Up and down and around

Over the last few days I have been out and about a bit. It is such an exciting time of year to be out birding. The thrill of seeing fresh migrants, first for the season, keeps me going year after year. It never bores.

On Saturday morning (March 2nd) I went birding with Piki to sniff some early migrants in Arsuf, north of Tel Aviv. The habitat was lovely, flowers aplenty. There's a patch of Coastal Iris there, which is endemic to Israel and Critically Endangered. Sexy. 

There were quite many wheatears about, including an outstanding total of four Desert Wheatears. They are scarce or even rare migrants along the Med coast. Looking so beautiful in the early morning sun, with an atypical green background.

Flushed from its favourite perch by the powerful Isabelline Wheatear

Tuesday morning (March 5th) I had a meeting at the Jerusalem Bird Observatory. The secret in scheduling morning meetings is to start at a time that leaves sufficient birding time beforehand. Before the meeting I checked two sites in Jerusalem that are hosting fine birds. First, Jerusalem's Botanical Gardens, the same site that hosted Israel's first Chinese Pond-Heron in 2021. In the past few weeks a very cooperative Redwing has taken up residence in the gardens and has become a bit of a celebrity, mainly because it is showing so well, unusually for such a scarce and shy bird in Israel (normally). Indeed, it showed on its favourite Pyracantha bush. In my case it was actually a bit shy and didn't show very well but I can't complain. 

Next stop was Australia Gardens, on the slopes of Mt. Herzl. It's actually a section of the Jerusalem Forest, afforested with non-native pines and cypress trees. However, now when everything is lush and flowering, the habitat looked quite attractive and indeed there were tons of birds there. Gabriel Cedar and Shalem Kurman, to excellent young birders, found there a flock of Olive-backed Pipits a couple of weeks ago. OBP is a very rare winter visitor, though this past winter has been quite good for them. In any case such a flock in central Israel is very welcome. Straight away I heard the pipits giving their tiny 'pip' call but it took me a while to locate them. Eventually I had nice views of them flying between the trees, occasionally dropping down to the ground to forage. However they were difficult to photography well.

Listen to the amount of birdsong in this sound recording:

From the highest peaks of Jerusalem to the lowest place on earth. Later that evening I joined a group of researchers from Tel Aviv University working on Pallid Scops-Owls. We trapped and ringed three individuals, and heard another one or two, in one corner of a date plantation near the Dead Sea. Discovered to breed in Israel less than a decade ago, it still is fascinating to see Pallid Scops-Owls in such densities. Very special birds, in special settings.

Only few hours after the night shift had ended, I found myself in Kfar Ruppin, admiring our newest restored reservoir, in partnership with the kibbutz. It's a large, amazing reservoir, always so attractive to birds and other wildlife - a great and welcome addition to our Start-Up Nature project. Yesterday morning the reservoir was packed with birds, as always. A flock of pelicans graced the reservoir, tons of ducks, shorebirds, raptors, passerines. In two and a half hours I saw in the reservoir and around it 104 species, so much quality, check the eBird checklist here.

I went live on Facebook when I was there (until I was interrupted by a local guy who asked for some photography advice):

To write or not to write, that is the question

This post is somewhat unusual, because in recent years I refrain from reporting about my routine daily birding. I go birding every day, but I don't write a new blog every day. In the early years of my blog, I reported almost every time I was out: I saw this, I missed that. Looking back, it's good fun to read and remember, but I'm not sure how much interest there is in this kind of content anymore. Nowadays, I focus here on major events or on events with a broader context rather than standard illustrated birding reports.

This morning's birding session was not different than many others. Like every morning, I was out at dawn, aiming to get some birding done before it gets too hot and I need to start work. My routine birding includes a few good sites within 15-20 minutes from home, that I check in rotation. This morning I chose Yavne 1 ponds. It's a nice little wetland within a horrible industrial zone on the outer edge of the Tel Aviv megapolis. These ponds are used to infiltrate treated water into underground aquifer storage. They are good for autumn migrant shorebirds, and I was hoping to get some shorebird action. Indeed, it was pretty good, with relatively large numbers of common shorebirds, for this region and time of year. This site isn't easy to work, because viewing conditions are not ideal, and birds seem to be quite jumpy and mobile there.

Which shorebird species can you spot in this photo? (annotated answer below)

168 Little Stints were especially enjoyable, all adults. Also fine numbers of Marsh, Wood, Green Sands, Ruff. eBird checklist here.

There were some ducks too, including four Garganey

Both videos were taken through Swarovski ATX85 using my phone and a Swarovski phone adapter.

The reason why I decided to share this morning session is that it was not about birds only. Additionally, the report contained too much information to share in an independent social media post. Bamba and I had two encounters with Wild Boar, one from at very short distance (scared the s&%t out of Bamba) and another from a fair distance, downwind from them, so they were chilled. Also encountered Mountain Gazelle (there's a relict population here, trapped between several motorways) and Golden Jackals.

There were a few individuals of this huge, beautiful antlion, Palpares libelluluoides - wingspan of close to 15cm!

So, should I write such casual report, or not? Interested to get feedback from you, my loyal readers who got this far down.

Local dip

This morning I checked a few reservoirs near my house, in search of a Terek Sandpiper seen yesterday evening by Re'a Shaish. The bird was not present despite extensive searching in all nearby reservoirs. All of this searching did not produce too much - 16 Ferruginous Ducks, 30+ Garganey, 1 Marsh Harrier, 1 Spotted Redshank, 3 White-winged Terns, 50 feldegg Yellow Wagtails, and my first Willow Warbler of the season. All the resrvoirs are so big and the birds so distant that I couldn't bother getting my camera out.

Great Snipe

Early this morning I had some time for birding at the Hula lake together with my younger son Noam (six months old). We spent some time at the southern watchpoint and drove around a bit. Highlight was a Great Snipe observed feeding on the waters' edge. There should be several birds around - this was the right place and time for them. Since the spring of 2008, when several were ringed, this skulker was found to be rather regular at the lake in April - May.
Other good birds at the watchpoint were three Little and two Spotted Crakes, 20 Garganey, several Purple Herons and huge numbers of swallows and Sand Martins. The drive produced a Peregrine and 15 Collared Pratincoles - the local birds beginning their breeding activity.