Ashkelon seawatching - short

Spent a couple of hours seawatching at Ashkelon this morning. even though the wind was wrong (SE), I had five Yelkouan Shearwaters, one ad. Kittiwake and several Sandwich Terns. Due to the wind all birds were far offshore so no images, only crap scope views.

Oxyuras and gulls

This morning I began with checking a couple of reservoirs not too far away from my house, despite the weather - cold, windy and rainy (in Israeli standards; I guess that in European standards this was a perfect day). I began with Latrun reservoir. The light was still OK at that time. I had 182 White-headed Ducks - which is a good number for this small reservoir. Also 10 Black-necked Grebes were present. This is part of the WHD group:

And a male agreed to approach a bit:

At Ayalon sewage farm the light disappeared and rain began. This female White-head wasn't shy enough. Even though after years of campaigning to prevent shooting in these reservoirs (led by SPNI and NPA), which are so important globally for this endangered species, the threat of poaching is still there. But it's better to have shy birds than dead birds. At Ayalon I had 145 WHD's, 8 Ferruginous Ducks and 5 Black-necked Grebes.

This Kestrel was pretty against the dark sky:

Then I continued to Ashdod for some gulling. I had about 1500 large gulls, out of them (among the adults) about 300 fuscus, 100 cachinnans, 80 heuglini, 50 barabensis (!), 6-7 intermedius, and 5 armenicus. Note that all gull images from today are very dark due to the bad light.

During the short time I had there, I saw 9 colour rings, at least two out of them new for Israel. Later Ehud Dovrat continued with the gulls and had at least 11 more rings! well done Ehud, it was a mega-productive days for the both of us.

This one is a tribute to the Copenhagen conference that began today:

This intermedius-type was ringed in N Norway in 2007, and seen today for the first time in Israel:

This barabensis had an exceptionally pale eye:

And this heuglini was impressive as always. I really like this form.

Hawfinch

This morning I was ringing at a small site near my house. I live in a small village at the Judean foothills, and this is a very birdy area. Not many hotspots but large numbers of common stuff everywhere. I've been ringing at this drinking spot for a few monthes, and it has produced some nice stuff (best was a Red-breasted Fly in September) but usually no dramas, so it was a nice way to spend a sunny morning with my son Uri.
Our best bird of the morning was this female Hawfinch. The little bitch bit some flesh off my fingers even though I was cautious.

Hawfinches are regular but rather sporadic winter visitors to the northern half of Israel. On most years they arrive in small numbers, though usually they peak in March. But this year is special, and many tens or hundreds are seen in many sites in Israel. I had about 50 flying around this morning, but only this one came down to drink. What a great bird!

Paddy!

Last evening I got a call from Asaf Mayrose, director of the Ma'agan Michael Birdwatching Center. He did a late evening catch with Francis Argyle, and they trapped an interesting acro. "We're pretty sure we have a Paddyfield Warbler!". I went with them over the ID features, Asaf quickly emailed me some images, and after we confirmed the ID the news was spread out. As it was already very late, and the bird was in active moult so it was not planning to migrate last night, we decided to keep it overnight and release it first thing in the morning.
So, another one of those weird twitches, when the bird is waiting in the bag...
I got to Ma'agan Michael early, had a cup of coffee with all the (tired) guys, and before dawn we had a look at the bird:

Tired twitchers (Eran & Jonathan):

After years of ringing thousands of Reed Warblers, I was very happy to handle this sweet acro. It's so small! The primaries were about 80% moulted, so it must have been in the site for at least a couple of weeks, and it may well overwinter. Look at this never-ending supercilium!

We waited for first light to release the bird at the exact site where it was trapped. This is the moon setting into the Mediterranean:

And this is how the paddy looks in pre-dawn light:

We released it and quickly it disappeared in the reeds. This is an Israeli tick for me - haven't had one for quite a while... Cheers to Asaf and Francis for the great find and well-organized mega-twitch (15 twitchers!)

I joined the ringing team for the rest of the very windy morning. The best bird was this female Siberian Stonechat:

More Ashdod gulls...

Guys, don't worry, this isn't becoming one of those terrible Scandinavian gull ID site. But, what can I do, this is pretty much all that winter-birding at Ashdod has to offer. And, yes, I have a fetish for gulls too...
Anyway, about 400 large gulls this morning, out of them 100 adults. Mainly heuglini, smaller numbers of cachinnans and fuscus, with small numbers of intermedius, armenicus and barabensis.

This must be one of those N Norway intermedius - 3cy. Note the cachinnans in the background:

This Finnish-ringed fuscus is one of our oldest and most observed birds ever at Ashdod. Hatched in 1998, it was first seen in Israel in December 1999, and was seen almost every winter since (thanks Ehud for the info):

I watched the gulls bahvior for a while. I really tried to understand these stupid birds fighting with each other constantly over feathers, pieces of paper, plastic pipes etc., but I have no idea what goes through their tiny brains. Most birds engaged in this behavior were 1cy's, but also some adults fooled around a bit. Look at this heuglini (note P9 & P10 are unmoulted):

This is a 1cy heuglini getting very excited and proud of himself with a fantastic piece of paper:

This is how part of the gull flock looks like:

This 2cy Greater Spotted Eagle flying over spooked the whole flock (Ehud hates those eagles), and they took off and headed towards the beach I guess.

Ashdod ringing

Had a pleasent morning ringing at Ashdod. I had a guided group at 09:00, so I had plenty of time to enjoy the birds and the fine weather today, before the millions of screaming kids arrived.
Birdwise, it seems that winter has settled down, and most migrants have moved on. The commonest birds I ringed were Bluethroat and Chiffchaff, with a few other bits and pieces.
Sweetest birds were two Penduline Tits - part of a small group hanging around:

This Sardinian Warbler felt a bit paler and neater than our local birds - perhaps a migrant?

Other birds seen during the morning were a Bittern (my first for this site), several flyover Siskins and a Wryneck - most probably it will stay for the winter.