Champions of the Flyway 2022

 After a short break at home, I returned to Eilat for Champions. I joined the organising team. Heading down to Eilat the weather was quite horrible with nasty winds blowing dust down the valley. Birds were struggling to migrate into the wind.

Baltic Gulls

Montagu's Harrier

After the traditional swap meeting and briefing at IBRCE, I went with Jonathan to KM20 saltpans. It was actually OK there with birds moving through, albeit with difficulty because of the wind. Nice to see the long-staying Lesser White-fronted Goose. 

Green Sandpipers

Osprey

Many Ruff (and a Marsh Sand)

Curlew Sand with friends

Red-necked Phalaropes actually have legs!

flava Western Yellow Wagtail

On race day the wind dropped thankfully, though it was very hot. I headed up the Arava Valley very early for some desert larks. I checked nice desert habitats and found most necessary larks (Hoopoe, Arabian, Temminck's and Bar-tailed). They were all in song but only half-heartedly - it's very dry up there and I'm not sure they will actually breed. 

It was thrilling to bump into a few migrants in the middle of the desert, in total non-habitat, including this beautiful nominate Common Redstart:

Then I proceeded to Wadi Sha'alav. There were far fewer migrants there compared to my previous visit during the festival, yet it was productive with Levant Sparrowhawk, Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters, quite many Tree Pipits and other stuff. There were lots of raptors on the ground - mainly Steppe Buzzards and Black Kites. 

Tree Pipit

Tawny Pipit

Back in Eilat, I quickly visited the Semicollared Flycatchers at Canada Gardens:

In the afternoon I met up with many groups congregating at KM20 saltpans, trying to help them be efficient and move on before the light runs out. Again, there was good bird movement.

The JBO Tits and their driver/chaperone Tzoor

Gull-billed Terns (jet in the background is in Aqaba airport)

Greater Sand-plover with Kentish Plover

Down at North Beach teams were frantic with last light efforts to add species to their lists. Lots of birds were flying around.

Garganey

Western Reef-Heron adapting to beach life

I created a little eBird Trip Report of the birds I saw personally during race day - check it here.

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@flywaychampions closing ceremony soon! Tension at its peak! Who will be this year's winners? pic.twitter.com/BcP5o28i83

— Yoav Perlman (@yoavperlman) April 6, 2022

The #COTF22 Race is run! An incredible effort by all our teams, and vital funds raised for the #YearOfTheDove throughout. Results to follow soon! Our campaign and fundraising continues, however.... donate here: https://t.co/CsbhXOVA7g

Special thanks to @ZEISSBirding! pic.twitter.com/Y68ENs9MsH

— BirdLife Israel (@BirdLifeIsrael) April 6, 2022

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It was very special to see all the kids who took part in this project. Really heartwarming, also the increasing number of women, and birders from different sectors. All those who participated, either physically at the race or through their contributions, are true Champions. Thickbills, Blackcaps, Kowa Women in Steppe, Zeiss BirdLife Malta - you rock!

Special thanks to COTF organiser Jonathan Meyrav for the amazing work he did this year, despite some very challenging circumstances. Hats off to the rest of my team at BirdLife Israel who contributed so much to the event, especially Alen Kacal and Noam Weiss. Shout out to Zeiss for sponsoring the race. Mark and Arad did excellent work behind the scenes - thank you. 

Fundraising hasn't ended - please donate here to express your #dovelove and save Turtle Doves in Malta, Cyprus and Greece.

See you in #COTF23!

Urban Dicky and more

This morning I walked my dog at our usual spot, a bit later in the morning than usual - I normally walk my dog at the crack of dawn, before there's proper light. Before leaving home I thought to myself, 'should I carry my camera?' - na... Shortly after we started walking I saw a large passerine descend down from great altitude. It did not call but I instantly recognised it - Richard's Pipit! I managed to see it on the deck for a few seconds, and was eager to document it somehow. Failed to digibin it, so tried to sound record it with my phone when it takes off. It soon did, uttering a couple of weak calls, and circled around me for a couple of minutes. The poor sound recording is in my eBird checklist here. It landed again, then took off again - it was very restless at this busy site, flying between the houses. I alerted Alon, a birder who lives nearby, and ran off home with Bamba to get my camera, some 300 meters away. Before running back I had a look out from my garden and saw it circle again - on the garden list too! Then Alon joined me and we watched the bird for several minutes. Still totally restless and flighty, so we let it be.

Though Richard's Pipit is only a scarce migrant in Israel, and now is its peak time of year, I am super chuffed to find it on my patch, in an urban setting. My neighbourhood is largely under construction, so there's a bit of rough ground left, more suitable for a pipit. My first decent patch bird in the month I'm here. That Alon saw it too added to my enjoyment of the mini-discovery.

Yesterday was THE day for Lesser Spotted Eagle migration. More than 40,000 passed over Israel, almost half of the estimated world population in one day! I assume that about 30,000 passed over my house, with some breathtaking scenes, but of course I was away yesterday. I had meetings at Ma'agan Michael, so again I spent a couple of very hot hours birding in the fishponds and along the beach before the meeting. Because of the heat, passerines were few, but shorebirds provided some relative quality. There was a Red (Grey) Knot on the beach, and a Red-necked Phalarope in an excellent empty fishpond. Both have been there for a week now. Other birds of note were a Corncrake I flushed while driving around, and 3 Citrine Wagtails. My full eBird checklist is here.

Red-necked Phalarope and friends

Champions of the Flyway day 2 - Turkestan Shrike!

Headed out early with Tom and Dan to Yotvata. Weather was quite pleasant to start with. Birding was pleasant too, with fair number of 'ground' birds (larks, pipits and wagtails), several harriers cruising over the fields, and relative highlights that didn't show well in the form of Richard's Pipit, Lesser Short-toed Lark and Sibe Stonechat. Then the weather started to deteriorate rapidly. Southerlies picked up quick, and a horrible sand storm began. Just as we were about to leave the area because it became unbearable, we bumped into a - 'Hey - Turkestan Shrike!' I exclaimed first... We were as surprised as the shrike with this encounter from 5 meters - by the time Tommy and I picked our cameras up it shot off. After a tense minute of searching we found it sheltering from the storm in a bush. We secured some shots and backed off; a minute later the shrike literally blew with the wind and we thought it was gone - luckily it was relocated not far away and twitched by many. In the afternoon it showed pretty well - see Shimon Shiff's awesome photos with SX50 on Facebook. Great stuff!

Blowing a hooley as they call it in Norfolk

Desert Finch

Spanish Sparrows

We escaped from the sand storm towards Eilat, and found shelter at IBRCE. We had a short and sweet walk there with 8 Red-necked Phals, 2 Citrine Wags and an interesting cormorant, that I can't see why it's not lucidus - more on it to follow.

Red-necked Phalaropes

Citrine Wagtail

It's spring, he shouts, it's spring!

Putative White-breasted Cormorant

In the afternoon I drove around with Jonathan. The wind switched to northerly but was still blowing like hell. To be honest, there were very few migrants around. A quick circuit of the southern KM20 pond didn't produce much. 3 Collared Pratincoles were almost exciting. Too many birders there so we left.

North Beach was better with Long-tailed Jaeger, and first Common Terns of the season.

In the evening another inspiring event - this time the official opening event at IBRCE (thanks for hosting!). Great spirit and enthusiasm - proud to be part of this global community.

Goodbye spring, hello summer

Yesterday spent the morning birding with Meidad in Eilat and S Arava. It was a fine day, but it really gave the feeling of the end of spring - very few terrestrial migrants on the ground; only shorebirds put on a good show.

We started off VERYearly and arrived at north beach at 06:00. Markus and his hardcore Finnish mates arrived earlier and they had seen three White-cheeked Terns before we arrived. Unfortunately the terns did not reappear. There were quite many commoner terns around, three Sooty Shearwaters, 4 flyover Oyestercatchers and not too much else.

Striated Heron

Sandwich Tern

Little Tern

We then checked the saltpans. Those south of IBRCE had 19 Red-necked Phalaropes among the many shorebirds and gulls. They are such fine birds. Unfortunately all the images were taken from the car window, from the top of the bank, thus the lousy angle. Some of them were in really nice breeding plumage. Typically for phalaropes, they do nothing else than forage in circles, chasing small flies. This is really a video job.

Red-necked Phalaropes 

Curlew Sandpiper - unfortunately the prettier ones kept their distance

This must be a 2cy - very worn scapulars and coverts. 

Dunlin - I wonder which subspecies this is. Bill far too long for schinzii, but face, breast and flanks too streaked for alpina.

Little Stint - so lovely in summer plumage

 

At KM20 saltpans some more phalaropes, 3 Broad-billed Sandpipers, and some other stuff.

Broad-billed Sands

White-winged Terns

Grey-headed Wagtail

On the way home we checked some more sewage farms that were pretty empty. At Ketura sewage had this recently-fledged juvenile Hooded Wheatear:

Only at Neot Smadar we had few more migrants, including Spotted Flys, Masked Shrikes and a few Whinchats.

Spotted Flycatcher