Spring colours

Quiet ringing yesterday at the JBO, but this cracking male Ehrenberg's Redstart compensated for the lack of birds:

Close nubijar

Had a good nightjar tour last night with very close encounters of about 8 birds. Good activity, good weather, good insects... Thanks to Peter and Andrew for a fun evening!

Nubian Nightjar

Oh nana what's my name?

Oh, I'm so funny... I just had to use this amazing pun before our nana's (Asian Desert Warbler) leave us for some godforsaken desert in southern Russia. And thanks to Rihanna for her poetry...

Yesterday I had a long and eventful day with lots of good birds, so let's begin:

My first mission for the day was an atlas box in the remotest part of the Arava. Last year it was one of the best boxes, and this year it did not disappoint even though the area did not receive one single drop of rain. As I got out of the car I heard the distant, beautiful song of a Hoopoe Lark, and then saw the couple. Still not in full breeding activity but certainly looking good, the male gave some short display flights. Next song I heard was of a Temminck's Lark - I had a male perched on a distant bush, with a female running around on the ground near him. Later I saw two more pairs. Fantastic birds!

Temminck's Lark

I had a distant pale shrike perched on a bush. I started walking towards it, it flew further away, I kept on walking and it kept its distance from me. I had to run a kilometer back to the car to get my scope and clinch the ID - Steppe Grey Shrike! Good bird in nice summer plumage. No images I'm afraid. My pulse was just returning to normal when I heard a familiar song from high up in the sky - black tail - Dunn's Lark! I was very happy to see it; I wonder if it stays to breed even though the ecosystem is so dry. Unfortunately for all of you foreign birders coming to Israel, this site is deep inside a firing zone and impossible to reach without 4X4, so keep looking for them in easier sites...
Soon afterwards I had four Asian Desert Warblers together - such great little birds. They seem to be on the move now with more birds being seen in recent days.

I had quite many Rueppel's Warblers and one Subalp. They are getting their foreheads covered in yellow pollen from Ochradenus baccatus bushes - the ultimate sylvia bush:

Rueppel's Warbler

Interestingly I had only females:

This male Dorcas Gazelle was rather tame:

After I was done for the morning I started heading north. On the road near En Yahav I stopped to check a dead bird on the road - it was a Pied / Cyprus Wheatear! Unfortunately too squashed to identify...

I went to Hazeva fieldschool for a short siesta. As I got back to the car, very refreshed, I saw this dark wheatear flying away - Cyprus Wheatear! This is how females look like - very dark brown rather than jet black, very dark crown and very warm underparts:

The northern Arava received some rain and has some nice desert bloom. Cistanche tubulosa is a very impressive geophyte:

I headed to Kikar Sdom to meet up with Thomas and his wife, from Germany. Driving up I noticed that the visibility was exceptionally good and the air was crystal clear, so I couldn't resist taking a photo of this beautiful landscape:

Our Nubian Nightjar tour was very successfull as always, and I was happy to call it a day and make my long way back home.

Spanish on the move

Today I received nice news of a Spanish Sparrow I ringed at Ezuz on October 18th 2010, that was retrapped today at the IBRCE by Re'a, a distance of 156 km. This bird was probably on its' southbound migration in October, and has spent the winter in the Eilat region.

View Spanish 5TE0049.kml in a larger map

Kick ass

Did another atlas box this morning deep in the desert, close to the Egyptian border. Some parts of the box were very rocky and rather boring, but other parts had some quality habitats. Birdwise nothing exciting, but I was happy to find my first Lesser Short-toed Larks of the season singing and displaying. Did well with mammals again with a close encounter with a herd of eight Asiatic Wild Ass (Equus hemonius). These impressive animals were "re"-introduced to Israel a few decades ago and they're doing very well. Unfortunately the Syrian subspecies that was found in Israel until the early 1900's became extinct, so these animals introduced are from the Persian population.

On the way out I was informed by Frederik that he had seen two Black-winged Kites along the Ezuz- Nizzana road earlier; when I drove past I found one. Still an exciting bird, even though it lost it's magic slightly after this year's influx.

Cyprus and Caracal

This morning I did another atlas box deep in the desert south of Ezuz. It was actually pretty quiet, which was surprising as I walked through some excellent steppe habitat, that last year was packed with breeding birds. Early morning was pretty cold (not Finland-cold, Negev-cold) and then it got too hot and in between I had few birds. Still some breeders of interest - Bar- tailed Lark, CCC, Desert Wheatears, Spectacled Warblers and many Pin-tailed Sandgrouse. Still very few migrants around. One sweet male Cyprus Warbler was nice though:

After I was done with the atlas work for the morning, I met up with Eyal. We had a quick look at the sewage ponds that were very quiet, but while driving out I saw a cat walking through the bushes 10 meters away... long ears... Caracal! Amazing encounter at 11:00! The animal walked quietly without showing much interest in us and disappeared behind a large bush. I drove around and we intercepted it as it walked out - what a fantastic animal! I was in the wrong side of the car for photography, and Eyal is too old ;-) He got only one blurry record shot... Hope Frederik (Belgium) and his family got to see it - they arrived a few minutes after us.