Cross-country

Since my recent post I have been out and about quite a bit. I have not seen anything too special, but a few photos and stories accumulated, qualifying for a new cross-country post.

Last week I visited the wonderful Gazelle Valley in Jerusalem with Piki. It really is a special wildlife haven in the middle of the city. The opportunities to photograph Ferruginous Duck are unparalleled. Their babies make the cutest bath ducks.

Little Grebe and Moorhen are trash common, but it's fun to get up close and intimate with them.

Note the dragonfly nymph skin on the left

There were some photo-opps for scarcer species too. This male Little Bittern paused in front of the hide for a few seconds:

Jerusalem is probably Olive-Tree Warbler capital of the world, and Gazelle Valley is an excellent place to see them. 

Gazelle Valley eBird checklist here.

Fast forward a few days, I visited Mt. Hermon for the first time this year. This year we're doing an elaborate breeding bird survey there, repeating an effort from 2013/14. When I worked there on Friday, again with Piki, it was very hot already early in the morning. The view looking down towards the Hula Valley is always breathtaking.

Birding was a bit hard going - bird activity was somewhat low, perhaps because of the heat. Yet, there were many family parties of Western Rock Nuthatch and Sombre Tit, Syrian Serins were active too, and we had a Finsch's Wheatear - the only site in Israel where they breed. In fact, Finsch's Wheatear may be the breeding bird in Israel with the smallest population size - 1-2 pairs... It was a tough day for photography too, and I don't have any good bird photos at all from that morning. Just this OK sound recording of an angry bird:

And a Wall Brown that posed momentarily:

eBird checklist here.

On Saturday, near home, I found an exceptional concentration of Black-winged Kites in a vole-infested field. I have never seen so many together before. At one point I counted 42 around me. Amazing!

16 in this photo - can you see them all?

Most were recently-fledged juveniles:

Some Lesser Kestrels were carrying food back to a nearby breeding colony:

Yesterday I had the rare opportunity to visit a remote oasis in the eastern Negev, made of two springs, Ein Aqrabim and Ein Tzin. This is a beautiful oasis, sadly contaminated by industry upstream.

 Yet, there is water running there, and wildlife responds to that. While bird activity wasn't amazing (eBird checklists here and here), there was evidence (mainly footprints) of intensive mammal activity, including Hyena, Wolf, Fox, Wildcat, Wild Ass, Dorcas Gazelle, Nubian Ibex and Porcupine. I am not sure why there were few birds there. By the swarms of mosquitoes that destroyed us it can be assumed that there's no food shortage. There were last few migrants present, including this exhausted Garden Warbler:

Spotted Flycatcher

Desert Bluetail (Ischnura evansi) - female and male in the background, thanks Re'a

Lesser Short-toed Larks

This morning I went surveying/working/birding with Jonathan and Piki southwest of Be'er Sheva, in an area of Loess plains and low hills, called Neot Hovav. It's a unique bit of open semi-desert, in the backyard of the horrible petrochemical industrial estate, Ramat Hovav. This is one of the few places in Israel where Lesser Short-toed Lark breeds regularly, and now is the time for male song and display. We arrived there shortly after dawn. Stepping out of the car, the scenery first strikes as rather unimpressive:

After a quick coffee and couple of minutes of listening, we heard and then saw our first lessers, circling high up in the sky:

Then, with some patience, we found them on the ground, feeding, displaying and running around; rather difficult to photograph well.

Often flying up, giving their scratchy call:

The males were busy displaying an courting. When they chased one after another, they often briefly landed on bushes to sing, again not cooperating for photography:

And off again...

Perhaps not the most spectacular lark of Israel, I find them very attractive. Small, pallid, delicate, elegant and unique. In Israel it's regarded as Vulnerable, due to it's shrinking population as a result of habitat loss, especially in the Loess plains of the northern Negev.

Lesser Short-toed Lark was certainly the dominant species at this habitat. We counted 22 birds. Other than that not too many other birds (eBird checklist here), Spectacled Warblers, and this lilith Little Owl:

On the way back home we stopped briefly to greet the Lesser Kestrels back on their roadside cliff along the Be'er Sheva Bypass:

GPS Lesser Kestrels

Lesser kestrel is an endangered species in Israel, though in the world it seems to be doing better in recent decades and is in fact off the IUCN Red List. We put much effort to better protect them in Israel, including extensive community projects in villages where they breed. I am coordinating the monitoring and research efforts - annual national breeding census, and this year we managed to get funds for 10 GPS tags - thanks to the Hoopoe Foundation. These tags will provide us with vital information on their migration patterns and wintering grounds, that are a mystery at the moment. They leave Israel in mid June, and don't really get to E Africa before early November. So where are they during this period? And how far south in Africa do they spend the winter?

After obtaining the necessary permits, yesterday and today Ron Efrat and myself tagged five birds in the southern Carmel region. Trapping them was more difficult than I expected, so it's working slower than we planned. But Ron will continue working this week and hopefully will get all remaining tags travelling to Africa on the backs of Lesser Kestrels. Fantastic birds they are, aren't they?

Ron 

Lesser Kestrels in trouble

Lesser Kestrel was listed as globally Vulnerable by BirdLife International, but has been recently downlisted to Least Concern as a result of positive trends over much of its range. A similar trend happened in Israel, when positive population trends were noted in the early 2000's and it was downlisted in Israel from Vulnerable to Threatened. Last time the population in Israel was properly monitored was in 2005.

This year I'm coordinating a national census of these delicate falcons. This project is funded by the Hoopoe Foundation. The falcons are almost finished breeding, and the results I have so far are quite alarming, with some sharp declines noted in the major populations in N and C Israel. 

Today I revisited two colonies in the N Negev - they seem to be doing here relatively OK, with stable numbers compared to a decade ago. This may be the result of a good rainy winter, resulting in high insect and arthropod productivity well into late spring. Today the birds were feeding like crazy which made nest locating very easy. The chicks should fledge in a week or so. Then they disperse somewhere - first the adults and later on the juveniles. Nobody knows where they spend the months between leaving Israel by mid June and arriving in E Africe in late October. Satellite tags anyone?

Lesser Kestrel - male

Not quite full blast yet

This morning I went to have a look in the Nizzana region. It was fun because I had time for some enjoyable birding, compared to the hectic visits of the past two years where I went there mainly for survey work.

Weather was good after a very cold and wet week. Bird activity was slightly disappointing in a way. I did see all of the 'good' birds expected - MacQueen's Bustards (incl. three dancing males), Cream-coloured Coursers, Pin-tailed and Spotted Sandgrouse; but common breeding species, such as Desert Lark, Scrub Warbler, Sand Partridge etc. were rather few and quite silent. I was expecting the skies to be full with singing birds but the sky was half-empty. Further, migration was very slow and I had only a handful of migrant passerines - some Short-toed Larks, Northern Wheatear and this sexy Ruppel's Warbler:

The small number of migrants was especially depressing after reading all the news from Eilat where migration is already very strong. Thanks to Meidad for the coffee.

Pin-tailed Sandgrouse

On the way back home checked the Lesser Kestrels breeding along the road on the Be'er Sheva bypass - great birds:

Lesser Kestrel

Festival update - day 3

This morning I went birding with Jonathan at Yotvata, which held many good birds during the last few days. Yotvata was quite birdy, more than most other sites.
There were about 50 Lesser Kestrels hunting over the circular field:

We had a few Woodchat Shrikes:


Among the many hundreds of Greater Short-toed Larks we had about 15 Bimaculated Larks.

Greater Short-toed Lark

We saw the Pied Wheatear which has been around for a few days. It is a fine male, very clean and neat. It was performing very nicely:

And here it shows the extensive white rump:

After breakfast I noticed there was massive migration over the hotel, with thousands of buzzards and kites, mixed with good numbers of other species, mainly Steppe Eagles, but also some booted and lesser spots, Short-toed Eagles, Black Storks, and Marsh Harriers. All of the following images were taken from my balcony:

Steppe Eagle (4cy)

Booted Eagle

I had one 2cy Eastern Imperial Eagle:

In the afternnon I led together with Jonathan a tour targeting the Nubian Nightjars south of the Dead Sea. We made a couple of stops along the Arava that produced a male Cyprus Warbler and fantastic views of Arabian Warblers - a couple interacting and feeding a recently fledged juvenile.

At Neot Hakikar, we had superb views of four nightjars that concluded a terrific day.