Happy migration days

It's this time of year in Israel when migration is at its best. Skies are full of soaring birds, and on the ground passerines are everywhere. This morning migration seemed to peak, with a huge fallout. It was literally raining birds - wheatears, buntings, pipits, wagtails and warblers dropping down from the sky, darting beetween houses and gardens where I live. Exciting stuff.
Yesterday morning Hulda Reservoir (with Piki) was really good. Our humble contribution to World Shorebirds Day included fair numbers of shorebirds, but passerines were the real attraction. The reservoirs' vegetated banks were exploding with migrants, mainly Willow and Savi's Warblers. Hard to imagine how many Willow Warblers pass through Israel these days. Great fun. eBird checklist here.

Willow Warbler

Lesser Grey Shrike

Zitting Cisticola

Later on my family celebrated a birthday at the JBO. I crept into the bird hide for a short while. It was hot but it really busy: birds were constantly coming in to drink and feed (eBird checklist here). Best was a 1cy Collared Flycatcher. Prominent migrant in spring, in autumn they are rather scarce.

Common Nightingale

Sea and desert

Yesterday I joined the annual birders' special pelagic into the Gulf of Aqaba, organised by IBRCE. I met up with Klil in the middle of the night, and we drove the long way down to Eilat. After a quick visit to North Beach, we assembled at the marina. A Sooty Falcon cut the air low overhead as we boarded the boat - surely an omen of good luck. We set off towards the border-triangle of Israel, Jordan and Egypt, basically as deep as we could go without a passport. We chummed for a couple of hours, but no tubenose came in, though there was rather good tern activity with two Bridled, two Lesser Crested and many White-cheeked Terns. Nice, but no cigar.

White-cheeked Tern

Bridled and White-cheeked Tern

After a couple of frustrating hours, I was starting to fear a repeat of last years' failure (it was so depressing I didn't even blog about it). Finally, Daniel and Shachar spotted a distant all-dark storm-petrel flying across the gulf. Adrenalin! I got onto it quickly, and stayed on it for 5-6 seconds until it disappeared. I tried to take in as many plumage details and flight action. I managed to see it lacked a white rump, and the combination of fairly large size and powerful flight in straight line all helped us to identify it as Swinhoe's Storm-Petrel - boom! I was over the moon with excitement - a full fat global lifer, and one of my most wanted in Israel. Yet I felt for about half of the crew that did not manage to get on the bird. I was hoping for better views, so I was left slightly under-satisfied by the low quality of observation and no photos - something to improve next time maybe.

Throughout our stay at the chum spot we enjoyed brilliant activity of a Risso's Dolphin pod - about 8 animals, maybe more. They were hanging around just behind the international border, so we couldn't approach them much closer. They are such unique animals. The mature adults get extremely pale silvery-grey, and wear their dorsal fin off.

This one is dark with full-size fin

On the way back we hugged the coast, and enjoyed close views of White-eyed Gulls and White-cheeked Terns. White-cheeked Tern has become a regular breeding species in Eilat, and is seen in quite large numbers nowadays. 

White-eyed Gull - adult summer

White-eyed Gull - maybe non-breeding adult?

White-cheeked Tern

Eventually we returned to Eilat, quite exhausted but content - mission accomplished! eBird checklist here. Many thanks to Eitan the skipper who did an excellent job, and to Noam, Shachar and Libby who organised the trip.
Klil and me headed back home in the early afternoon. I was extremely tired driving, so decided to stop for birding (rather than powernap) at Yeleq Cistern. Nice activity of Sinai Rosefinches, also two Striolated Buntings. Most rosefinches were young, while fewer adult males and females came in, indicating a good breeding season for the species. This site is lovely but photography there is challenging. eBird checklist here.

Snai Rosefinch - adult male

Sinai Rosefinch - 1cy

Not so red knot

This morning I birded with Barak in Ma'agan Michael - my first visit this autumn. It was alright, though we couldn't find a drained fishponds, so shorebird numbers and diversity were relatively low. Early on Barak spotted this wacky Armenian Gull flying around - at first when we saw it from a distance our hearts skipped a beat, until we figured out it's not a glauc.

On the beach there were some fine shorebirds, typical of the season. This 1cy Red Knot has been there for a few days now -  love this plumage though it has no red colour. Red Knot is quite rare in Israel (few birds a annually), typically showing up at MM in late August and early September.

Ma'agan Michael beach suffers from ongoing disturbance of joggers and walkers. This Red Knot was spooked by a passing jogger:

As was a huge-billed (male?) orientalis Eurasian Curlew:

Curlew Sandpiper - so pretty in 1cy plumage

With three adult Little Stints

Greater Sand-plover on the rocks, typically early moult into winter plumage

Adult Ruddy Turnstone

White-winged Tern demonstrating why it's called that way

Passerine numbers were actually rather low, with few shrikes and some Willow Warblers. Several Citrine Wagtails and some Penduline Tits added quality. As did this Lesser Grey Shrike.

Despite being a slow morning for both shorebirds and passerines, eventually we ended up with 87 species. Thanks to Barak and Bamba for the company. Full eBird checklist here.

Pistachio magnet

I spent this morning at the Jerusalem Bird Observatory. At this time of year, the best of autumn there, the large pistachio trees (Turpentine Tree, Pistachia palestina) are packed with sweet, fatty fruit that attract large numbers of migrants, mainly warblers. It was heartwarming to watch the trees dripping with Lesser Whitethroats and Blackcaps, despite all the damage we cause to our planet. Alongside the commoner species, the rich habitat hosted lots of fine migrants. There were several Common Redstarts around, at least two were Ehrenberg's while another was probably European. Not too easy to do when they're young and silent.

Ehrenberg's Common Redstart, 1cy male

Probable European Common Redstart, 1cy male

Spotted Flycatchers were very prominent - such neat birds:

A few Willow Warblers were hopping around, mainly feeding on mites off Common Fennel bushes

Among the Sylvias,  there were also a few Eastern Orpheans (towards the end of their migration), Garden and Common Whitethroats.

Common Whitethroat

There were a few acros jumping around the pond. At least two were Marsh, one of them eventually ended up in the nets;

Marsh Warbler, 1cy 

Turtle Dove - has become really scarce in Jerusalem

Full eBird checklist here.

Many thanks to Yishay who ran the ringing this morning, Klil, Gidon and Amir.

Hooded Wheatear

Yesterday I worked in the Judean Desert, helping INPA with breeding raptor monitoring. I joined the local ranger Jamil, and Amir. Sloping east down from the mountains towards the desert plateau, we were greeted with breathtaking desert vistas:

There we found quite many wheatears, including several Hooded Wheatear families. Lovely birds to see. I have not seen many fresh juveniles before - quite a unique plumage:

This is mom, freshly moulted hence the pale tips to lesser coverts:

When we reached the mightly cliffs of the big canyons, the sun was high up already. But down in the deep canyons it was still nice and cool (I guess). Scoping this tiny spring, there were very large numbers of passerines coming in to drink - Sinai Rosefinches, Striolated Buntings and Trumpeter Finches. Too distant to photograph.

Alongside the local breeding raptors, small numbers (a few tens) of European Honey Buzzards took off. Tiny numbers compared to the heavy passage further west. This adult female has some funny features - quite heavy build, small dark gorget, barring on free section of fingers, reaching all the way to axillaries.

Mammal-wise we did not see much, but found signs of wolves and hyena.

Thanks to Jamil and Amir for a lovely day.

Thank you, BE

On August 13th, while I was in the UK, the first White-throated Bee-eater for Israel (and 3rd for WP) was found north of Eilat by Sara Deutch and the Shiff couple. During my stay in the UK I was biting my nails constantly. Will it stay? Every morning I switched my phone on, and every morning the news came through that it was still present. I kept all my 20 fingers crossed tightly, and indeed on the day of our flight back, yesterday, it was still there. I arrived back home at 23:00 last night, after a long journey. Kids needed food, showers, bed-time stories etc., I unpacked my birding gear and after a short snooze headed out at 02:30. Met up with Rony, Re'a and Tamar, and together we cruised through the night to arrive at dawn on site, west of KM20 saltpans. A few more birders assembled, and we started searching the vast area for the star bird. For the first couple of hours there was no sign of it, and I was getting worried - several of my friends had tried for it multiple times and failed. Was it going to be a dip? Then, luckily, Re'a and Tamar had it briefly in flight. A short while later I saw the smallish bee-eater briefly in flight too - so mobile! But phew: lifer, WP and Israel tick under the belt. I was keen to get better views and maybe even a photo, but it kept disappearing and was lost again for another hour or so. Eventually Eran, Tuvia et al. found it foraging deep inside a date plantation, where we all had fantastic views. What a cracker! We watched it for a while, happily catching wasps and bees very efficiently, then let it be.
Seeing such a rare bird so well was a real treat. I feel very grateful that this African gem waited especially for me - thank you, much appreciated.

White-throated Bee-eater - first for Israel

Even after almost two weeks on site, the bee-eater attracts quite a lot of international interest. My Twitter and Facebook BOC posts performed rather well:

Thank you Mr. White-throated Bee-eater for doing the decent thing and waiting for me pic.twitter.com/53KKIBLDsG

— Yoav Perlman (@yoavperlman) August 24, 2019

Of course the bee-eater was not the only bird we saw. While searching for the bee-eater I bumped into the equally long-staying Hypocolius. I saw it at some distance, into the sun, so no photos but always a quality bird to see. A quick drive around the saltpans produced Hoopoe Lark, Broad-billed Sandpiper, Citrine Wagtail and actually lots of migrant passerines in the plantations and scrub, including Lesser Grey Shrike. All in all a respectable 69 species - check our eBird checklist here.

Hoopoe Lark

Lesser Grey Shrike - don't worry, it's not a scapular patch, just a photo artifact produced by strong sun glare:

I had to return home early, so we headed back before noon. Driving through the Negev, I spotted a large raptor circling over the road - Golden Eagle! We had rather pornographic views of the beast, presumably a male, eyeballing us - fantastic experience.

Too close!

Many thanks also to Rony, Re'a, Tamar, Tuvia, Shachar and all the other birders who shared this special morning with me.