

This is the stunning view east, down the mighty Ze'elim Gorge, Dead Sea in the distance:

Black Storks 

The weather was somewhat unstable yesterday. When heavy cloud rolled in and covered the skies, and it felt like it's going to rain, this passing flock of Black Storks struggled to migrate on. The flock was battling against the wind and flying too low.

Taken with my phone across the gorge

Eventually they decided to drop down and rest for a while on the cliffs until the weather improved.

Good activity of local species, including (the rare) Common Raven doing chough-like aerial displays:

Desert Lark looking rather dapper in this beautiful setting:

Some water left in waterholes after the winter floods:

Hosting a Grey Wagtail

Many thanks to Re'a, and to Jamil the local INPA ranger. eBird checklist here.

Spring fun

Yesterday morning I worked in Wadi Bet Arif, very close to Ben Gurion airport. I had a productive morning - lovey spring atmosphere with flowers, beautiful weather, good breeding activity and fine migration. Among the priority breeding species, Long-billed Pipit was most prominent - it's song was a continuous soundtrack of my walk. One of my favourite breeding birds; quality.

I managed to read the ring of this one - ringed by Yosef in 2016.

Other priority species, summer migrants, were present still in low densities:

Woodchat Shrike, singing softly

Blonde Eastern Black-eared Wheatear

After 08:00, typically, Sylvias woke up and showed in fair numbers and decent diversity. Star was Rueppell's Warbler - I had four including two males that were super showy. Smashing birds.

Lovely site - so close to the populated center of the country, yet such quality habitat, mammals and birds.

Mountain Gazelles

Looking west towards the Big Smoke - Tel Aviv in the distance

eBird checklist here.

Stork Big Day

Yesterday was a big day for stork migration. After a few days of unstable weather, the skies opened up and a huge push of birds, mainly White Storks and Eurasian Cranes, went through. I was out with my family in the morning, and we had some breathtakingly awesome experiences - thousands of storks taking off low over our heads, so low we could hear their wingbeats, mixed with Black Kites, Steppe Buzzards, Short-toed Eagles, Great White Pelicans and Eurasian Cranes - totally brilliant; images taken by 500mm or by phone don't do justice to the experience:

With Black Kite

Later on, a bit further south, we saw an enormous swarm of storks, I estimated about 15,000 - the swam was a 5-7 km long... Too distant to photograph, in bad light conditions, in such intensity that even the most screen-addicted kid would say 'WOW'.

It is heartening to see that somehow, despite all the damage we cause to our planet, the spectacle of migration still happens. Sad to think that many of those birds I saw yesterday won't make it through Lebanon today. A timely reminder to support Champions of the Flyway, to prevent such illegal killing, if you haven't already: http://www.champions-of-the-flyway.com/

Jumpshot fails

This morning I drove around northeast of Jerusalem with Shachar, the local INPA ranger, to prepare our upcoming effort this spring to map breeding birds in important Batha (open rocky slopes) habitats there. We didn't do any point-counting today, just checked access points and point-count routes that we will repeat this spring. It is a beautiful part of the world, especially at this time of year when everything is in flower and birds are in full breeding activity. It hosts a fascinating mix of Mediterranean and desert breeding species. We found good densities of Calandra Lark on high slopes:

First of a series of frustrating jumpshot fails:

Great Gray Shrike (Arabian)

Mourning Wheatear (Mourning)

It was very nice to hear the familiar 'Cu-ckoo' song in many spots, including males displaying territorial behavior.

Habitat shot

Flyby

My first Eastern Black-eared Wheatear of the season:

Other quality species included a flyover Syrian Serin, some Little Swifts, a handful of Rueppell's Warblers I casually bumped into, Balkan Warbler, and Bonelli's Eagles.