Champions of the Flyway 2024

On Monday (April 1st) it was Champions of the Flyway again, for the 11th year. It was a strange one, all-Israeli, without the international component. Because of the war we didn't even try to engage with the international birding community - not easy to be an Israeli organisation or individual these days. Despite the ongoing war situation, we decided to go ahead with the Israeli race this year for several reasons. First, the conservation project, to support Nature Tanzania's work in tackling illegal killing of White Storks and other birds, is so important that we were determined to raise whatever funds we can through COTF. Second, the race is a central event for the local birding community, bringing together so many people and connecting the birding community with conservation. It was great to be part of the leading team of COTF, with Alen and Noam but very strange without Jonathan Meyrav. You were missed, bro!

I headed down to Eilat on Sunday, March 31s, the day before the race. The weather turned terribly hot and migrant numbers on the ground were very low. In Yotvata sewage there were a few migrants, shorebirds, wagtails and pipits, best of the bunch was a Little Crake. In hot and windy Canada Park, this male Collared Flycatcher (one of my favourite birds) was the only migrant of note.

Over at the IBRCE we did a live birding webinar, broadcasting from the JBO (Dror), Hula (Nadav) and IBRCE (Daniel and Moritz ringing, I was out with my scope). You can watch the webinar recording here. I had phone issues (demonstrated also in the attached video below), so I contributed only visual, without sound. But it went OK I think. Outside of the zoom there were some nice birds in the park, including Whimbrel, Gull-billed Terns, a pale-morph Western Reef-Heron and Citrine Wagtails. Identifying this pale morph is a bit more challenging - note the dagger-shaped, non-black bill, and less black and yellow legs. It was also slightly larger that an adjacent Little Egret:

Citrine Wagtail

Whimbrel, Whiskered Terns, Glossy Ibis, Caspian Tern, Gull-billed Terns:

In the evening at North Beach the Brown Booby was sitting distantly on a buoy, and I saw my first White-cheeked Tern of the year.

Race day (April 1st) started in an unexpected way:

With this wake-up call (siren) teams sprang into action. I spent the whole day out in the field, with teams, making sure they are working well and seeing as many birds as possible. First thing in the morning I headed up to in Uvda Valley, that was actually quite good with decent numbers of migrants. The habitat looks great there - one of the few productive spots in the Negev this year. Most of the Negev is stone-dry, literally, after a rain-less winter.

My birding started well with a Striped Hyena that disappeared behind a ridge just as I got my camera on it... I had Bar-tailed and Med Short-toed Larks there, and another lark that got away and was probably Arabian. 

In Neot Smadar sewage a male Semi-collared Fly showed nicely:

Heading down towards the Arava valley, I intercepted a fantastic stream of migrating raptors, mainly Steppe Buzzards - thousands of them! Somehow, photos of such migration spectacles are always underwhelming; it is impossible (for me) to capture the size and power of this awesome experience.

During the hottest hours (it was already above 40 C / 104 F) I checked some sites near Eilat, including IBRCE and the football pitches. The most impressive creature that I photographed was this poisonous grasshopper Poekilocerus bufonius, here on its poisonous plant host - Sodom's Apple Calotropis procera.

In the afternoon teams started to concentrate in the Eilat sites. At KM20 Flamingo Pools there were many shorebirds and ducks, including two Red-necked Phalaropes and Collared Pratincoles. So great to see the kids and teens in action:

At North Beach the classic evening gathering of teams was photogenic as ever:

After dark we opened the finish line at the IBRCE and worked with the incoming teams until midnight.

On Tuesday (April 2nd) before the closing events I used the early morning for a little birding, with Itai and Meidad. In Holland Park it was nice to find a 'wild' Black Scrub-Robin (unlike the sedentary 'feral' ones in Samar).

At quick whizz through the IBRCE produced a columbinus Greater Sand-plover and a female Oriental Honey-Buzzard. I am still bewildered by their rapid expansion in Eilat - they have become a regular feature of birding here almost year-round. Note that in this photo the bird is half-gliding, therefore the first finger is tucked in.

Then it was the traditional group photo at North beach, classically interrupted by a passing Eurasian Curlew:

And a proper photo by Yuval Dax - thank you to all who participated!

The award ceremony was exciting and emotional as ever. Five titles were awarded to different teams - Guardians of the Flyway (most fundraising) to Women in Steppe, Knights of the Flyway to the young Bee-eaters (most noise and impact towards the cause), Green Champions of the Flyway to the Francolins (on foot in the heat!), IBRCE Champions of the Flyway to the Woodchat Shrikes (full day in the park), and classic Champions of the Flyway to the Desert Owls, led by Nitay Hayun, with an excellent score of 152 species! They received Zeiss binoculars, donated by Zeiss Birding - thank you! The Desert Owls are a brilliant team - exceptional birders and fine young lads - from L to R Yagel Yamin, Nitay, Beeri Abramov and Amit Spivack. This photo and the next are also by Yuval - thanks!

Uplifting to see the engagement and commitment of so many young birders to the project (41 participants under 18!) - not only their participation in the bird race itself. I also witnessed the importance of the conservation component and the connection of the younger participants to a 'bigger' story. I only wish there were more girls in this photo - still a big challenge we need to overcome, how to make birding more inclusive and safer for young girls.

From a birding point of view it may have been one of the quieter Champions, with very high temperatures and low numbers of migrants on the ground. However, this made the race itself even more challenging. With harder work of all teams most expected species were seen (195 species seen in total during the race by all teams) and lots of good species. Check my eBird trip report for the three days here.

From a public POV, as always, this event is so unique and motivational that I am very proud to be part of its leading team. Of course, that lack of international teams decreased the volume of the message, the importance of the battle against the horrible illegal killing of birds, and also decreased the amount of money raised for Nature Tanzania. You can still donate to COTF and support the work carried out by Nature Tanzania to tackle illegal killing of birds - please follow the link here,

Within Israel this still is one of the most prominent birding events of the year, that connects birding with conservation. IBRCE hosted the event and the the team did a stellar job. Huge love and appreciation to Noam and all IBRCE team - Tzadok, Libby, Sasha, Shachar, and Moritz and Daniel who operate the ringing station.

Alen and Noam deserve huge thanks for leading the whole campaign and event, with the online support of Mark Pearson. Hats off - you all did a great job in difficult conditions. Thanks as well to all of my team who came down to participate and help - Yuval, Meidad, Yotam, Ofir and the entire JBO team, and two BirdLife Israel 'affiliates' - Dan Alon and Amir Balaban - thank you all!

See you in Champions of the Flyway 2025! Go Champions!

Pratincole zen

Amidst the series of blogposts from my trip to Kenya in July (one more left to go), I need to remind myself that there is quality stuff to be presented from here in Israel too. This is a tough period for birding, with extreme weather. Birding is really limited to the first two hours of light. Yesterday I stopped in Kfar Ruppin for a couple of hours before heading up to the Golan heights for less fun work (regulating the operation of bird-chopping wind turbines). Two hours of early morning birding zen is exactly what I needed ahead of a difficult day.

Good things are happening in Kfar Ruppin. The kibbutz has made a strategic decision to direct their future towards sustainability, nature and tourism. I am very proud to collaborate with our partners at the kibbutz. Our pilot project there, Amud Reservoir, was looking amazing as always first thing. Mimicing natural wetland water cycles, water levels are low now, which translates into a huge, beautiful reedbed, exploding with Savi's Warblers, Acros, Little Bitterns and such (eBird checklist here). 

Kfar Ruppin fishponds are looking very good now. Two large reservoirs have low water levels, exposing precious mud to migrants. One reservoir held a great flock of Collared Pratincoles, a post-breeding concentration of the locally-breeding population. I love pratincoles. With the soundtrack of Blue-cheeked and Common Bee-eaters, this pond provided me with the zen experience I needed (and another checklist).

What other species can you spot mixed in the pratincole flock?

That corner of the reservoir attracted also quite many shorebirds, and terns. Little Tern isn't common inland. One Whiskered Tern is in here too.

Whiskered Tern

Temminck's Stints - so tiny compared to Little Stint!

All videos embedded here were taken using a Swarovski ATX85 scope and a Swarovski phone adapter.

Locust-fest

 I spent a few days down in Eilat and the Arava Valley with my brother and Amir. Our visit coincided with a significant invasion of Desert Locusts, entering southern Israel from Arabia and Jordan. This invasion is ongoing, is quite large in its geographic spread (swarms are located all along the Rift Valley) but not as massive in size as the 2013 invasion, the last major event we had here in Israel.

In the current invasion, the locust are in the yellow, adult form that is gregarious, migratory and egg-laying. We found large numbers in Lotan on Friday afternoon. It was impressive to see swarms entering from the desert, flying low:

And hit the kibbutz fence:

Then they started landing and congregating on vegetation and on the ground, to rest a bit before moving on north:

Each one of them is an impressive beast:

They are powerful fliers, extremely difficult to photograph on the wing:

To their misfortune, the locust invasion coincided also with massive bird migration. Especially appreciative were bee-eaters - this is peak migration period for European and Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters. We saw many bee-eater flocks feasting on them.

Bloody camera missed the money shot here (btw blob in the background is a locust, I think)

Blue-cheeked Bee-eater

Got one!

Hard work these locust...

Ooops dropped it

Of course we saw many other birds feasting on the locust - Steppe Buzzard, Spur-winged Lapwing, House Sparrow, Bulbul. Interestingly, Arabian Green Bee-eaters struggled with their size - I never saw them succeed, always gave up.

At KM20 saltpans the air was full of Slender-billed Gulls hawking locust high up. There was a flock of pratincoles (15 Collared and a Black-winged) that were feeding on locust. They are rather delicate birds, so it was interesting to see them battle with these large grasshoppers.

Collared Pratincole destroying a Desert Locust. Taken yesterday evening north of Eilat. Southern Israel is experiencing a significant locust invasion. Birds are happy@BirdLifeIsrael @SPNI @BirdLife_News @SwarovskiOptik pic.twitter.com/XgWSgjxuzK

— Yoav Perlman (@yoavperlman) April 25, 2021

Third time unlucky

 On July 18 mega news broke:

MEGA: Senegal Thick-knee @ Kfar Ruppin, Beit She'an Valley Israel.
2nd record for Israel if accepted. @TarsigerTeam @westpalbirds @JordanWatching pic.twitter.com/OlovJiJSxu

— Tuvia Kahn (@KahnTuvia) July 18, 2020

I needed that bird! The first for Israel came when I was in the UK. I was unable to go straight away, and in any case the bird was not twitchable that day. I went there the next day, dip #1, my air conditioner broke down at 45⁰ C. Joy.

Fast forward to August 1st:

Then they became two! Again, I couldn't go the same day; next day I was there again, dip #2. Aarghh! So frustrating. We just cannot figure out their local movement patterns.

On Wednesday Avner Rinot again found one, in a slightly different spot. This morning I went AGAIN, hoping for a third-time-lucky. In Hebrew we say third-time-ice-cream. No luck nor ice cream, dip #3. What's going on?

This tale of serial dipping raises existential thoughts about the whole concept of listing and twitching. From my personal point of view, my listing career in Israel changed dramatically when I moved to the UK. Since my return two years ago I got back in the game, but somehow my energy is slightly lesser. My stamina is OK, but will I go fourth time? Most probably...

The only positive aspect of these visits to Kfar Ruppin is that birding there is excellent, luckily. Tons of birds, quality, nice build-up of autumn migrants. I have never paid so much attention to variation in Eurasian Thick-knees...

Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters are present in large numbers, many juveniles around:

Western Yellow Wagtail - adult female feldegg

It was a good breeding season for Collared Pratincoles:

And for Purple Herons:

Frustration sometimes led to attention diverted to butterflies, like this Little Tiger Blue:

Thanks to my partners in dip, Jonathan, Piki, Amir.

Essential travel

Strange day today. Started the day monitoring a few reservoirs, under authorisation, as part of an important national project. No special highlights, just nice weather and a few fine birds, including my first Collared Pratincoles of the year (harsh light masking the rufous underwing coverts)

Just as I was done with the final reservoir, the RBA alert went off, CODE RED. Three-banded Plover at Ma'ayan Tzvi!!! WTF!?! 

Mega alert! Three-banded Plover, first for Israel, found just now by Shachar Alterman at Maayan Tzvi. Photo by Shachar. Amazing pic.twitter.com/U5XXiqftyW

— Yoav Perlman (@yoavperlman) April 12, 2020

I didn't even think about Covid-19 implications or anything else, just full steam ahead. Got there quickly, thankfully roads are quite empty now... I joined the few others already on site, and quickly connected with the bird. Fantastic stuff. Great views though horrible light conditions for photography, with heat haze and harsh midday sun. Beautiful bird in immaculate plumage; those red eyes...

Mini twitch during COVID-19 times, socially distancing

I had no time for a full circuit of Ma'agan Michael, just a quick drive around the plover's fishpond that produced quite a nice list (eBird checklist here).

On the way back home, I started receiving concerned messages and phone calls, challenging my celebration of this bird during lockdown. I acknowledge the complexity of this situation, yet I cannot see myself not going to twitch this bird. Regarding the others who came for the twitch - each person made their own decision, and I cannot vouch for them. 

Eilat day 4 - race day

What an amazing day it was, made even more mentally challenging with the sad news coming from across the pond of the departure of our dear friend and comrade BT3. I received the news while standing at a watchpoint overlooking the Arava Valley and Eilat Mts., watching a River of Birds pouring through the sky. How appropriate.

I did not race myself, as I am part of the organising team. I spent the day assisting teams, scouted key species and sites, and made sure that teams remained focused and on track. After spending much of the night at the start line, at dawn I gave one of the teams a lift to Amram Pillars. On the way out enjoyed a ram Dorcas and a Woodchat Shrike.

I spent a while at Yotvata fields. The circular field was packed with bird that hid well in the tall vegetation. I walked through a tiny section of the large field and had tens of Sedge and Savi's Warblers, mainly heard calling and singing but occasionally climbed up for brief views:

Sedge

Savi's

Also a few Bluethroats:

Squacco Heron resting outside the field

Also some White Storks

Several harriers cruised over the field, flushing pipits and wagtails:

Hen Harrier

Quality species included 2 mobile Pin-tailed Sandgrouse (very unusual here, found yesterday), Blue-cheeked Bee-eater and 3 Collared Pratincoles.

 Blue-cheeked Bee-eater

Collared Pratincole

eBird checklist here.

Then I headed back to Eilat checking a few more sites along the way. I positioned myself by the IBRCE; my main mission was, again, to connect properly with an Oriental Honey Buzzard. With some help from friends, I eventually had a lovely female - rather brief encounter but at last photos! Jynx removed.

In the afternoon I spent time with teams in the productive sites around Eilat. I was focused on getting teams on key species so had no chance for 'proper' birding. Still some nice stuff, such as a Peregrine skydiving at Slender-billed Gulls and a flock of 9 Eurasian Curlews - quite huge in Israeli standards.

Before dusk there was the traditional assemblage of teams at north beach, frantically using the last rays of light to add species to their lists:

After checking all teams lists, I can only say that the final results are incredible - wait till tomorrow! Kudos to all teams who made an enormous effort, both in the field and in fundraising.