Hume's Owls and other stuff

On Thursday night I went with Jonathan Meyrav to the desert to search for Hume's Owls; this was part of a census the IOC is carrying out this year, to discover the true status in Israel of this magical but threatened bird.
We checked several sites; in one site we had two territorial males and a very curious female, and in the second site one pair. It was an amazing night - full moon, no wind, pleasent temperatures, and the desert was truly stunning. Unfortunately Jonathan is of the wrong sex, though he is quite handsome... We had breathtaking views of the female owl with the strong moon light - it's so nice to see the birds without disturbing them with a torch. The bird flew so close to us againt the moon; we could even see it was moulting its remiges...


Some other recent stuff:

The resident White-throated Kingfisher at the JBO showed well yesterday afternoon:

And this morning in Ashdod ringing was pretty slow due to strong easterlies, but this Water Rail was a good bird:

Fieldfares and other bits and pieces

Drove around a bit over the last couple of days and collected some nice stuff along the way. Yesterday at Ashdod not too many gulls or shorebirds, and nothing exciting among them. Single Greater Spotted Eagle and Short-toed Eagle (late!) were nice. These two female Mountain Gazelles showed me their butts as they sped away from my car. Are they being poached in that area? They were very very shy.


Later drove to Segula to look for the Fieldfare trio found by Re'a the previous day. The first look produced nothing, but after a short lunch break found them feeding quite relaxed on the lawn. They really let me approach - I never had such good views in Israel. These guys must have come from a village or town somewhere (in Russia?) - their tame behaviour suggested that. Great to see these Israeli rarities - hopefully we will have a good winter for them (and for their black-throated cousin tooo...)

This morning I was ringing at my local site in Ashdod. It was pretty good with many chiffies, Blackcaps, Bluethroats and Robins. A couple of Spanish Sparrows were nice, and this Moustached Warbler was my first for the season. Other birds about were a Reed Bunting flying around and dodging my nets, and several Water Rails heard calling.

Moustached Warbler

Spanish Sparrow

A short afternoon visit to Tsor'a didn't produce much. This female Stonechat posed nicely against the light:

And this late Isabelline Wheatear was pretty in the warm afternoon light: