Classic Sibe birding in the Negev

What an excellent morning I had with Rony and Re'a. We left at silly-O'clock to get to Nafha Vineyards at first light, a bit too early. We met up there with Eran who focused on lying on his belly to photograph the many ralids present in the small wetland. It was jam-packed with birds, but we decided to walk around and boy, that was fun! There were tons of pipits and wagtails along the creek, and the bushes had lots of Spotted Flys and Phylloscs. Very soon we had a Richard's Pipit flying over calling, pretty high up - pretty cool.

Richard's Pipit - believe me...

We continued working through the common migrants, some of them beautifully lit in the golden early morning sunlight.

Blackcap

Spotted Flycatcher

Tree Pipit

Whinchat

flava Yellow Wagtail

One of a few acredula-type Willow Warblers

Then things picked up quite rapidly. First we spotted a finch flying around - big bill, long tail, then heard the call - Common Rosefinch! About a minute later I heard a familiar soft 'Tzik' and immediately exclaimed - 'Little Bunting!!'. Soon we saw the bird flying towards us and down the valley. It landed for a few seconds at some distance, but we obtained good enough views to confirm it wasn't a rarer bunting. Then it flew up and down the valley a few more time - it was very mobile and didn't give itself up. My camera didn't cope well with these pass-bys. 

We were very happy with this find, and continued walking. Back at the wetland, activity was excellent. The grass and reeds were whopping with acros, crakes, Bluethroats and hirundines. There was this most obliging and absolutely cracking male Caspian Stonechat by the wetland, with which I spent a few enjoyable minutes:

At least four Spotted Crakes, five Water Rails and one or two Little Crakes were at the wetland:

Spotted Crake

Always good to bathe in smelly sewage

Water Rails (1cy and adult?)

Re'a and me continued working the olive groves that were OK, while Rony and Eran remained at the wetland. We had a brief Red-breasted Flycatcher, and more common migrants and residents. 

Bluethroat

Marsh Harrier - stunner

Mourning Wheatear of the nominate lugens group, probably 1cy

There were two large falcons working the site. One adult Barbary was straightforward to ID, but this 1cy is more challenging. In the field it felt tiny and very lightly built, unlike Peregrine. It is rather heavily streaked on the breast and flanks, possibly a bit too much for a Barbary. But the ground colour of the breast is buffish, and the upperparts feel more Barbary to me with browner tones rather than lead-grey. Not 100% sure about this one - happy to learn.

Out of focus, sorry

It was getting hot and Re'a and me felt that we had enough of this fantastic site - quite a good haul I think. Just as we talked about this classic October Negev morning, Rony notified us about a Yellow-browed warbler by the wetland. It was mobile and by the time we got there it was gone. We spent a bit more time there and headed on. Full checklist for Nafha is here.

Next stop was Mitzpe Ramon sewage. There were tons of hirundines, wagtails and pipits around the reservoir, including one Crag Martin, but the adjacent tamarisk grove that used to be fed by spillover is now dry and was rather quiet, perhaps also because of the heat. Only one Red-breasted Fly. Full checklist here.

On the way back home we paid a visit to the White-tailed lapwing found by Arnon Tsairi at Sde Boker sewage (thanks!) - always great to see, especially so well. Grand finale to a brilliant day.

Patch OBP!

If I was super-chuffed to find a Richard's Pipit on my local dog-walk patch a few days ago, I can report that today I am mega-chuffed. My routine dog walk along wadi Ekron near my house started well with a distinct wave of Red-backed Shrikes - 4 birds right outside my house; then it got better by finding my first Spotted Crake for the patch:

A couple of minutes later I heard a familiar call, saw a pipit approaching from the north - Olive-backed Pipit! Got on it through the bins while I tried to reach my phone to sound-record it, but it was too quick. Managed to see a bold head pattern, and plain greenish mantle as it flew away. It did not drop down but continued to fly on low, disappearing between the houses. I spent some time trying to relocate it without success. I was over the moon - while Richard's Pipit is a fine bird but 'only' scarce, OBP is a proper national rarity and a local patch classic. I am so happy that my local patch delivers quality so quickly. Sadly no documentation for now - hope it reappears in the next few days.
The rest of the dog walk was actually pretty good, for the site. Wryneck was sweet, and I am happy to welcome Bluethroat and Chiffchaff - both species were first noted on my walk yesterday. Check my eBird checklist here.

Shame about the reed across the breast

Swintail or Pinhoe's?

On Thursday October 10th Eyal Shochat and Yaron Charka found a 'Pin-tailed' Snipe and a Black-throated Loon at Ma'agan Michael - what a fantastic day they had! Of course the snipe is more interesting in a WP context; however both birds are mega-rare in Israel. The diver is the earliest ever in Israel - they are typically recorded in December.

I was not able to go on Friday or Saturday, but today I had the chance to catch up with these birds. Arrived at MM at first light. Took me some time until I got on the snipe - quite a skulker. It behaves more like a crake than a snipe - feeds in the reeds, occasionally forages out in the open and runs back into the reeds when it feels danger.

Separating it from a Common Snipe is quite easy - note the chunky, full-bodied structure (almost like a small Woodcock or Great Snipe), rounded head, 'open' head pattern (very thin loral stripe), heavily barred underparts, and most important - the pattern of mantle, scapulars and tertials: faint central mantle stripes, with no lateral mantle stripes. Scaps have a symetric anchor pattern, compared to common that has much more white or buff on the outer webs. This individual has a longish tail, on the long end of the spectrum for pin-tailed. Normally they have a very stubby tail, hardly protruding beyond the tertial tips.

Separating Pin-tailed Snipe from Swinhoe's Snipe is practically impossible in the field (i.e. the excellent article by Leader and Carey (2003) British Birds 96: 178-198). This bird is rather large and heavy, but this means nothing apparently. The bird was silent. Several guys tried to get a shot of the open tail when it was preening but impossible to see the shape of theunique outer tail feathers. There are three positive records of Pin-tailed Snipe in Israel - all three ringed - the first in 1984 by Hadoram et al. at Eilat, the second was found by Barak Granit and Rami Lindroos in 1998 at Kfar Ruppin and I ringed it a couple of days later, and the last one was ringed by Yosef Kiat in 2011 in Tsor'a. Apart for these records, another 6-7 birds were seen in the field (mainly in the Bet Shean Valley) but swinhoe's could not be safely excluded, though by default I'd guess they were all pintails. Yosef will try to catch this bird tomorrow night - hopefully it sticks around till then.

The tiny, reedy pond the snipe was in was just superb. I had there 3 Spotted Crakes, 5 Water Rails, 8 Citrine Wagtails, Moustached and Savi's Warblers and tons of other birds (Sedge Warblers, Bluethroats etc.). A juvenile Eurasian Sparrowhawk missed a taste of exotic Asia and took a Common Snipe that was feeding just few meters away from the pintailed...

Spotted Crake

Citrine Wagtail

Bluethroat

I stayed with the snipe for some time but it was feeding in the reeds most of the time so left in alone and went to have a look at the loon. Loons are rare in Israel - Black-throated being the most recorded species with about 15 records. This young bird was very very tame - pretty exhausted I suppose. It was feeding well in a small fishpond - what an amazing and bizzare bird!

Black-throated Loon - 1cy

FF

Before leaving had a quick look at one drained fishponds that is packed full with shorebirds. Had four Knots and two Bar-tailed Godwits (both species are good birds in Israel; these individuals have been around for a couple of weeks now).

Red Knot 1cy

Eilat Festival update days 3 & 4 - too much information

The last two days have been too busy with too many birds. I was busy guiding so didn't have enough time to really let this abundance sink in but the feeling is just fantastic - huge numbers of migrants all over the place, quality stuff, and lots of learning and teaching simultaneously. 

Yesterday spent a morning at Yotvata with Martin Garner and Nadav. We saw tons of birds - lots of good stuff. Marting is really into describing new stuff and I got into some interesting discussions with him. Still so much to learn and know. Anyway, tons of passerines in the fields and bushes - larks, pipts, wagtails, redstarts, wheatears, warblers, bluethroats etc.  At the sewage ponds this confiding Spotted Crake:

Big numbers of Eastern Black-eared Wheaters - some very warm-toned individuals:

Very strong raptor migration overhead, including this very pale and striking Lesser Spotted Eagle - note short P7, small head and some barring on remiges:

Murmuration of Spanish Sparrows:

In the evening led the 'Rambo Night'. At Neot Hakikar great show of Nubian Nightjars and the Egyptian Nightjar still present. No show of Hume's owl unfortunately. Got back to Eilat at 02:00 and up at 05:00 for birding. Spent the morning at the IBRCE. It was a massive morning with more than 600 birds processed. Lots of Rueppel's and Balkan Warblers, some Scops Owls and one ugly-looking Subalpine Warbler. Such a great morning. MG almost started crying.

In the afternoon led a nice tour. Started off to clinch the ID of a wing-barred phylosc found by Neil Gelnn at SPNI fieldschool. We relocated it quickly and id'd it as Yellow-browed Warbler. Nice one Neil! Then off to Ofira Park. It was just packed with birds. So much stuff, such quality. My poor guests didn't know where to look. Buntings, pipits, wagtails, redstarts, wheatears, wrynecks, quails, warblers etc. I was with my 40D and small lens hence the poor images:

Cretzschmar's Bunting

Several forms of Yellow Wagtail, including this dombrowski-type:

Pied Wheater with Black-headed Wagtail:

Ended the day at KM19. At dusk two Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse came in to drink - super birds. Good night.

Great Snipe

Early this morning I had some time for birding at the Hula lake together with my younger son Noam (six months old). We spent some time at the southern watchpoint and drove around a bit. Highlight was a Great Snipe observed feeding on the waters' edge. There should be several birds around - this was the right place and time for them. Since the spring of 2008, when several were ringed, this skulker was found to be rather regular at the lake in April - May.
Other good birds at the watchpoint were three Little and two Spotted Crakes, 20 Garganey, several Purple Herons and huge numbers of swallows and Sand Martins. The drive produced a Peregrine and 15 Collared Pratincoles - the local birds beginning their breeding activity.