Ashdod ringing and ponds

Yesterday I had a ringing session in Ashdod. We started bloody early and closed the nets very early too because of the heat. Ringing was OK, not more and not less, as expected in summer. Only bird of note was this colourful White-throated Kingfisher:


This was Rea's last time as a helper. He's moving to Eilat next month and hopefully gets his B permit next week, so he's a big boy now. Hope he produces some good birds at IBRCE. Thanks Rea for all the hard work over the last couple of years!

There were still some late migrants around - Blackcaps and a Lesser Whitethroat.
After ringing we had a quick look at the ponds. There were some gulls around. 6 Yellow-legged Gulls were a good record:

Also three Baltic Gulls were present:

Among the shorebirds there were some early migrants: 10 Green Sands, 1 Marsh Sand, 1 Common Sand and 2 Redshank.

Green Sandpiper

Great Spotted Cuckoo

This morning I checked some reservoirs in the Judean lowlands, near my house. A few days ago I saw three Whiskered Terns in one of the reservoirs showing some suspicious behaviour - two birds kept feeding each other while the third sat on the ground for the whole hour I was there. So I returned today with a mission to document the first breeding of Whiskered Terns in Israel, but of course they were gone... While searching for them, this recently-fledged juvenile Great Spotted Cuckoo flew in and perched on a fence right in front of me. It was too close for such a big and long-tailed beast, and it decided to perch right next to an ugly fence pole, hence the tight crops. But anyway it gave a very amusing performance for a couple of minutes in soft morning light before it took off.

Nearby, Hulda reservoir held 26 Ferruginous Ducks (!) including two large ducklings. I hope to see more families there soon.

No Basras for me today

This morning I joined the Hula ringing team (Nadav & Dotan) to try for the Basra Reed Warblers at Lehavot Habashan in the E Hula Valley. I first discovered a small population breeding at this site in summer 2006 together with the late Amit Geffen - see the link to BirdLife announcment. The birds were found again in 2007 and 2008, but were not found during several ringing attempts at this site in 2009. Today was the first attempt for 2010, so I was very optimistic, but unfortunately no Basras showed up. I will have to settle for those at Ngulia this coming December, poor me.
I really hope that these rare birds are still lurking somewhere in the Hula Valley, and that their appearence in 2006 to 2008 wasn't just a passing episode. After all, these acros are real skulkers, and it's a tiny population to start with, so the chances of missing them even though they are present is quite big.
But anyway it was a productive morning with many birds and some good stuff. Little Bitterns were present in good numbers but only this newly-fledged juvenile got caught. They are always fun birds to handle!



Other birds of note ringed were two Great Reed Warblers and several Common Whitethroats already migrating somewhere after breeding, god knows where to.

Pygmy Cormorants were present in large numbers, and I managed some rather poor shots of them.

Trumpets and petronias

This morning I went ringing in a water cistern near Mitzpe Ramon, deep in the high Negev mountains. I went there with a dream team - Yosef, Eyal, Elon and Darren. Our aim was to begin a long-term monitoring scheme at this important drinking spot discovered by Noam Weiss during our Nizzana atlas project.
We arrived very early, set the nets up and waited for the birds to start coming in. We enjoyed some mammal life at first light - two Wild Ass and a Golden Jackal.
Very quickly we understood this was going to be a busy morning, and our nets began to fill up fast. The most dominant species was Trumpeter Finch - 92 birds caught, most juveniles but quite a few bright males like this one:

Second in totals was Hill Sparrow - 31 birds, again mostly juveniles. This was our main target species for today. Noam had many hundreds coming in to drink last week, but it seems that there has been already a large departure, and many of our birds had good fat scores. Nevertheless this is an excellent catch, probably the largest one-day catch ever in Israel.

Hill Sparrow - juvenile

It was interesting to note that almost all adult had an arrested moult - 1-2 primaries, 0-3 secondaries and all PC. In this bird P1 and P2 are unmoulted, as well as S1 to S3 and all PC.

Hill Sparrow - adult

Another species caught in large numbers was Corn Bunting - 16 birds. This is a juvenile, showing a bobolink-like head pattern.

The site itself and the whole area is just fantastic. It has this special atmosphere of high altitude regions, pleasent weather, fascinating geology and plants, and it has an almost Mt. Hermon-like feel to it.

Apart for the main species, we had a good selection of seldom-ringed desert species. We had several Rock Martins:

We also ringed quite a few Desert Larks:

Anyway, I hope to return to this excellent spot soon. It doesn't hold so much water every year, but it must be a good site every year at least in spring.

Pharaoh Eagle Owl - debt from April

This amazing Pharaoh Eagle Owl was seen by myself and a Swedish group of birders on April 3rd at Neot Hakikar. It showed amazingly well for over a minute. My role was to hold the torch, while the Swedes were having the time of their life...

Thanks to Stefan for this great image. It shows all the important features - good dark frame to the face, lightly streaked breast and barred but unstreaked belly and flanks. It is a relatively large individual, perhaps a female, much larger and stronger than the famous male often seen on night tours in Yotvata.
There is a pair breeding just across the border from Neot Hakikar in Jordan, and often they come to forage on our side, usually near a small rubbish dump full of rats. I hope to see them in my forthcoming visits to neot Hakikar.

This is the end, my friend

Yesterday I officialy ended my spring 2010 season by visiting my last Nizzana atlas box. It was actually pretty good with lots of common birds and some good stuff too, but it was bloody hot and activity ended pretty early. This time I really tried to get some images but the bird just did not cooperate and I didn't manage to get a decent shot even of a bloody Crested Lark. Goodies included three flyover Temminck's Larks, many Hill Sparrows, and several Spectacled Warblers.
I suspect that from now on my blog posts will become more rare, as we are entering the long, hot and boring summer. Luckily autumn migration should begin by early July with the first shorebirds returning south and things will speed up then.