Drongo no go

Last week, a day after I left Israel, Irad Solnik found Israel's first Ashy Drongo in his kibbutz, Gan Shmuel, in C Israel. Brilliant find. He saw it for just about a minute (and photographed it) and then it went missing for more than a week until this morning when he relocated the bird, still in his kibbutz. Later on during the day the drongo finally gave in and was twitched by most Israeli birders.

Cool video by Amir Balaban:

After three months in the UK, this is the first bird in Israel that I need for my list. Until now the Twitching Gods were kind with me, major rarities seen in Israel since I left were already on my list (Crossbill, Lesser White-fronted Goose, Lesser Flamingo). And when it seemed that this drongo is non-twitchable, I must admit I felt some relief that at least no one else sees it...

I am a serious Israeli lister - I am third in the current IL400 club list - Rami added another one today... And probably Barak will not resist the temptation and add it in the next few days. Just for the record, Hadoram Shirihai and Ehud Dovrat are probably up there somewhere as well, but they don't keep (public) lists.

These four years in the UK might be very painful for me, in this respect. I know that I will miss between 5 and 10 species in Israel (in recent years I had an average of 1-2 Israeli ticks per year). Because I am still connected online to birding news in Israel, real-time news coming in today was tormenting. If I had more time and money I'd probably catch a plane and fly back to see it (and the next megas that will show up during the next four years). But for the time being, I will have to watch with envy how my ranking is dropping down. Life is a bitch.

Mr. White

So after the fruitless weekend I woke up to a crisp, sunny morning and decided I had to get out. Met up with Phil and Will near Great Bircham where the Snow Goose had been present for the last few days. Only few geese there this morning, but quite many birds knocking about there.

After a quick bite at Titchwell we got the news that the goose is at Holkham, so headed over there. It showed well along Lady Anne's Drive among the large pinky flock there - good scope views but really too distant for proper photography. Other than that some barnacles.

Snow Goose

Large crop

I had to return to Norwich early, but we had time to quickly check around Burnham Overy, where we saw the Rough-legged Buzzard hunting in the distance - again too distant for photography but decent scope views:

Another large crop...

On the way back home we had a quick at Salthouse. Very few brents around, but about 30 Snow Buntings and 10 Twite were nice though mobile in the freezing wind.

Nice, typical N Norfolk winter day. Thanks to Phil and Will for the company.

Common stuff

The sun was out today so had to feel the shutter release. Nothing exciting today. Some common garden birds, and at Whitlingham CP pretty quiet. Large numbers of Common Gulls but couldn't find a ring-billed or even heinei. I like Common Gulls very much. I always get a sense of quality from them. And they're scarce in Israel.

No sense of quality from the following birds I'm afraid:

Black-headed Gull

Mute Swan

 Woodpigeon in my garden

Goodbye sun, hello rain, bye-bye drongo...

Tuesday morning I met up with Jonathan for a couple of hours of birding near Modi'in before returning to UK. The sun was out of course, lovely temperatures, lots of winter visitors - nothing too exciting though. Some Woodlarks, Siskins, several Gazelles etc.

Southern Grey Shrike aucheri

Long-legged Buzzard

And then another long trip back to UK - flew to Paris, where my car waited for me. Drove to Calais, and had a couple of hours to kill before my ferry departed. There were some birds to be seen inside the port - one distant Slavonian Grebe, and two Red-breasted Mergansers:

The ferry trip was uneventful, as was the drive from Dover to Norwich.

When I got back home news broke of an Ashy Drongo that was found by Irad Solnik at a funny site in the heart of the country. Good chance this is a wild bird. I knew this would come. There were some good birds in Israel since I left, but luck was on my side - I had seen all of them before (Lesser Flamingo etc.). This bird is something else - first for Israel of course. Today it was not relocated but if it stays for the winter good chance it shows up somewhere.

Sunny (!) birding

Arrived in Israel yesterday and enjoying the sun and the birds very much. Really lovely weather, and great to meet family and friends (though very briefly). I enjoy just driving around and seeing tons of birds everywhere. Cranes, eagles, kites, buzzards, stuff to look at all the time.

Reunion with Bamba was very exciting, and now she is roaming with me. Today I had some meetings in Tel Aviv, but there was heavy traffic in the morning so decided to check the Daurian Shrike found a couple of days ago by Nir Hasson (thanks for the coordinates!) at Palmakhim south of Tel Aviv. The bird showed pretty well. The primary projection looks alarmingly short because it's missing its longest primaries - moulting now. Unfortunately I am here only with my 400 mm lens; with my 500 the images would have been better

Daurian Shrike - 1cy 

Lovely coastal habitat, lots of common winter visitors. The sea was pretty empty.

Tomorrow evening back to UK, but hope to do some birding in the morning, so stay tuned.

The long road to Bamba

I am going back to Israel for a few days to bring my dog Bamba back to the UK. Since we moved to the UK a couple of months ago she stayed in Israel with good friends and was very happy, but my family and myself are really looking forward to reunite with her.

Left Norwich at 2 am, to take the 7 am ferry from Dover to Calais. Spent most of the trip seawatching - lots of Gannets and commoner gulls, but nothing of interest. Out of boredom I photographed some Gannets passing by:

And a distant Kittiwake:

Lots of birds on the mudflats south of Calais - big numbers of gulls, shorebirds and geese (too distant but should be Brent).

Now I am waiting in Paris for my flight to Israel, looking forward to some sunshine!