Imperial near my house

The field near my house that was ploughed the other day still attracts raptors. On the way back from the kindergarten noticed this almost adult Eastern Imperial Eagle sat in the field. Dashed home for the camera and grabbed a few pics, just before a serious storm entered.

Cold and wet ringing

Went ringing at Ashdod this morning, my monthly CES visit. It was bloody cold, and thanks to a hole in my wellies I got very wet too. I had a larger catch than I expected. Good that I arrived early - at dawn good numbers of Bluethroats got caught, including a returning bird from 2011. Later on more Chiffhcaffs etc. Sexier species included Moustached Warbler, Penduline Tit and a lost Marsh Warbler - I had ringed it in October, don't think it's going to migrate this year - extreme wear on both wings. Interestingly, it hasn't started moulting yet, while at Ngulia this time of year they're already post-moulted.

Moustached Warbler

 Daffodils

While taking a net down one Moustached Warbler was very curious and came to check me out, calling non-stop. Got my phone out and recorded it:

Many thanks to Arad, Shlomo and Miriam.

Saker world

As part of the national wintering raptor monitoring project I'm coordinating, I did a long driving transect in the NW Negev - Saker country. Again it was a good day, good weather, lots of raptors and good company in the form of Jonathan. We had two Sakers - both young birds. This is bird number one - very large individual:

Bird number two was also very powerful, and had very dark breast and belly.

Most prominent raptor was Long-legged Buzzard - what a fantastic year for them. We counted 25 birds just along our 10 km long transect.

Other raptors seen this morning included two Merlins, four Peregrines, four Imperial Eagles, one Greater Spot, two Pallid Harriers and lots more.

Merlin - 1cy

It was nice to see the Sociable Plover flock increased to 20 birds.

This image was actually taken near my house. A small field was plowed yesterday and had impressive numbers of eagles - 4 juvenile imperials and three greater spots, plus tons of buzzards and kites. This early morning only the buzzards were left. This young bird was assessing the fat reserves on my two neighbours doing their morning walk. 

Super nana-tural

Haha I'm so funny. Had a fantastic day at Hameishar Plains in the S Negev. This site is really one of my favorites in Israel. Rainfall a month ago led to nice germination of annuals - lots of birds there. Unbelievably, the commonest species was Asian Desert Warbler. We set some nets up and ringed no less than 11 individuals!!! In the field I estimated about 20 birds. This is by far the highest number in Israel ever, and the densest concentration. It's a scarce but regular winter visitor, and Hameishar is probably the best place in Israel to see them, but I have never seen anything like this before. The interaction between Desert Wheatear and Desert Warbler is well known, but this morning every wheatear was followed by a group of three warblers...

They are such great little birds. Those yellow eyes are hypnotizing. And the tail pattern - ahhh... We had two adults and the rest were 1cy's - took us a few birds to sync their ageing out. Note the difference in tertials, rectrices and PC.

Asian Desert Warbler - 2cy+

Asian Desert Warbler - 1cy

We also had three Spectacled Warblers - all males, including this stonking adult:

Spectacled Warbler - 2cy+ male

We did quite well with wheatears - three species:

Desert Wheatear - 1cy male

Mourning Wheatear - 2cy+

Northern Wheatears are very rare in Israel in winter. We had two birds, one of which we ringed:

Northern Wheatear - 1cy female

Scrub Warblers are real sweeties. Surely the Middle-Eastern birds must be split from the NW African population?

'Arabian' Scrub Warbler (Scotocerca i. inquieata)

I was pretty busy ringing all morning, but had a chance to lift my head up from the table and see some birds in the field too. Lots of Spotted and Crowned Sandgrouse flying around. Larks showed well - Temminck's, Bar-tailed, Lesser Short-toed and one Oriental Skylark. Some Tawny Pipits. I even managed to get some half-decent field images of Asian Desert Warbler:

On the way back home we paid the Turkish Black Redstart at Mitzpe Ramon a visit. Now it has a shiny ring on, so we can know if it returns next year. What a superb bird.

'Turkish' Black Redstart (Phoenicurus o. ochruros)

Many thanks to Yosef, Rafi and Meidad for this morning to remember.

Yosef

National Bird Day

Yesterday I participated in the main public event of the ornithological year in Israel - the National Bird Day, that took place in tel Aviv University. This great event, taking place for the 33rd year, attracted about 1000 enthusiats from all over Israel. As in recent years, my main contribution to the event was the Amit Geffen photo contest exhibition. I have been organizing this contest, which has become Israel's main wildlife photo contest, since my dear friend Amit passed away in 2007 at the age of 21. Dubi Kalai received the first prize in the pro category for a beautiful image of a semirufus Black Redstart. Here's the exhibition just before the masses arrived, early in the morning:

A special guest was IDF's chief of staff, major-general Benny Gantz. Here he's admiring my exhibition, together with the two main figures of Israeli birding, Dan Alon and Yossi Leshem:

Daniel Berkowic, winner of the amateur category, enjoying his superb image: 

One of the days' highlights was the screening of a movie on Hadoram Shirihai, produced by Yuval Dax and Amir Balaban. It's in Hebrew, but the images are universal.

Sooty Falcons

The Sooty Falcon is one of Israel's most fascinating and least-known breeding birds. Data on population size and trends was last collected in 1984 by Ron Frumkin, and since then some indications seemed rather negative. Meidad Goren, director of Ramat Hanegev Birding Center, organized a breeding survey in large parts of the Negev in 2011 and 2012. He carried out much of the fieldwork, together with Barak Granit, with the aid of NPA wardens and ecologists, and many other birders and volunteers. During the survey they visited some extremely remote parts of the Negev, and described previously unkown pairs from new regions. In addition they compared their data with the data obtained by Frumkin in 1984. Results were sobering in some areas, with low densities. In addition, these super-hunters are facing some serious risks in Israel and on their unknown wintering grounds in Africa.

Meidad and Barak will present their results in the annual Bird Day next monday, in the Tel Aviv University. I contributed the images below to their presentation.

Sooty Falcons breed very late, and time their breeding according to passerine migration - they feed on the wing mainly on active migrants, preferabely hirundines. In late September I helped Meidad with the fieldwork. We were fortunate enough to visit a breeding site in the high Negev Mt. We stayed away from the nest (we heard the chicks calling from inside the nest), but we positioned ourselves rather close to the preferred perch of the parents, across the gorge from the nest. Both adults met there every few minutes after a hunting tour, socialized, exchanged food, preened etc. The visits to the nest were very brief, and out of view from where we were sat. In total we were there for less than an hour, but what an hour it was! 

Don't forget to get a martin on the way back home! Sooty Falcons - female (left) and male (right)

These falcons are possibly the ultimate aerial hunters. At one moment we heard calls of Sand Martins - a small flock passed overheard on migration, heading south. The male falcon heard them too. He looked up, shrugged, took off and out of sight, and after a minute or two returned with a martin in his talons - unbelievable! To maintain such ultimate hunting ability, they need to keep their feathers in perfect shape. So after each hunting attempt they both spent several minutes preening, regaining absolute aerodynamic structure.

Sooty Falcon - male preening

Here's the female - after preening and stretching - time to take off and get some more food!

The falcons were quite indifferent to us, and flew over us several times, so fast and so close we could hear their wings cut through the air. I was never fast enough to capture these close passes.

On our way out the female sat on a rock right by the trail. It refused to fly away, and just sat there, 10 m away from us, watched us and then started behaving in a manner I can only interpret as acting or showing off. She looked us straight in the eye, stretched, scratched, flapped, preened for about 20 minutes - it really felt like she was doing it especially for us. Amazing experience.

To conclude, this was one of the most amazing mornings I had with birds in my life. Many thanks to Meidad for this special opportunity. Thanks to Meidad and Barak's hard work, I hope that this valuable data will help us protect these beautiful birds better.

Sooty Falcon breeding habitat