Happy migration days

It's this time of year in Israel when migration is at its best. Skies are full of soaring birds, and on the ground passerines are everywhere. This morning migration seemed to peak, with a huge fallout. It was literally raining birds - wheatears, buntings, pipits, wagtails and warblers dropping down from the sky, darting beetween houses and gardens where I live. Exciting stuff.
Yesterday morning Hulda Reservoir (with Piki) was really good. Our humble contribution to World Shorebirds Day included fair numbers of shorebirds, but passerines were the real attraction. The reservoirs' vegetated banks were exploding with migrants, mainly Willow and Savi's Warblers. Hard to imagine how many Willow Warblers pass through Israel these days. Great fun. eBird checklist here.

Willow Warbler

Lesser Grey Shrike

Zitting Cisticola

Later on my family celebrated a birthday at the JBO. I crept into the bird hide for a short while. It was hot but it really busy: birds were constantly coming in to drink and feed (eBird checklist here). Best was a 1cy Collared Flycatcher. Prominent migrant in spring, in autumn they are rather scarce.

Common Nightingale

Ashdod ringing

Yesterday I had a productive ringing session at Ashdod, with big numbers, good diversity and excellent weather. Best birds were several Barred Warblers, Nightingales and Sprossers.

Barred Warbler - adult male

Male Prinias are very attractive during breeding with their black bills:

Ashdod ringing and Dead Sea nightlife

Yesterday I had a ringing session in Ashdod. It was pretty busy with good numbers of Blackcap and Lesser Whitethroat, but diversity was rather poor. Only birds of note were two Nightingales and a late or oversummering Robin.

In the evening met up with Lars (Denmark) and Stefan (Sweden) with their respective groups at Neot Hakikar. The evening was very warm and windless, and we had very strong insect activity that resulted in amazing bat activity. We saw many hundreds of bats, of which I could identify European Free-tailed Bat, Lesser Mouse-tailed Bat and Bodenheimer's Pipistrelle.

Of course we had terrific views of Nubian Nightjars on the deck and in flight, and for dessert we found the Desert Eagle Owl at his usual spot - we had breathtaking views from about 15 m - what a bird! Unfortunately I was the one holding the torch and not the camera (again!), hopefully Stefan sends me a good image when he gets back home.