Trrrrrrrr... Trrrrrrrr...

In October, every 'eared' WP birder must be listening out to this call:

This morning before a meeting had a quick look at a small grove near Mashabe Sade in the C Negev, which is a favourite site for Red-breasted Flycatcher. And sure enough, just as I drove in I heard the first bird calling. Eventually I had four different birds in this small grove. There's a nice wave of them going through the C Negev these days with other sites holding even larger numbers. 

They're such nice birds - I really love their classic silhouette with the tail pumped up and wings pointing down:

It became very windy (actually sand-storm) so they were hard to photograph; only one of them was very very obliging - alas always in the shade.

Red-breasted Flycatcher - 1cy 

Apart for that not much else - perhaps because of the wind: some Redstarts, Spotted Flys, shrikes, a couple of Chiffchaffs, Tree Pipits and that's it.

Red Hot Chili Birds

Went back to work today after a few days off with my family. BTW the new babys' name is Libby. She's great. As I wanted to avoid traffic had an hour to kill before driving to Tel Aviv, so stopped to check a very photogenic pepper field not far away from my house. Most birds in the field were local, with fewer migrants. Nothing got very close but that was OK since I wanted to keep as much of the background as possible - these colours are just fantastic - those peppers look almost like plastic.

The main customers were Spectacled Bulbuls - large numbers were seen thrashing the crops. Hope the farmer is OK with that...

Quite many Palestine Sunbirds in the field too - they were hunting for tiny spiders I think.

Palestine Sunbird - female

Palestine Sunbird - male

Among the migrants most prominent were many Whinchats:

This poor guy probably won't make it to Africa - too many ticks inside that ear:

Quick look at the alfalfa field was productive. Still tons of birds there. Very big flock of about 1000 Yellow Wags, 200 Red-throated Pipits and swarms of Willow Warblers. 1 Richard's Pipit, 20 Tawny Pipits, some Lesser Spotted Eagles overhead - very nice.

Willow Warbler

 Marsh Harrier

 Red-backed Shrike

One of my favourite songs from their last album:

My little princess

On Sunday evening my wife Adva gave birth to our new baby girl, sister to Uri (6) and Noam (4). She is so sweet and beautiful. Today we got back home and are very happy to be here.

Willow tree

Lots of Willow Warblers this morning at my alfalfa field. Also one Richard's Pipit, one Caspian Stonechat, increase in Red-thorated Pipits (about 50), first White Wagtails etc.

Last minute call

Today I took part in the annual ringers meeting in Jerusalem. So took advantage of the fact I got a morning off and squeezed some birding before the meeting. Checked my alfalfa at Bet Kama - still packed with birds. More pipits around including one Richard's. Good harrier activity with three species cruising over the field - marsh, pallid and monty.

Montagu's Harrier 1cy

In the nearby dry fields had a small flock of Red-footed Falcons, feeding on beetles. They were very shy and I got no proper images but they are such great birds!

Red-footed Falcon 2cy male

Then I headed up to Jerusalem - it was a good meeting. My contribution was a short lecture on tips to better in-hand photography (this image of Yellow-browed Warbler is from November 2011)..

Just after I finished my talk got a call from my wife: "Come home quick, here we go, I'm in labor!". The 90 minutes drive home took me about 40, but when I got back home my wife told me it was a false alarm (again) and nothing was actually happening. But it will happen any day now for sure.

What's better - a bird in the hand or thousands in the sky?

This morning I went ringing with Yosef and his team at Ein Rimon. Now is prime season for this site, which attracts phenomenal numbers of Eastern Black-eared Wheatears and other migrants, coming in to feed on the fat-rich pistachio fruit in the grove. Following yesterday's excellent raptor migration, I was expecting a good take-off from the nearby forest, so I had my big lens with me as well.

Ringing was very good - 46 Eastern Black-eared Wheatears and lots of other stuff (about 150 in total) - Spotted Flys, Whinchats, shrikes, many sylvias etc. Pick of the bunch was an Icterine Warbler - very nice.

However, it was very hard to concentrate on how to age the wheatears by their partial moult, because the take-off I was hoping for started happening early and it was amazing. Over an hour or so about 1200 Levant Sparrowhawks and 1000 Lesser Spotted Eagles took-off from the nearby forest, circled and glided south. Among them a good mix of other raptors - Booted and Short-toed Eagles, Honey Buzzards, Marsh Harriers, Red-footed Falcons etc. Some of these birds I must have seen yesterday in the north. So great to see them from so close, hear the wingbeats - migration at its best. Unfortunately the light was shit - heavy clouds. Some of the Asperger-ish ringers working around the ringing table couldn't understand what I was getting all excited about... So, dear readers, I will let you decide for yourself what's better.

Eastern Black-eared Wheatear - 1cy female

 Eastern Black-eared Wheatear - 1cy male

Icterine Warbler - 1cy

OR

Levant Sparrowhawks

57 Levant Sparrowhawks

6 Lesser Spotted Eagles and 44 Levants

Very low over the trees

Tasty pistachio fruit 

Thanks to the ringing team - Yosef, Ron, Eli, Ezra, Adiv, Guy, Bruria and Gidon.