Yelkouan Shearwater party

 As promised, here is a collection of photos I took of Yelkouan Shearwaters on Wednesday. I was standing at Palmahim and enjoying a fishing party, participated by hundreds of gulls and terns, and over 70 Yelkouan Shearwaters. As mentioned in the previous blogpost, this winter is special for Yelkouan Shearwaters. The numbers seen this winter are higher than average in recent decade or so - there have been many observations of large numbers, especially along the northern Mediterranean coast of Israel (check this eBird checklist by Itamar Donitza et al. for example). What's really unusual is the distance to shore. In normal years they are typically seen flying past at a fair distance from shore. This year they are often seen foraging very close to shore, giving fantastic opportunities to document them. This is what happened to me on Wednesday. The shearwaters joined the gull feeding flock, and were fishing very close to shore. Mostly around 40-50 m from shore, but some bolder individuals came as close as 20 m to shore. I have never seen anything like this in Israel before. I took close to 1000 photographs of them. I tried to document as much as I can the variation in their underwing and vent patterns. Besides the variation apparent in the intensity of darkness of axillaries, lesser coverts and vent; the impression of underwing pattern also depends on light conditions and angle. Additionally, I was also hoping to find a rarer shearwater among them, without success. I selected few photos to present here.

Well-marked individual, with dusky axillaries extending onto lesser coverts and dusky stuff on rear flanks and vent

Fishing

Seawatching

Wednesday morning I visited Palmachim beach. A large storm was boiling, the wind was already good, the sea was properly rough - just before the rain started at noon. 

When I arrived at the seawatching spot, I was greeted by a sea full of birds:

There was really good activity of gulls close to shore, attracted to large fish shoals. Soon I noticed that there were good numbers of Yelkouan Shearwaters among the gulls, feeding very close to shore, sometimes down to 20m. Fantastic. This winter is special for yelkouans - their numbers are bigger than usual in recent years, and they are often seen feeding very close to shore. I focused most of my attention on the shearwaters, and took many hundreds of photos of them. I was hoping to find another shearwater among them (which I didn't), and document their variation. I also really enjoyed watching them fish, using short dives. It was difficult to digiscope in these conditions...

I will devote a separate blogpost to the Yelkouan Shearwaters - out of the hundreds of photos I took a few tens are blog-worthy. I will leave you with one I am pleased of.

The gulls were dominated by Black-headed Gulls, but there were a few other gulls mixed in, though the diversity was fairly low.

Lesser Black-backed Gull (fuscus)

Armenian Gull (adult) - lots of black on wingtip with little white, and nice black bill band

Yellow-legged Gull (I think) - bill too heavy for caspian, large head, and rather uniform wing

Many Sandwich Terns were fishing close in too:

One Pomarine Skua passed two distantly for a photo, but two Arctic Skuas made near passes - one super close. The first bird is especially small (check the size comparison with Black-headed Gull!), but still an Arctic.

Second bird

Back at the car, a Greater Spotted Eagle flew over, battling against the strong wind:

More images in the eBird checklist here. Stay tuned for a deep study of Yelkouan Shearwater.

Siberia and South America

2021 ended with a bang, and 2022 started in a very different tempo. First, I made a sort of new year resolution, not to do another Big Year. After two years in a row, I think I had enough. My family needs me back, and I need to invest more in my new position at work. Also, with the bird flu outbreak here (see recent articles in National Geographic and BirdLife International website), I am really very very busy. I am maintaining my checklist streak (880 days today), which leads me to 'rediscover' my local birding sites, those that can be combined with school run and dog walk. In 2021, as a result of me being all over, I neglected my local birding. So this return to the basics is welcome, at least for now, until I get itchy again...

January perhaps isn't the most dynamic month of the year, but there's still plenty to see locally. Especially on days with lovely sunshine, like today was, birds are singing, everything looks very lush and green, and it's so pleasant to be outdoors. This morning's birding along Nahal Ekron produced the expected stuff (eBird checklist here). It's a good winter for Siskin, and several small groups flew by, as they do every day here this winter. The small seasonal wetland at the western section holds water and ducks, which is nice. Interestingly, two Siberian Stonechats took up winter residence here, separately. They are common enough autumn migrants but pretty uncommon in winter. They are holding small territories about 1 km from each other. The male is a maurus-type, haven't managed to get a photo of him yet. The female, no idea what her taxon is, is more tolerant to humans as its territory is right on a main and busy footpath, adjacent to housing estates, very popular with dog walkers, runners, cyclists etc. I spent a few minutes with it this morning. At first perhaps my attention made her quite nervous. However, after few minutes, she lost interest in me and went on with her stuff, i.e. catching bugs. Lovely little bird.

There's a family of Coypu in the stream. They as well have become tolerant to humans (and their dogs) and can be viewed from very close. Coypu are native to South America. They were brought to Israel in the 1950's, in hope of setting up a fur industry. Surprise, the Israeli heat made their fur thin and useless, so the industry shut down and the animals were recklessly released into streams in the north. From there they spread into wetlands across central and northern Israel, and have become a serious pest in some parts. Yet, they are charming rodents, in their own way I guess.

2021 - my Biggest Year

Wow, what a year this was. It was a year of extreme birding non-stop, accompanied by professional changes - never a dull moment. As in 2020, COVID-19 prevented me from boarding a plane, so my birding was focused internally. My birding in 2021 was dominated by my Big Year effort; more on this below. I did a lot of fieldwork, and continued to bird very hard, every day. As in previous years, I will summarise the year thematically, here we go:

Big Year

After doing well in 2020 but not well enough, I was determined to give it all I can in 2021. I knew that I have to see as many birds as possible from January 1st, and not let go for a minute until the year ends. I managed to keep the pace throughout the year. Check my monthly totals in eBird below - my effort in the first months of the year is visible. Only in June I dropped below 170 species per month; in seven months I saw over 200 species. The drop in December is a result of me having a new job, restraining me to more local birding, and also the fact that I had very few new birds left to see.

In January and February I made an effort to catch up with as many rarities and scarcities as possible, including the overwintering Wilson's Phalarope, Lesser Yellowlegs, Kurdish Wheatear are a few:

Wilson's Phalarope - lingered from 2020

Three-banded Plover, also lingered from 2020

Lesser Yellowlegs - found during the last days of 2020, lost, and refound in February 2021

European Shag was a fantastic bird - only 2nd for Israel

I also made an effort to see as many rare but regular wintering species, to save me time in December:

Fire-fronted Serin

Wallcreeper

Early spring migration brought wonderful colours and sounds:

Caspian Plovers

Rufous-tailed Rock-Thrush - half an hour later

Short-eared Owl

In spring, two first for Israel arrived - very exciting birds:

White-backed Vulture

Chinese Pond-Heron

In late spring Israel was flooded by an exceptional wave of migrants. Its epicenter was in southern Israel, but was felt well everywhere. It was really exciting to go out birding, and difficult spring came in big numbers, such as River Warbler and Whote-throated Robin. Our Global Big Day run on May 8th exposed us to some extreme migration experiences that will be remembered for years to come.

In June an extraordinary discovery of over-summering Eleonora's Falcons was discovered on Mt. Meron. I visited there in early July - it was a very enjoyable day.

Tawny Eagle was a fine bird in June, the only species I saw in 2022 that is not on my IL list in eBird:

A week in Eilat in July for birding and scuba diving added some important species, including Great Crested Tern and Long-tailed Skua.

Later in September I added Swinhoe's Storn-Petrel during a pelagic trip in the gulf, and got my first (awful) photos of the species in Israel:

In August two young Northern Bald-Ibises arrived in the northern Negev. They originate from the semi-wild population breeding in Birecik in eastern Turkey. Despite its dodgy ancestry, it was thrilling to see this globally threatened species in Israel for the first time.

In early autumn migration was fantastic again, and the necessary additions to the year list were added.

Red Knot and friends

In early October there was a good run of rarities, my personal favourite was the Pin-tailed Snipe near Tel Aviv:

November was excellent too. There was an unprecedented arrival of rare eastern buntings. Both firsts for Israel, Black-faced and Chestnut, weren't really twitchable, but I managed to twitch a Rustic Bunting at Ma'agan Michael. Oriental Turtle Dove was a sweet self-addition:

Turkestan Shrike was an excellent bird too, part of a much-needed fantastic day of birding down south, shortly after my trip to Uganda had been called off due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

Thick-billed and Temminck's Larks; there was a Turkestan Short-toed lark there too

Red-breasted Merganser in early December was my 400th bird of the year - a good reason to celebrate:

Red breasted Merganser makes 400 species for the year! Very happy for you @yoavperlman brother, massive total! @BirdLifeIsrael pic.twitter.com/R8Cr8gLGAF

— Jonathan Meyrav (@JMeyrav) December 19, 2021

Black-throated Thrush was 401:

My final new bird of the year was Alpine Accentor on Mt. Arbel on December 28th - my first observation in Israel for 30 years, what a fantastic way to end my Big Year with 402 species! This is a new Israeli record. In fact I think this is the second highest score in the Western Paleacrtic this year, only my friend Emin in Turkey did better than me. I wasn't sure I'd be able to reach the mythical 400 when I started running this year, so I'm over the moon with this score. It certainly takes a huge effort to see 402 out of 417 species reported in Israel this year (this national total currently includes a few exotics like Mandarin and Nanday Parakeet that I avoided). I had a few painful dips and misses - my worst gap is Fieldfare, that showed only few times this year; also the failed twitches for Red-necked Grebe and Lappet-faced Vulture were painful. However, I am proud of my achievement - hopefully it will inspire others to go for Big Years here in Israel.

Huge respect to Avner Rinot and Jonathan Meyrav - they both had a crazy year too - 403 next year lads!

Igal Siman Tov's total is impressive - reaching 377 species with a disability is extraordinary.

Fieldwork

Fieldwork towards the national breeding bird atlas took me mainly south, where I was fortunate to visit some beautiful desert localities, and enjoy their birds:

Desert-breeding Short-toed Eagle

Mediterranean Short-toed Lark habitat

Arabian Warbler

Migrant rather than a breeder in the desert, but a photo I like - Eastern Black-eared Wheatear

Late spring fieldwork on Mt. Hermon is always a treat. The scenery is breathtaking, and the special birds breeding there are wonderful.

semirufus Black Redstart

* This Syrian Serin was no photographed on Mt. Hermon in summer, but on Mt. Amasa in the northern Negev in December.

Local birding

During a Big Year, obviously less time is left for local birding. However, I did my best to explore my surroundings when I was not away. My local patches, walking out of home, didn't produce any proper rarities, which is expected by the fewer visits. yet it was nice to add quality yearbirds such as Marsh and River Warblers there, enjoy good migration in nearby Hulda Reservoir and Tal Shachar - so much to see near home.

Wow, so many migrants. Check my blog for more:https://t.co/4wefZ0lQK0@IshPiki @BirdLifeIsrael @flywaychampions @SwarovskiOptik @SPNI pic.twitter.com/Eb7KPWdwGu

— Yoav Perlman (@yoavperlman) September 8, 2021

Siberian Stonechat near home

Leucistic Eurasian Jackdaw in Tsor'a - not a rarity but a fascinating bird

Awesome to spot this Oriental Honey-Buzzard migrating over within a stream of several thousand Euro Honeys:

I am proud of our achievement to ban hunting of Turtle Doves in Israel, part of our year long campaign at Champions of the Flyway - Year of the Dove:

Butterflies

In previous years butterflies featured more prominently on my annual summary. This year I had less time for butterflies. Also I sold my Olympus kit - its only advantage was the ability to take half-decent butterfly photos. Still, I managed a few butterflies. Not listing them yet, maybe that will happen in the future...

Levantine Vernal Copper

Green-striped White

Desert Bath White

False Baton Blue - one of the rarest butterflies in Israel, a bit of a blocker actually

Salmon Arab

Arabian Sapphire

Pomegranate Playboy - in the garden

That day on Mt. Meron with the Eleonora's produced good butterflies too, from top left - Brown Argus, Southern White Admiral, Tawny Silverline, Levantine Silverline, Small Copper, Wall Brown, Freyer's Grayling, Holly Blue:

Summary and next year

This year was really intensive, because on top of the Big Year effort I was promoted recently. It has been a massive year, not sure if I can ever repeat that. The huge effort requires stamina, to keep going and going. In the next few years I don't think I will repeat a Big Year effort. I need a slower year now. Not that I will stop birding, never. I still take part in the checklist-a-day-challenge, that I upgraded to proper-birding-every-day (currently on a checklist streak of 870 days), and I will still do fieldwork, and hopefully there will be some world travel in 2022.

Thanks

First. my deep love and appreciation to my family, primarily my wife Adva. The fact that she did not dump me after such a year deserves admiration. My birding companions and close friends - Jonathan, Piki, Rony, Meidad, Amir, Yotam, Yosef, Re'a and many others - you are awesome, without your support this would not have been possible. Sorry to all those wonderful people I didn't mention here. My boss Dan Alon was also very tolerant - thank you Dan. Swarovski Optik provide me with the best optics - I am very grateful. Thank you to all my followers and readers here on the blog and on my social media channels - your ongoing support is truly motivational.

I wish you all a fantastic 2022 - may we learn how to better protect our world and its nature, and respect each other. Happy New Year!