Kfar Ruppin

Today was one of those incredible mornings, with the best experience Kfar Ruppin could offer. I started early at the fishponds, had just under two hours to bird. The fishponds were packed with birds; the numbers, diversity and quality were almost overwhelming. There were so many birds (eBird checklist here). There's this one large reservoir, half-empty, that held a fantastic selection of birds, including finding seven Ruddy Shelducks and three Siberian Buff-bellied Pipits (eBird is great but their name, American Pipit (japonicus) sucks), Isabelline Shrike, several Caspian Stonechats.

The ruddies (ducks? geese?) were spooked by an explosion nearby and headed off strongly, to the disappointment of some local birders who were keen to see them. I hope they landed nearby. They provided nice flight views, not the greatest flight shot but gives a taste of the surroundings - alfalfa field with overhanging Black Kites, date plantations.

Reed Bunting is pretty scarce and shy in Israel, so it was nice to get this relatively showy bird, albeit sat on a wire:

Later on at Amud Reservoir, our restoration pilot project, things are looking very good - the reservoir is full of birds (eBird checklist here) and the habitat is great. Photo from this morning by Jay Shofet:

While we were talking about the project to our guests, this monster Bonelli's Eagle flew towards us. I ran to the car to grab my camera and got a nice flyby sequence.

Hit the ground running

How can one complete a Big Year and let go? Lean back? Impossible. New year, new targets (who said 400?). The main lesson learned from 2020's bittersweet performance was to start strong. Not to leave stuff for the final month. Will I (and Jonathan) be able to keep up with the speed? Personally, I am quite knackered, and my work load is huge these coming weeks. But there is no choice, only to push on.

So it's January 5th, lots of good birds around, good weather. Up till now I have done only one quality birding session, on Sunday in Kfar Ruppin. Before and after a meeting (how convenient) there was time for good birding, picking up 'important' and cool species such as Isabelline Shrike (two, here), 6 Oriental Skylark and 7 Siberian buff-bellied Pipit (here) and a nearby Red-crested Pochard (here).

As always, birding in Bet She'an Valley is a blast, with So. Many. Birds. everywhere (how many times can I use NJAudubon's trademark?).

Oriental Skylark

A beast of a young Bonelli's Eagle

Watch this space for more stuff!

Pipit-fest

I had an enjoyable morning birding with Tuvia in the alfalfa fields west of Kfar Ruppin. The fields were packed with pipits and larks: very big numbers of Meadow, Red-throated and Caucasian Water Pipits, with Richard's Pipit, Oriental Skylark and Calandra Lark thrown in for good measure. A muddy puddle at the edge of the field attracted many common pipits:

Red-throated Pipit

Caucasian Water Pipit

Meadow Pipits

Western Yellow Wagtail - probably thunbergi

Two Siberian Buff-bellied Pipits joined the party. Great views of this one at the far end of the puddle, a bit too distant for proper photos.

Check the brown legs

 

Hardly streaked mantle

Adios! 

eBird checklist here. Thanks Tuvia.

Dead Sea birding

Spent today birding with my good friend Gert Ottens. We started off early and headed to Ein Gedi field school where a Kurdish Wheatear has been showing on and off for the last couple of weeks. Today was its day off. We met Gal Shon there, and together we searched the field school and its vicinity for a couple of hours but found nothing. The only semi-interesting bird we had among the commoner desert species was a female Blue Rock Thrush.

Little Green Bee-eater - so much more beautiful than a bloody wheatear!

Seawatching over the Dead Sea produced zero Fea's Petrels.
The rest of the morning was spent at Wadi Mishmar that held four large flock of Lesser Israeli Hikers but very few birds; some noisy Trumpeter Finches were the only reason for joy.
Then we decided to try our luck with Buff-bellied Pipits near Kalya, where we found two unringed birds (Ron ringed one there last month). They kept their distance from us so no images but we had good scope views.
A quick look at Tsor'a on the way to ship Gert back to his wife by train produced one Quail.

SBBP

This morning I found myself in front of the computer again, analyzing data... Well you know how this is going to end... My phone rings, Ron is on the other side - Buff-bellied Pipit at Kalya! Should I stay or should I go? After a minute of contemplation I decided to go for it, thank god I don't pay for the petrol... 40 minutes later I'm there, another 60 minutes and I'm back in front of the computer...
Anyway, it was very hot and the bird was very jumpy, so to minimize the stress I really didn't struggle with it too much, hence the bad images.
Last winter there were two overwintering at that same spot among the many Water Pipits, and it's good to see that this has become a regular wintering site for this rare species, only 20 minutes from Jerusalem.
It is interesting how different they look in the hand compared to the field. In the field they give a strong slate-coloured impression, while in the hand they look more olive-brown on the mantle.

Note the large white eyering, bold supercilium and bold breast streaking:

Strong wingbars and plain mantle:

Here together with a coutelii Water Pipit (left):

Thanks Ron!!!

Buff-bellied Pipits

This morning I followed up Ron Haran's discovery of a Siberian Buff-bellied Pipit near Kalya, N Dead Sea. I was joined by Jonathan Meyrav. Quickly we found three birds among the many Water Pipits. They were very shy and always kept a safe distance from us, contrary to the wagtails and Water Pipits that practically ran under our vehicle. All images are of the same individual, the only one that approached us a bit. however all images are nasty crops, and together with the ugly background and bad light resulted in these bad images. I promise to return to this site and get better images.

Note that this individual has most greater coverts missing in its left wing, while its right wing is complete and shows two nice wingbars.

Note the diagnostic head pattern, slaty-grey mantle (depends on light of course), bold breast streaking and pale legs.

While waiting for the bastard BBP's to approach, we had much time to observe Water Pipits very intimately. At close distance we heard them giving extraordinary contact calls, very soft and low, very different from their normal flight calls. I wish the buff-bellies gave us such photo opportunitis: