Super day at Maagan Michael

I don't do these kind of things anymore, report on a single days' birding. However, today was really brilliant and report-worthy. Once a month I spend a morning monitoring birds at our restoration project in Ma'agan Michael. I start early, and do point counts for about two hours. Then I spend the rest of the morning counting birds in the general area of Ma'agan Michael fishponds and beach. Today, my first point count was interrupted by flocks of hundreds of Great White Pelicans cruise low over me:

It was evident that there were lots of birds around. Flocks of wagtails and pipits headed south. My second point count had so many birds I struggled to end it on time. It was nice to see this migrating flock of Flamingos at eye-level.

At my third point count I had two Striated Herons - hatched this year I think. They are becoming more regular in this area, but still scarce.

Towards the end of the point count I noticed a shrike on a fence, quite distant and in bad light conditions. A quick look through the bins and I said to myself - hey, this is an Isabelline Shrike. The shrike flew out of view. I went around a small pond to try and get better views. Then a Red-backed jumped up. Disappointed, I discounted my previous ID. Only when I got back home and checked the photos I noticed it was actually an Isabelline - nice one.

The fourth and final point count was uneventful though it had lots of migrants. Then I went down to the beach to check what's on there. I bumped into this fine adult male Desert Wheatear - pretty scarce in this region, and such a beautiful bird.

I spotted a large shorebird flying south high up - Bar-tailed Godwit! Another scarce bird. Sweet.

Later on Yuval found one a couple of kms north - is it the same bird that U-turned, or another bird? This one showed really well, feeding in a coastal lagoon.

In a large dried up fishponds there were over 100 Black Storks. I checked them for colour rings and found three. 718N is from Estonia, ringed in 2022, and seen since every winter in Ma'agan Michael.

I am awaiting information about the other two - U199 and 15U6.

By 10am it was getting hot and I had to leave. My total was pretty good - 116 species. eBird checklist here.

Nostalgic photo-dump

 Once upon a time, when I was a young blogger, my blogposts typically went something like this: 'Today I went birding here and I saw this and that'. Then I matured and developed and started writing about deeper stuff like feelings and sociological observations. Today, before a meeting at Ma'agan Michael, I made time for my monthly point-count session at our evolving bird park there. It was a busy morning of point-counts, and the conditions were horrific with gale-force easterlies (listen to the background noise in the videos below), yet somehow photography went ok and I felt a need to share my photos with you, the world. Nothing to write home about, no special reason, just a representation of common and less common birds I saw today, like back in the days; some photos are decent, others less so... my eBird checklist for the morning is here.

Great White Pelicans

Pygmy Cormorant

Egyptian Geese looking very wild (they're not)

Late Squacco Heron

Ruddy Turnstone on the rock

Eurasian Curlew shared the rocks

Temminck's Stints

Avocets looking smart as always

Pallas's Gulls on the beach

Wait for it! Not easy to be a gull on Ma'agan Michael beach - constant disturbance

Check the wind blowing the sand in the video above - Google Photos stabilizer did a good job.

Different Armenian Gulls

I love my new camera

A few days ago I said goodbye to my old Canon 7D mk1. My followers know how much I have been complaining about it in recent months - it certainly took me far too much time to scrap it and geא a new camera. I contemplated making a big move to mirrorless Olympus system, but at the moment I have no mental capacity for such big moves. So I went for a rather uninspiring upgrade, to Canon 7D mk2. Since I got it I have been out twice but pretty briefly, and without time for proper photo sessions to get to know all its new features. Yesterday I posted some photos from the southern Arava that I think are pretty good. I was very pleased with the focusing system and with the shutter release speed. Makes shooting birds in flight much more efficient - my favourite type of photography.

On Wednesday I had a meeting in Ma'agan Michael towards the construction of a new bird park there. Conveniently, we had the meeting on an observation tower, at eye level with lots of passing birds. It was my first trial of the camera, and I was unfamiliar with all the buttons yet. My boss was rightfully annoyed that rather than contributing scientific wisdom to the meeting I fired off photos at every passing bird, like a child with a new toy. Well actually that's exactly what I am... Luckily my boss knows me well enough to forgive me for these minor incidents (I hope...).
Here's the first batch:

Great White Pelicans

Asian Black-winged Kite

Pied Kingfisher

White-winged Tern - still in full summer plumage

During this work visit we drove around the proposed bird park, and actually saw tons of birds. eBird checklist here.