Spring alive

 This morning I had a meeting in Eilat, which is always a good excuse for birding down there. I left home before my elder son went to sleep, and arrived at Yotvata at 04:30. I checked the fields and had two Egyptian Nightjars and a Pharaoh Eagle Owl. I was alone, driving and holding the torch, so failed with photography. I snoozed for 15 minutes before there was just about enough light for birding. The sky was full of pipits and wagtails, and many hirundines and swifts were on the move. There were first splashes of spring - always elating, offering some hope in this screwed-up world. Wabi-sabi style.

eBird checklist here.

Then I continued to Nimra Valley, near Timna. Itai found there a male Menetries's Warbler a few days ago, which I was hoping to connect with - only a few annually in Israel. I met up there with Amit, an excellent young birder, and his dad Guy. We started searching for it, and I was surprised to find a female Menetries's at almost the same spot - very cool. My first views were through the scope - at first it was feeding out in the open. Not a top video but gives the idea:

When Amit and Guy joined me it became a real nightmare and was difficult to observe. We worked carefully and slowly, and bit by bit we managed to see it well enough to confirm ID. Impressively,  Amit managed sharp flight shots as it moved from bush to bush. Thanks for allowing me to share the illustrative photos here (check those tertials!). Later on they saw the male too.

Some nice desert birds and migrants there, including a couple of Rueppell's, Hooded Wheatear, Temminck's Lark and Striolated Buntings. eBird checklist here.

Conveniently, my meeting was at IBRCE, so I had time for a quick walk with Noam. It felt pretty active, birds were on the move. There was a steady trickle of Steppe Eagles, an Oriental Honey Buzzard, Long-eared Owl in roost - quite enjoyable really.

Desert Nights

Oh, how I missed these. Spent a night and two days with my family at Ein Gedi by the Dead Sea. Daytime birding was rather quiet, as expected for this time of year, but it was good to get reunited with 'my' familiar desert birds and mammals. The birding highlight of the weekend was a couple of hours of night birding in the northern Dead Sea region with my brother and Rami (thanks!). A small resident population of Egyptian Nightjars was found breeding there last summer by a team that included Amir Ben Dov and Ady Gancz. We went to check if we could find any on a chilly mid-winter night. They did. Very quickly we found three nightjars on the deck. They offered brilliant views. Quality!

We left them in peace and moved on to nearby date plantations to see if Pallid Scops Owls overwinter there too. They do... We had only brief views of one, but heard about three singing and calling. Great stuff. It is quite amazing how we can still learn new things about our breeding birds in Israel.

Here are few unimpressive wildlife images I got:

Barbary Falcon - perched on the tall communication mast in the kibbutz (huge crop)

Grey Wagtail

White-crowned Wheatear - 2cy

Disgraceful Nubian Ibex

Rock Hyrax

Rage against the machine

Last night I was out monitoring Nubian Nightjar. It was a long and eventful night, and after working with these nightjars for almost a decade now, for me this was a climax - both biologically and emotionally.

I started off near Hazeva, in the Shezaf Reserve. I met up with Yitzhak Ben Mocha and Oded Keynan, who had recently some anecdotal observations of Nubian nightjars in the reserve. Amazingly we found two or three pairs in full breeding activity - they were missing from this area for about 20 years as a result of massive destruction of their habitat there. We found them last night in small patches of suitable habitat; one site was rehabilitated a few years ago by some locals including Oded, and it was great to see the results of this work. More on this to come.

One great bonus was a superb observation of a wolf, sitting around and watching us.

After I was done there I continued to Neot Hakikar, arriving at about 23:00. Weather was fantastic, moonlight powerful, and nightjar activity was at its peak. This was the best night I have ever had there - I saw 14 pairs, out of about 20 pairs breeding there. Every possible territory I checked held a territorial pair. Most pairs were busy courting and mating - second cycle I guess. I did not see any youngs with parents at all, I assume they have dispersed already.

Sadly, two of the pairs I had are doomed - they chose to breed in a minefield that will be cleared next month. It was so sad for me to see them. Nightjars, like all swift-relatives, live for many years. I know these pairs intimately - I had transmitters on both pairs during my MSc research some years ago, and yesterday I saw a ringed bird - must be one of them. They are like old friends of mine and I almost started crying when they were courting, hovering and calling, right over my head and two meters away from me on the ground, not knowing that very soon their nests wil be chopped up and they will have to move somewhere else. To think that in just a few weeks their habitat will get torn to bits is just terrible, but apparently nothing can be done against it.

One very exciting find last night was a breeding pair of Egyptian Nightjars - this is the first indication of breeding in Israel since 1991. I will follow up on these birds during the next few nights.

Apart for not having anyone to share these experiences with me, I had nobody to hold the torch for me. So I discovered that it is very difficult to take photographs when one has to hold one's torch by oneself. This is the least-terrible image I managed. I have some sound recording too, hope to overcome the technical obstacles of editing the sound files soon.

Eilat Festival update day 5 - wheatear masterclass

Blogging on the road is not easy but I will do my best. Here are my adventures as of yesterday. I will post some more fresh stuff from today later on tonight.

So we (Dan, Martin G, Neil G and myself) started off early and went to check the Basalt Wheatear out. It has been showing only on and off over the last few days and has become less predictable, and we were not surprised not to find it in its usual spot. Only after extensive searching it was located some distance to the north by French birders (thanks guys!), and it showed very well in nice morning light. Martin started screaming like a little girl - it was one of his most-wanted birds of the trip.

Basalt Wheatear

Some bastard ringed it last week so I appologize for the ring (it was me...)

Big lens small lens - Rami and Martin

Satisfied we left for Neot Smadar. The place was just unbelievable - I have not seen such huge numbers of migrants for a long long time. In fact for the first time after many years I had the feeling that I am not keeping up with the speed of new exciting birds on show. It felt like a toy shop where one can choose a bird of one's choice. We did some walking through the fields outside the kibbutz and had a quick look at the alfalfa field inside the kibbutz. Hundreds and hundreds of common and scarce migrants of all sorts. The trend of quality wheatears continued and Martin and myself had a great time studying both Pied and Cyprus Wheatears.

Pied Wheatear - 2cy male - this bird showed very well just at the gate. Note the long, thick legs, relatively long and massive bill. Lots of white on the rump. Long primary projection. Pied Wheatear migrates longer distances than cyprus, so it has a different wing formula - longer primary projection, very pointed wingtip (P2 and P3 very close together), short P1.

Then this 2cy male Cyprus Wheatear showed exceptionally well inside the kibbutz, even singing occasionally. Another bird was in the same field, a female. Note more compact and delicate build - small sweet-looking bill, rounded head, thin legs, short primary projection with fewer visible primaries. Note prominent moult limit indicating this is a 2cy. Very limited white on rump, hardly climbing up the back.

Lots of commoner wheatears present too, including this very dull and rather dark female Eastern Black-eared Wheatear. Female pied would be much sootier and darker, with darker breast and some faint streaking on breast and upper flanks.

Another beautiful thrush - male Rock Thrush:

After a good breakfast Neil and myself headed to north beach for a quick look. Just outside the hotel we spotted this Osprey perched on a street lamp overlooking the sea, totally oblivious of the heavy traffic below it:

North beach was rather quiet but still had the two long-staying Brown Boobies, Western Reef Egret, Sibe and Baltic Gulls and this ugly Striated Heron:

In the evening I led the Rambo Night tour. Both nightjars - egyptian and nubian showed extremely well. Then off to the Judean Desert. This time luck was on our side and we had superb views of a male Hume's Owl, perched, hooting and then flying around, and heard another female nearby. Very special desert experience of walking on a moonlit night in a remote wadi. This time it was Neil's turn to scream like a little girl. When we arrived back at our minibus we saw a Wild Cat feeding on some rubbish left by campers - cool stuff. Arrived back at Eilat at 03:00, two hours of sleep and back in the field. To be continued...

Syria, Egypt and Israel

Had quite an amazing day today. Met up with Hdoram in the morning, we drove together to watch and study the Basalt Wheatear found yesterday by Itai Berger and Daniel Berkovic at Uvda Valley, near Eilat. Hadoram has been working on this form / subspecies / species / whatever for some years now - this is a fascinating case of a probable species that slipped under the radar for so many years.

Anyway, the bird was missing in the morning. Hadoram and myself started to accept the coming failure, as this bird is on migration back to its breeding grounds in S Syria / N Jordan. So it must have moved on... But just before we arrived on site we received a call from Itai Shanni who had relocated it. Very soon we joined Itai and a few more birders that assembled, and watched the bird for a very long time. It is a fantastic bird - totally different jizz from lugens, different song, and of course very distinct plumage. Note the solid tail band, pale grey inner webs to secondaries but not striking white like lugens, very rounded head, small bill, very limited white rump. Pale tips to PC were worn on the outer feathers but visible on the inner feathers. The bird showed the typical partial moult of 2cy wheatear - it had unmoulted remiges, PC, Alula, tertials (1 replaced tertial on left wing) and 2-3 GC. The bird showed some unique behaviour - bowing, somewhat like finsch's. When feeding it often hovered above the ground. We had it once mobbing a small snake sp. together with a Blackstart and a Black-eared Wheatear. We heard a short song sequence - song faster and more musical compared to lugens.

Basalt Wheatear Oenanthe (lugens) warriae - 2cy female

 

I have seen it previously, in 2003, but my images from back then were poor. I am quite happy with these flight shots - I assume there are not too many published images of this bird in flight. Congrats to Itai and Daniel for finding this great bird.

We did no birding elsewherre in the Arava, we were very focused on the wheatear. However in the same bunch of bushes I saw casually about five Rueppel's and three Cyprus Warblers, and lots of other migrants.

In the afternoon I met up with some Finnish and Dutch birders at Neot Hakikar. Again we had a super tour - beginning with Clamorous Reed Warblers, Dead Sea Sparrows, 2 Garganey etc. before dusk. Then after dusk the Egyptian Nightjar showed again very well, plus 4-5 Nubian Nightjars.

Egyptian and Nubian!

Met up with a Hungarian team this evening at Neot Hakikar. Weather was quite bad with lots of dust in the air and strong wind. However we had an enjoyable afternoon with Imperial Eagle, Little Crake, Clamorous Reed Warblers, Black Storks and Cranes.

After dusk we started our nightjar mission. Very quickly we had great views of a pair of Nubian Nightjars. They flew across to a field and we followed them there. I was amazed to find foraging with them an Egyptian Nightjar! We had wonderful views of both species feeding alongside, and compared the different foraging techniques of both - the nubians locating a specific moth and jumping to catch it, then returning to the ground. The Egyptian just kept flying and flying, catching insects on the wing. 

This is only my second record of Egyptian nightjar at Neot Hakikar, after many hundreds of nights I have spent there in recent years. It is a rare migrant, and most records in Israel are from Yotvata in March.This was a unique opportunity to observe both species together. Many thanks to Attila for holding the torch while I was taking photos :-)

Egyptian Nightjar