Thank you, BE

On August 13th, while I was in the UK, the first White-throated Bee-eater for Israel (and 3rd for WP) was found north of Eilat by Sara Deutch and the Shiff couple. During my stay in the UK I was biting my nails constantly. Will it stay? Every morning I switched my phone on, and every morning the news came through that it was still present. I kept all my 20 fingers crossed tightly, and indeed on the day of our flight back, yesterday, it was still there. I arrived back home at 23:00 last night, after a long journey. Kids needed food, showers, bed-time stories etc., I unpacked my birding gear and after a short snooze headed out at 02:30. Met up with Rony, Re'a and Tamar, and together we cruised through the night to arrive at dawn on site, west of KM20 saltpans. A few more birders assembled, and we started searching the vast area for the star bird. For the first couple of hours there was no sign of it, and I was getting worried - several of my friends had tried for it multiple times and failed. Was it going to be a dip? Then, luckily, Re'a and Tamar had it briefly in flight. A short while later I saw the smallish bee-eater briefly in flight too - so mobile! But phew: lifer, WP and Israel tick under the belt. I was keen to get better views and maybe even a photo, but it kept disappearing and was lost again for another hour or so. Eventually Eran, Tuvia et al. found it foraging deep inside a date plantation, where we all had fantastic views. What a cracker! We watched it for a while, happily catching wasps and bees very efficiently, then let it be.
Seeing such a rare bird so well was a real treat. I feel very grateful that this African gem waited especially for me - thank you, much appreciated.

White-throated Bee-eater - first for Israel

Even after almost two weeks on site, the bee-eater attracts quite a lot of international interest. My Twitter and Facebook BOC posts performed rather well:

Thank you Mr. White-throated Bee-eater for doing the decent thing and waiting for me pic.twitter.com/53KKIBLDsG

— Yoav Perlman (@yoavperlman) August 24, 2019

Of course the bee-eater was not the only bird we saw. While searching for the bee-eater I bumped into the equally long-staying Hypocolius. I saw it at some distance, into the sun, so no photos but always a quality bird to see. A quick drive around the saltpans produced Hoopoe Lark, Broad-billed Sandpiper, Citrine Wagtail and actually lots of migrant passerines in the plantations and scrub, including Lesser Grey Shrike. All in all a respectable 69 species - check our eBird checklist here.

Hoopoe Lark

Lesser Grey Shrike - don't worry, it's not a scapular patch, just a photo artifact produced by strong sun glare:

I had to return home early, so we headed back before noon. Driving through the Negev, I spotted a large raptor circling over the road - Golden Eagle! We had rather pornographic views of the beast, presumably a male, eyeballing us - fantastic experience.

Too close!

Many thanks also to Rony, Re'a, Tamar, Tuvia, Shachar and all the other birders who shared this special morning with me.

Special post - the best of 2015

As I do every year, I will summarize here my birding year of 2015. This has been an unusual year. First of all, this was my first full year in the UK. I am busier here than ever with my PhD research, and my fieldwork is very short and concentrated, so my birding capacity has decreased seriously. Personally this is pretty difficult and rather frustrating. I had been working in the field all of my adult life, and this change in my lifestyle is not simple. It leads to pretty funny daily corridor conversations with two other keen birders in my department who are as frustrated as me, about what birds we cannot see and where we'd want to be rather than modelling in R... But I am a grown-up (?) and shouldn't complain too much. So I will try to look back here at the best moments of 2015, and looking back there were many wonderful moments indeed.

From my blog's point of view, this has been my slowest year ever:

Looking at my annual blogging activity patterns, it is apparent what are the normal rates in which I go out birding, and where my two annual peaks occurred - in spring when I did my fieldwork in Spain and Portugal, and in my autumn trip to Shetland. I assume you can see the effect of my first year of PhD has had on me...

And now, let's look at some birds at last!

Winter was mild and birding was fairly slow. After enjoying my first winter in Norfolk by the end of 2014, I got pretty bored of geese... In early January I did find a nice feeding spot near the Great Grey Shrike at Stanton Downham, where lots of pretty and colourful birds came in to feed:

A few days later I had my first WP tick of the year - an inland Great Northern Diver at nearby Rockland Broad:

A well-timed high tide visit to Snettisham in mid January with my mate and regular birding companion James Lowen was awesome:

We had an brilliant day - we paid a visit to Welney's swans as well:

And we also saw briefly a Waxwing at Hunstanton:

Bird-related news was that I got a new Swarovski ATX95 scope that turned me officially into a Swarovski boy - thanks Swarovski Optik Nature!

In February I saw very little in the UK but luckily towards the end of the month I squeezed in a few hours of birding in Portugal and Spain in between meetings during a short visit there. Another WP tick for me was this Glaucous Gull at Peniche, Portugal:

I also enjoyed some Bonelli's Eagle action at Alange Castle, Extremadura. I missed the Black Wheatears there but I settled the story with them later on in spring.

March was still cold and quiet in Norfolk. I had a look at this sweet Iceland Gull at Weybourne:

Towards the end of the month I went to Portugal and Spain for two weeks of intensive fieldwork. I spent most of my time with my Great Bustards. Only on the first morning I sat in a hide at La Serena in Extremadura to get close and personal with them. The rest of my encounters were more typically distant.

I spent all my morning in the  cereal steppes of Extremadura and Alentejo, where I had all of the other expected species, such as Little Bustards:

In the afternoons I had opportunities to explore some other sites and birds. I had several lifers, including Black Wheatear:

And two unexpected Nearctic shorebirds - Lesser Yellowlegs and Long-billed Dowitcher (WP tick):

From Spain I flew over to Israel for a short family visit. It was so good to be in Israel, meet up with friends and family and to see birds everywhere, but I had very limited time for proper birding. I managed to escape one early morning to connect with the long-staying Hypocolius in Ashkelon - cracking bird:

Back in the UK, not much was going on until in late April I went with my regular companions to twitch the 2nd Great Blue Heron for the UK, on the Isles of Scilly. Sadly on the way back we managed to dip on the Hudsonian Godwit in Somerset.

During late May's half term holiday I went with my family up to Flamborough and Bempton Cliffs RSPB in East Yorkshire, and we thoroughly enjoyed it:

It was great to spend time with Martin Garner and family:

In June I did see a Paddyfield Warbler on Blakeney Point but did not get any photos of the shy bird. I tried very hard to find a Greenish Warbler, perhaps my most wanted WP bird at the moment, but with no success. Something for next year.

In mid July I drove all the way to Titchfield Haven in Hampshire to see the long-staying Greater Yellowlegs (WP tick). It was a fine twitch and I really enjoyed the reserve there:

In August my seek after the holy grail (Greenish Warbler) continued without success and I saw nothing of interest. I participated in the BirdFair at the Israeli Ornithological Center stand and had a good time with lots of friends from Israel, UK and all over the world. My boys were excited to meet up with BBR Springwatch superstar Chris Packham:

In early September I participated in the Spurn Migfest - a fantastic event. Birding was sort of on the slower side but seawatching was alright with Balearic Shearwater and three Sabine's Gulls. This Spotted Flycatcher was very popular because of its beautiful perch:

In mid September I saw what was probably 'Bird of the Year' for many birders, the one-day Acadian Flycatcher at Dungeness, Kent, the first for the Western Palearctic:

On the way back added Wilson's Phalarope to my life list at Vange Marshes, Essex...

In late september I went for a week with Martin and Sharon up to Shetland. We stayed in the south of Mainland, and I birded there most of the time, often with some birding legends. Birding was touch most of the time but I did see some good birds, and even found a few semi-decent birds. But as always, the company made the trip amazing, and I had precious quality time with Martin.

'My' Blyth's Reed Warbler

Pechora Pipit 

As it is in recent years, the commonest migrant was Yellow-browed Warbler:

This young male Lapland Bunting was very friendly:

In mid October North Norflok was a real Purple Patch, but I skipped most of the mega-popular rarities and saw only one Pallas's Warbler and the Hume's Warbler, both of which I couldn't photograph.

In November I participated in The EBBA / EBP workshop in Mikulov, Czech Republic. No real birding there but did enjoy this cute Red Squirrel:

In December winter mood settled on me and I didn't do much birding and as a result did not see much... But this fine Red-necked Grebe at Brancaster Staithe was a nice bird to end the year with:

So that was my year. First of all, I want to thank my many readers who continue to follow me despite my slacking rate of blogging. I wish I could do more, and I really hope that in 2016 I will get out more often. It was very encouraging for me to see that during the short periods that I did produce more often, for instance during the week I was on Shetland, many 'dormant' followers returned to read my blog. So thank you all! I am very grateful to my birding friends, especially James and Quentin, for driving me around and keeping me entertained.

And as always, many thanks and lots of love to my wonderful family. I miss Israel very much, especially the birding, but my life here in the UK is full of happiness thanks to you!

Happy New Year and all the best wishes for 2016!

Thank you Mrs. Hypocolius!

I am in Israel now for a short visit. Easter school holiday in the UK coincided well with Passover in Israel, so we came here for a week of family and friends basically. Lots of fun but very exhausting, physically and emotionally. Great to be here in Israel during migration - so many birds everywhere. I miss birding in Israel so much.

On Sunday morning I managed to escape for a couple of hours in the early morning to connect with the long-staying female Grey Hypocolius in Ashkelon NP, found by Oded Lewy about 10 days ago. I have seen hypocolius in Israel several times before (for instance in 2011). But because it is such a quality bird, and it's still a good rarity, and the first outside of Eilat area, and because it's been so patient and waited for me, and because I just had to get outdoors...

I met up with Amir there which was good because stupidly I left my camera at home by the door... Amir was generous enough to let me use his camera. Thanks Amir! The hypocolius itself didn't show too well during the short time I was there. It was quite shy and mobile but for a few seconds it did perch on a tree right above our heads. Unfortunately light conditions were shit but a great bird nevertheless!

I really enjoyed the nice stroll through a small section of the lovely park. So many nice migrants around. Nothing unusual apart for the hypocolius, just a quality selection typical for Israel this time of year: Eastern Black-eared Wheatear, several singing Savi's Warblers, Nightingales, Tree and Red-throated Pipits, Masked Shrike. You can check my full checklist here.

That's it for now. Hope to squeeze in a little more birding before returning to UK on Friday. Stay tuned!

Pallid beauty

This morning I went with Jonathan to bird in the Eilat area. Our first mission was to see the Grey Hypocolius found by Barak Granit a few days ago near the IBRCE. We searched for it for a long time but at first with no success. We worked the nearby date plantation, in which we had an Olive-backed Pipit. I heard a very interesting Phylloscopus calling several times. It first sounded to me like an odd humei call, but after consulting with my iPod I found it closely matching proregulus! The bird was very mobile and stayed high in the canopies. I kept losing it, even with the help of Itai and Jonathan. I had a glimpse of it flying from treetop to treetop - it was tiny but I could get no plumage details. Eventually we gave up on it, but if a pallas's gets found tomorrow then it's mine!

We returned to the IBRCE, and soon after we had a few brief encounters with this beautiful bird. Unfortunately it was very shy and jumpy, and kept disappearing in the thick vegetation of the IBRCE. lucky I managed a couple of shots. I was very happy to see it - haven't seen one for many years.

Grey Hypocolius - male

While searching for the hypo I had quite a few Indian Silverbills:

We continued to Yotvata fields. In the southern field I had two Richard's Pipits, male Hooded Wheatear and a few Crag Martins. No sign of the recent rarities (Blyth's pipit and Little Bunting), but it was nice to see the couple of Hoopoe Larks that have been hanging around in the field for a week or so. Bizarre to see them feeding like Crested Larks in the dry field. I am used to find them in the remotest corners of our desert. Part of the time they were feeding with a small group of Ringed Plovers - interesting combo.

Hoopoe Lark

In the northern fields we enjoyed (too?) good views of two first-winter White-fronted Geese. The white forehead is quite developed for a youngster, but the lack of barring on the underparts and dark tip to bill indicate these are young birds.

White-fronted Goose

There was considerable size difference between both birds, but the small one was not small enough...

This seems to be a good season for white-fronts in Israel, with small groups recorded in several sites all over the country.

Other nice birds in the field were 1 Oriental Skylark and a couple of Caucasian Stonechats.

Caucasian Stonechat