In Cyprus

Arrived yesterday evening in Cyprus. Actually my first visit to this island, so close to Israel. We're staying in a lovely villa up in the mountains above Polis on the west coast. Avifauna and flora are similar to northern Israel, but distinctly different. Magpies and Woodpigeons remind me I'm not in the Galilee. Cetti's Warblers sing differently here. There are some migrants around, but densities are low and birds are super shy here, especially when I raise my camera and point it at them. The ugly effect of intensive shooting and trapping.
This morning I went with Robin down to Polis campsite that was decent, with Collared Flycatchers, Orioles and Crag Martins (eBird checklist here). Cyprus Wheatears are pleasantly common. They are scarce migrants in Israel (check this one in Tel Aviv last week) - fun to see them on their breeding grounds. Most are skittish; only by our accommodation we have a rather tame pair - the female more so. Great birds.

Cyprus Wheatear - female. This was taken out of the balcony

This was taken by the swimming pool

And this by the carpark

Note the short primary projection, small bill and limited, squared-off white rump.
Sadly the male hasn't played ball yet. I have a feeling I will improve my results with him in the next days I'm here.

Fieldwork therapy

My busy spring continues. More fieldwork thankfully steers me away from thoughts about the future of my country and enables me to enjoy the magic of migration. A few days ago, with Mark still around, I collected data again in our Batha mapping project, north of Jerusalem. Pale Rock Sparrows, Calandra Larks, lots of common migrants in beautiful habitat - I certainly am lucky that this is my job.

Somewhat small-billed Calandra Lark

Mourning Wheatear

Tree Pipit on a rock - abundant migrant in all habitats, nevertheless sexy

Judean Iris - almost as good as a bird

Another crappy morning with @yoavperlman in Israel - bird-filled, rolling hills in golden morning sunshine (Calandra Lark, Mourning Wheatear and Long-billed Pipit pictured). Can't wait to get home to the super-abundant rollercoaster of East coast spring birding. #zeissbirding pic.twitter.com/QVKzULS3ee

— Mark James Pearson (@Markthebirder) April 7, 2019

Before dropping Mark and Amity off at the airport we made a 'small diversion' via Kfar Ruppin. I had a meeting there and I wanted M&A to experience the fabulous Bet Shean Valley. After the meeting we had 38 minutes of joy in the fishponds - huge streams of migrants overhead - storks, pelicans, eagles; the fishponds were full of good stuff. 83 species in 38 minutes - pure bliss (eBird checklist here). Light conditions were horrible and I was tired, so I left my camera in the bag - surely Mark will blog about it soon.

Yesterday I spent a morning mapping birds in the Poleg region, north of Tel Aviv, with INPA's Ohad and Tzlil. This is an interesting and relatively under-watched part of the country, despite being right in the center. No amazing rarities were seen, just a abundance of breeding species and migrants in surprisingly good habitats. I was busy counting so had little photo opps. eBird checklists here and here.

Ay up!

After IBOC was over mark and Amity came to stay over with us. Mark and I did quite a bit of birding in recent days. Mark joined me for a morning of monitoring with INPA at a proposed nature reserve along the Med coast north of Ashdod on Wednesday. The coastal scrub habitats were good for migrants (eBird checklist here). Good numbers of common species were seen and heard, as well as a Subalpine Warbler.

Masked Shrike

A migrating flock of Bee-eaters was nice to see - first-for-year are always fun:

The sandy coastal strip held several large groups of shorebirds and few gulls (eBird checklist here):

Yellow-legged and Armenian Gulls

A cute Red Fox was chilling out on a pillow washed on the shore. Sadly this section of coast is extremely dirty with garbage mainly from Gaza, Egypt and further west, and unattended by Israeli authorities.

Back at my patch, migration is evident with good numbers of common migrants as well as some enjoyable species such as Wryneck, Little Crake and Great reed Warblers. While walking there with Mark one morning we approached some large trees in a park adjacent to the creek. I told Mark that this is where I want to find today my first-for-patch Collared Flycatcher. A minute later, a black-and-white flash dashes through the trees. Boom! Image by Mark - thanks mate.

Yesterday we went birding in Hatzuk Beach north of Tel Aviv. Mark needed Cyprus Wheatear, and I was hoping for some good general migration. We were not disappointed. Meeting up with Stefan, we were soon alerted by Ori (a local young birder) that he had found/relocated a female Cyprus Wheatear. It was super mobile and restless. My photos are quite poor, but it's a right bird for sure. 

Further quality came in a similar form to my patch collared fly story. I walked with Stefan towards a large Sycamore Fig tree. Each time I walk there I feel that it's a perfect tree for Hume's Warbler. I shared this thought with Stefan, and sure enough few moments later we heard one calling! We failed to get any views of it - luckily it was relocated by others later on. My third in about a week... Other quality species included Citrine Wagtail, Woodlark and Siskin. Nice eBird checklist (here).

Woodchat Shrike

Spring is on! Stay tuned for more migration action.

Back to life, back to reality

Yesterday was my last day in Eilat as part of our three back-to-back international events (Eilat Bird Festival, COTF and IBOC). I spent the final morning at IBRCE, that at last was in proper form after admittedly slow days. The trees were dripping with Lesser Whites, reedbed exploding with Reed Warblers, hirundines, pipits, wagtails, nightingales, shrikes, another Oriental Honey Buzzard - cool stuff (eBird checklist here). A most obliging female Little Crake in front one of the hides was the photographic highlight of the morning - I think I nailed it OK... I love those ripple reflections. Note the dirty forehead - result of walking through dense vegetation.

On the way home we just had to stop again at the unbelievably lush Hameishar Plains. It was pretty cold, overcast and windy, but bird activity was at full power. Huge flocks of Pale Rock Sparrows and Short-toed Larks, bushes exploding with Sylvias, pipits, buntings, chats - spring migration at its best. Nice to see some displaying Lesser short-toed Larks - will they breed? One Temminck's Lark was pretty sweet.

Pale Hill Rockfinchsparrow

That tail pattern...

Temminck's Lark

One of two female Sibe Stonechats present - wonder which subspecies:

This blurry photo of a huge Spiny-tailed Lizard is not great but gives a good idea of the productivity of the Plains this spring:

Great to have an eBird checklist (here) without a single invasive or urban species. All quality.

Sad to leave Eilat, but glad to return to my routine duties, that will include lots of fieldwork in the next few weeks.

Huge thanks to the team leading these events, especially Jonathan, Dan, Noam, Jessi and Mark, IBRCE team, my colleagues from IOC, and all the participants who made these events so awesome. Over and out.

WE ARE FAMILY! Thank you to all our sisters and brothers for coming to Eilat for an epic #IBOC2019 - four days of inspiration, community and sharing. Here's to #IBOC2020! #birdobsunited pic.twitter.com/r1ckbBvGn1

— International Bird Observatory Conference (@IBOC2019) April 1, 2019

Birding IBOC2019

I am part of the organising team of IBOC2019. As such, I am expected to spend my time in the conference hall, listen to all fascinating presentations, participate in exciting workshops, mingle and brainstorm. However, all I really want to do is go birding. I lead early morning tours for IBOC participants, that are nice but too rushed and group is very big. I try to sneak out once or twice a day for a cheeky hour of birding - again not ideal birding conditions but better than nothing.
Yesterday very first thing in the morning I led an IBOC tour to Holland Park. It was quite OK with many warblers (though I expect a post-8am visit would yield more Sylvias), Barbary Falcon and a flyover Egyptian Vulture (eBird checklist here):

Not a bad start to day 3 of #IBOC2019! A group outing pre-conference to Holland Park and a friendly fly-by from an Egyptian Vulture...

Photo by Yoav 'Doctor Nightjar' Perlman @yoavperlman pic.twitter.com/zBwe3oNOoJ

— International Bird Observatory Conference (@IBOC2019) March 30, 2019

In the afternoon I went up with Amir, Mark and Annie up scenic Wadi Shlomo. Weather was quite shit, resulting in slow bird and reptile activity. We did bump into three Nubian Ibex - their population in Eilat Mts. is tiny so that was pretty cool. Also cool not to see them feeding out of rubbish bins. 

On our way out we spent a few enjoyable minutes with a pair of Sand Partridges. They are common desert birds for us here in Israel, but I sincerely appreciate their subtle beauty and uniqueness. The male was clearly in the zone - he almost certainly showed off to us - he was facing us all the time, eyeballing us, pumping up and calling. I interpret this beaviour as showing off to the female: 'Look at me, see how brave I am displaying and singing exposed to crazy predation risk from these dangerous humans!'.

Incredible structure on upper mandible covering nostrils:

This morning has been OK so far. KM20 saltpans were somewhat quiet, but birding was brightened up by a cracking flyby male Pallid Harrier, and flocks of Yellow Wagtails, Short-toed Larks and hirundines on the move north. Later on, with Jonathan, Elifaz sewage was rather birdy with many warblers and wagtails, Rufous-tailed Scrub-Robin, a couple of nightingales etc.

From COTF to IBOC

In the last few days since my last post, COTF ended and IBOC started. Typically, right after the award ceremony at IBRCE wrapped up COTF events, two Oriental Honey Buzzard flew by, causing havoc. This is the same female I saw before, and a young bird:

In between the two events I headed back home for one night. Classically, a potential Brown Shrike was found by Shachar Shalev in Eilat just as I arrived home. Luckily, or not, it was not twitchable and was not relocated next day or since.
I stopped briefly at Hameishar Plains twice, on the way home and on the way back. Habitat is fantastic there, and there are tons of birds on the plains. Thousands of storks, clouds of Short-toed Larks, huge numbers of wheatears and pipits, Lesser Ketrels hovering - brilliant. Most impressive (IMO) are huge numbers of Pale Rock Sparrows - I had a flock of 300 at one point, and many others scattered across the plains, 'Zzzzzzzzzzzzz'itting their hearts out.

With Isabelline Wheatear - for you A

Other sweet migrants were Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush, Caspian Stonechat, a stonking male Whinchat, and many Sylvias including Rueppell's:

Caspian Stonechat

Whinchat

Rueppell's Warbler - missing two tertials on left wing

Among the numerous feldegg Yellow Wagtail there were a few supercilliaris-integrades:

Back at IBOC and Eilat, an early morning tour to IBRCE produced nice views of Baillon's Crake. I paid that shrike site (Shakhamon Park) a courteous visit. It was not present but a wing-barred leaf warbler that was found yesterday showed well and called. Yesterday it was identified as Yellow-browed Warbler, but I am 100% sure it's Hume's Warbler, based on its call. My sound recording is rubbish; luckily Jonas Bonnendahl kindly shared his excellent sound recording with me.

These are sonograms of the calls from this recording. This is the regular call - check the low pitch and shape:

This is a 'funny' little call it gave occasionally:

Its looks are somewhat misleading - it's a rather contrasty individual, but still OK for spring humei. In these images bring into account the green light reflecting under the canopy the affects the tones of the bird. In real light it is much greyer.

Shakhamon park was pretty good with many migrants, mainly warblers (eBird checklist here).

Balkan Warbler

Tree Pipit

IBOC itself is fantastic - well organised, great program. Looking forward to the next two days at the conference (and the few hours sneaking off birding).