They're back!

Yesterday I spent the morning on Mt. Hermon, working there with INPA and Nadav to better protect the precious ecosystem of the mountain, threatened by further development by the military and the ski resort. It's incredible that one of Israel's most unique and precious ecosystems is only partially protected. Anyway, the gate leading up to the mountain opens up only at 07:30. What to do during the two hours of light before 07:30? I spent them along the Petroleum Road, in search of Yellow-throated Sparrows that had returned for another breeding season. When I arrived on site, I was happily surprised to find there Yosef Kiat, doing what he normally does... Perfect timing for me. We quickly saw a male sparrow singing high up on wires, and in no time it was in the hand, allowing close examination of its subtle but wonderful plumage.

Those long wings take the sparrows all the way to winter in India and back

Apart for this male, I saw his female, in fact a returning bird which had been ringed by Yosef last year, and another singing male. Yosef even sound recorded him or another nearby - subtle song too:

It's great to see that the Yellow-throated Sparrows returned to breed. This is an exciting discovery, that last year's appearance wasn't a fleeting, temporary and sporadic event. Rather, this is apparently a new species added to Israel's breeding avifauna. Time to update those breeding range maps!

Yellow-throated Sparrow distribution map from Birds of the World

Then it was up to Mt. Hermon. It felt very wintery up on the mountain -  cold and overcast with slight drizzle. The lower, forested reaches of the mountains were packed with cool breeding birds, including Western Rock Nutjatch, Sombre Tit, Upcher's Warbler and Syrian Serin. 

Upcher's Warbler

Family party of Sombre tits

Male Eastern Orphean Warbler

By the time we made our way to the upper level of the mountain, the weather had cleared up and it became a glorious day. 

Birds were very active, and in the short time we were up there we saw almost all distinctive breeding species - White-throated Robin at three spots, Asian Crimson-winged Finches, Pale Rockfinch, Black-necklaced Horned Larks and even a pale-morph Eleonora's Falcon. Quite a productive birding session. I was busy so little time for photography, and the light was very harsh.

Horned Lark feeding on a small patch of dirty snow

Wood Larks were hyperactive

October Big Day

Yesterday the IL big day team (Jonathan, Re'a and me) reunited for our bi-annual mad dash across the country. Despite doing it for several years now, our motivation is still high. This year, eBird October Big Day was merged with Global Birding Weekend, and we were happy to support both efforts.

As in previous big days, focus of the day was on hi-speed birding, and there were few opportunities for photography. We left home in the middle of the night, ticked Barn Owl en route, and arrived at the gate of Hula Nature Reserve well before dawn, to quickly hear Tawny Owls. We entered Agamon Hula when it was still dark, and were rewarded by great views (but awful photos) of a majestic Eurasian Eagle-Owl, not too common down in the valley. 

Early morning birding was good in the Agamon - plenty of birds around (82 spp), nothing special but Sibe stonechats, Black Francolin, Stock Dove and soundtrack of newly-arrived cranes were all quality. The weather was lovely and cool - in fact it was the first time this season that I wore an extra layer.

Siberian Stonechat ssp. hemprichii

A quick stop at Lahavot Habashan produced Marbled Teals. Up on Mt. Hermon birding was fairly quiet - despite the dry weather relatively few birds came in to drink at the pools. Nevertheless, we cleaned up Hermon specialties quickly and efficiently - Syrian Serin, Sombre Tit, Western Rock Nuthatch etc.

Syrian Serin - sorry, messages came in to my phone

After we descended from Mt. Hermon, temperatures were already high. We needed to work quite hard to find birds in this heat but I think we did rather well (and thank god for car air conditioning).  On Mt. Hermonit we found a male Finsch's Wheatear. In Susita it was so hot that we feared the Long-billed Pipit running across the road would burn his feet.

When we arrived at Kfar Ruppin, at the bottom of Bet Shean Valley, the heat was really challenging, for both birds and humans. However, with hard work and good gen we found most specialties we were after, and somehow managed to enjoy good birds obscured behind the clouds of Black Kites everywhere: Daurian (Isabeline) Shrike, 3 Oriental Skylarks, Richard's Pipit, Dead Sea Sparrow.

Heading west we quickly stopped for some gulls in Heftziba where a lovely dark morph Eurasian Marsh-Harrier flew past.

Our last birding site for the afternoon was HaMa'apil fishponds. We quickly got on to the Greater Painted-snipe that had been present for about three weeks now, standing motionless at the corner of its favourite little pond. Lovely bird, and especially for me it was a big moment of relief. Ashamedly, In recent weeks I have been up there a few times already, failing to find the skulker each time. So it was very well received.

Blink! That's the most activity this Greater Painted-snipe did while Re'a @JMeyrav and I watched it. Filmed thru @SwarovskiOptik ATX85 at near darkness. Fitting end to our @Team_eBird and @global_birding #GlobalBigDay and #GlobalBirdingWeekend run@Rutlandbirds @RockjumperTours pic.twitter.com/kQHElc7ICg

— Yoav Perlman (@yoavperlman) October 18, 2020

Our day ended with 151 species, quite respectable I think. Certainly much better than the 130 of October 2019 or the 137 of May 2020. Yet, I think that the potential is much higher - again we missed good raptor diversity, and passerine migration on the slow side. Let's see what we do next year.

Thanks a bunch to my team, Re'a and Jonathan, for another successful Global Big Day. Fun and laughs all day long, you guys rock! It was a privilege, as always, to use the supreme optics provided by Swarovski Optik. Makes finding birds so much easier! 

Birds and butterflies of Mt. Hermon

On Monday and Tuesday I drove up to Mt. Hermon with my brother and Amir. We joined Yosef's annual ringing project at the drinking pools below the lower cable station, that's been running there since early 1990's. Great to see Yosef operating the project so well.
Ringing was on the slow side - it seems that breeding season is very late this year, and there's still much water up in the higher elevations. Still, it was great to be there and enjoy quality species without pressure of hundreds of birds waiting in bags. My photos aren't as good as Yosef's field studio results, yet I am quite pleased with the macro abilities of my Olympus system, both for in-hand bird photos and for butterflies (see below). Here are some quality birds we had on both days:

Syrian Serin (2cy+ male)

Western Rock Nuthatch (1cy)

Upcher's Warbler (2cy+)

Sombre Tit (1cy)

Rock Sparrow (2cy+)

semirufus Black Redstart (1cy)

Common Chiffchaff (1cy) - produced locally. The expansion of Common Chiffchaff in northern Israel is remarkable, especially as it seems that they may represent an unknown taxon

The highlight was a family of three White-throated Robins - dad, mum and their young. This is a 2cy male (hatched 2019) - note the retained pale-tipped GC. He's now is the middle of an extensive pre-migration moult, hence his scruffy look.

Other birding highlights included flyover Pale Rockfinches, and a single Chaffinch. eBird checklist for Tuesday morning is here.

Mt. Hermon is very special for butterflies a well; several species can be found in Israel only there, and there are a few endemics as well. As a total amateur I spent a little time watching butterflies coming in to drink and sip minerals below the ringing site - the ponds are a huge butterfly hotspot. The relatively slow ringing allowed me to divert my attention for a few minutes, while suffering bullying and disgrace from other ringers. In a very short while I managed to photograph 11 species - I am still not good enough to identify them in the field; I collect photos and identify them at home, with the aid of others (thanks Piki, Avner and Noam!).
To my eyes, the most spectacular butterfly was the Cardinal (Argynnis pandora) - an honorary bird:

Those green rear wings are gorgeous

Large number sof blues of several species we fond on the mud. The most abundant (when I watched) was Long-tailed Blue, which isn't unique to Mt. Hermon:

Other species included Eastern Brown Argus:

Nicholl Blue

Holly Blue

Hercules Hairstreak

Palopea Grayling

Eastern Dawn Clouded Yellow - extremely worn

Olive Skipper

Hermon (Persian) Skipper

Large Wall Brown

Levantine Marbled White

Thanks to Yosef for arranging the session, and to all the good friends who helped there.

Global Big Day

Yesterday I teamed up with Jonathan and Re'a to take part in Global Big Day. Our plan was to record as many species as possible, and also to connect with some specialties that are less likely to get recorded elsewhere. We did not plan our route too carefully, as this was not a competition but a challenge, and we were prepared to adjust and be spontaneous if necessary. Still, our plan was pretty ambitious - it included cross-country, night-to-night birding. I set off after 02:00 to meet up with the others. Just outside my town a European Nightjar was sat on the road - good start! We then drove al the way up to the Hula Valley. In Ayelet Hashachar we had a vocal family of Tawny Owls, but failed to find other owls. Luckily Jonathan had scops and long-eared before we met up.

Tawny Owl

We were joined by Hula-man Nadav for an hour of dawn birding at Agamon Hula which was pretty sweet. 76 species, highlights included White-tailed Eagle, Black Francolin, Marbled Duck, Golden Oriole, Spotted Crake and many more (eBird checklist here). Perhaps most impressive was a phenomenal roost take-off of Sand Martins. We VERY conservatively estimated 20K, but in the car quietly suggested six-figures. Quite a spectacle. A jungle Cat that trotted along in front of our car at dawn was sweet too.

From there it was up to Mt. Hermon. We first birded the slope above Majdal Shams. We clocked on first Hermon specialties quickly, most importantly Syrian Serin that I don't think was recorded elsewhere in the world. This area was also productive for quality migrants - Barred Warbler and Wood Warbler. eBird checklist here.

Wood Warbler

As soon as the military checkpoint opened up we sped up the mountain towards the lower cable station. We did a quick, clean sweep of Hermon specialties, including Western Rock Nuthatch and Sombre Tit (eBird checklist here). Even though we rushed it, it was still fantastic to take in the breathtaking scenery and cool temperatures at this altitude, where spring blossom has not diminished yet.

Rock Bunting

Too close

Next stop was at Susita, overlooking Lake Kineret. We quickly found there Long-billed Pipit and other batha specialties, and enjoyed a bit of raptor migration (eBird checklist here). During the entire Big Day we never connected with proper raptor migration - shame. Then it was on to Kfar Ruppin in the Bet Shean Valley. By then it was scorching hot and bird activity was relatively low. Took us a while till we found a good fishpond that contained many shorebirds, though variety was somewhat minimal ('only' 60 species in an hour of birding). Roller, Osprey, Curlew Sands were some notable birds - eBird checklist here.

Then it was the long, exhausting drive all the way to Ein Gedi. We easily found almost all desert birds we looked for - Fan-tailed raven, Barbary Falcon, Sand Partridge, Arabian Babbler etc. (eBird checklist here). Things were looking pretty good!

Fan-tailed Raven

We ended our daytime birding with two wetlands in the southern Dead Sea region - Heimar reservoir (Dead Sea Sparrow etc., eBird checklist here), and beautiful Navit Pools that were productive as ever - African Swamphen, Blue-cheeked Bee-eater, shorebirds etc. (eBird checklist here).

Stonking male Dead-Sea Sparrow

Brilliant Arabian Green Bee-eater

Too close - see below

After dusk we efficiently connected with two iconic nightbirds - Nubian Nightjar and Desert Owl (is it the first time ever Tawny and Desert Tawny were sen in one day?) - a fitting end to an epic day. 

Our cumulative total was 164 species - Jonathan missed few species Re'a and me saw before meeting up, and vice versa (my personal total was 160). It was so much fun - good, solid birding all day long. Our route was a bit extreme - I drove 870 km, and of course we ran out of time and had to skip one site (Mt. Amasa). But all in all I think we did pretty well. As in any Big Day, we missed many silly birds (such as Great White Pelican, Scrub Warbler), saw few birds we hadn't expected (Wood Warbler), enjoyed bird-rich sites and casual flybys and 100 kmph gifts (Raven, Little Swift) - that's what Big Days are made of.

A few thanks to summarize:

Jonathan, Re'a and Nadav - you guys rock. I thoroughly enjoyed spending the day with you, we never stopped laughing and our spirits were high throughout (when you were awake...). Thank you!

eBird Central organized this amazing event - I feel privileged to work with you guys and call some of you my friends.

Swarovski Optik - thanks, as always, for giving me the opportunity to use your supreme optics, that certainly made the difference.

See you in #GBD2020!