Just another day in the office

This morning I went out to get some fieldwork done in the northern Negev. We're working there with INPA at a new nature reserve, Loess Plains NR, mapping breeding birds. Most of the reserve is pretty flat Loess plains. My section this morning flanked the Besor River, the main watercourse of the northern Negev, and quite a serious corridor of vegetation in contrast with the barren surroundings. 

I arrived at my section early in the morning, and quickly understood that this morning would be more about migrants than breeding birds. It was a cool and overcast morning after very hot weather yesterday, that must have affected migration. The air was full of birds and bird calls on the move - bee-eaters, hirundines, swifts, pipits, buntings, chats were hopping on tops of bushes - bliss. Down the wadi, the trees were full of birdsong - mainly Eastern Olivaceous Warblers and Turtle Dove. Hundreds of migrant warblers were ticking from the vegetation. Collared Flycatcher, Redstart, Thrush Nightingales, Wryneck - so much good stuff in there. In the distance I spotted a group of falcons hovering over the plains - mixed Red-foots and Lesser Kestrels.

Ortolan

Whinchat

Turtle Dove was present in very high density - there were tens of displaying males parachuting through the air. It was also heartwarming to see many flocks of migrants, some of several tens.

Hundreds of Steppe Buzzards roosted in the reserve by the wadi, especially on the shoulders.

When the air started to heat up they took off, and were joined by other raptors - Lesser Spotted, Short-toed and Booted Eagles, Pallid, Marsh and Montagu's Harriers.

Lesser Spotted Eagle

Booted Eagle

Receiving a warm welcome from the local Brown-necked Ravens:

Lovely 2cy male Montagu's Harrier

After the migrant flocks of European Bee-eaters left, the many breeding pairs became prominent. There was also a pair of Arabian Green Bee-eaters, so beautiful in the soft light.

Then I heard the familiar call of Blue-cheeked Bee-eater. For a few seconds the three species were sat together on the same bush. By the time I picked my camera up the blue-cheeked flew off; later on I relocated it on nearby wires. They have bred in the region in the past - I will follow up.

European (left) and Arabian Green (right) Bee-eaters

Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters

Towards the end a couple of small groups of pelicans went through:

Smaller than the mega flock I had over home on Saturday:

Pelicans migrating over my town yesterday. Commentary by @MartaAcacio
Note the leucistic bird, there were three in this flock @BirdLifeIsrael @SPNI @flywaychampions pic.twitter.com/R9DlPj4nwR

— Yoav Perlman (@yoavperlman) April 17, 2022

What a fantastic morning to be out. Thank you spring.

eBird checklist here.

I am a migration junkie

It's this time of year here in Israel, that makes me face the truth: I am a migration junkie. No, it's not peak season for rarities. I don't travel to far flung corners of the country. But I feel very lucky on a daily basis. I can experience high-intensity migration near home, every morning. I am addicted to migration watching, and I must get my daily dose. Thankfully, it's holiday season here now, which makes my mornings a bit more flexible. However, this time of the morning that I need to stop neglecting my normal human obligations, tear myself apart from migration (temporarily), pack up my gear up and head back home is so difficult. Too often I am late being back for breakfast or for errands or for something else, apologising, but actually all I want is to head back out to the field and absorb more migration. More migration. More migration. Up in the sky, down in the bushes, along the muddy banks - migrants are everywhere and I just can't have enough. 

Every morning I am out before dawn, aiming to be 'on site' at the crack of dawn. That's the magic period, when migrants drop out of the sky after a long night of migration; vocal species making themselves apparent - pipits, wagtails, larks, buntings. Beautiful, small dark silhouettes emerging in the half-light, calling 'Tzip' or 'Chup' or 'Trrrr'. I sharpen my ears, try to identify every soft call. This is so cool.

Then I spend the next hour or two of 'standard' birding, checking for migrants in the vegetation, enjoying the awesome variety and numbers. Those migrants that don't call readily on active migration are now in full show. Red-backed Shrikes, Whinchats, Willow Warblers. Swarms of hirundines and bee-eaters swerve as they hawk for flying insects. Early rising harriers, sparrowhawks and falcons are after them.

Then, when the temperatures rise, raptor migration intensifies. These are peak days for Lesser Spotted Eagle and Levant Sparrowhawk; European Honey Buzzard and Black Kite pass through in good numbers too. Migration continues over my house all day long, but I can't spend full days watching the skies anymore. I did that for many years, when I worked for the annual autumn raptor migration count between mid August and mid October in the 2000's. Now I am a responsible adult (am I?), with adult responsibilities, but all I want is to bird and bird and bird, witness this exciting, fascinating, exhilarating miracle of migration. Year after year, season after season. Remind myself that despite all the horrible damage that we cause to our beautiful planet, nature can persist, if just given the chance.

Here are a few photos that aim to demonstrate some of the feelings I expressed above:

Western Yellow Wagtails on the move

European Turtle-Dove on its first migration. Migrate safe young hero

Red-backed Shrike looking very sexy

Gotta love a Whinchat

Early Morning European Honey-Buzzard

Late morning Oriental Honey-Buzzard

Early morning Montagu's Harrier

Part of a flock of 320 Levant Sparrowhawks

Young Lesser Spotted Eagle

The moon photobombed by Lesser Spotted Eagles

Booted Eagle is unique among other migrating raptors, by its habit to hunt during migration. Most other species fly over Israel without looking down. It is not unusual to watch a Booted Eagle migrating with other raptors (here with a Levant Sparrowhawk)

Suddenly it leaves the stream, and stoops down from high altitude at huge speed towards a flock of pigeons in a field below

Flying past the moon

A few days ago I had another adrenalin-packed experience. I was watching a Hobby flying idly over Hulda Reservoir

Suddenly it changed direction and increased speed - obviously it had spotted something in mid air

I stayed focused on the Hobby; only at home on the computer screen I noticed it was after a small passerine presumably on active migration. Unbelievable how the falcon located and locked on that tiny warbler.

This is a tight crop - I assume this incident happened at 70-80 m above ground. Here the Hobby closed in on the poor warbler:

The Hobby made a super-fast maneuver and tried to snatch the warbler - I think this is a Sedge Warbler. This happened so fast; I didn't see the warbler at all; I don't know whether the warbler managed to get away. I couldn't see the falcon flying away with anything, so I think the warbler survived. Wow.

Here are a few representative eBird checklists from recent days 10 minutes from home:

Hulda Reservoir this morning with Piki

Givat Brener on Thursday

Tal Shachar on Wednesday with another Yoav

Red Hot Chili Birds

Went back to work today after a few days off with my family. BTW the new babys' name is Libby. She's great. As I wanted to avoid traffic had an hour to kill before driving to Tel Aviv, so stopped to check a very photogenic pepper field not far away from my house. Most birds in the field were local, with fewer migrants. Nothing got very close but that was OK since I wanted to keep as much of the background as possible - these colours are just fantastic - those peppers look almost like plastic.

The main customers were Spectacled Bulbuls - large numbers were seen thrashing the crops. Hope the farmer is OK with that...

Quite many Palestine Sunbirds in the field too - they were hunting for tiny spiders I think.

Palestine Sunbird - female

Palestine Sunbird - male

Among the migrants most prominent were many Whinchats:

This poor guy probably won't make it to Africa - too many ticks inside that ear:

Quick look at the alfalfa field was productive. Still tons of birds there. Very big flock of about 1000 Yellow Wags, 200 Red-throated Pipits and swarms of Willow Warblers. 1 Richard's Pipit, 20 Tawny Pipits, some Lesser Spotted Eagles overhead - very nice.

Willow Warbler

 Marsh Harrier

 Red-backed Shrike

One of my favourite songs from their last album:

Solo ringing close-ups and sound recordings

Today I was planning to ring at Bet Kama alfalfa fields. Last night, just before midnight, I recieved calls from both my helpers for today - both appologized for cancelling... Even though setting long lines of nets up in the dark on my own is not great fun, I decided to try and do my best. I arrived very early. Driving in saw two Nightjars hawking over the field, and several Barn Owls were perched on the sprinklers. I set a medium-length line of nets on my own, and started catching at first light. At first some bits and bobs got caught but then the wagtails returned from their roost - a huge flock of about 1500-2000 that went down into the field. Quite an amazing sight. Only late in the morning Hila arrived to help with scribing, so basically it was me and the birds this morning - sometimes nice to be on my own.

About half of the 73 birds I caught were Yellow Wagtails (I caught really a small fraction of the huge flock) - almost all were feldegg but few flava, one beema and one dombrowski-type. 6 Isabelline Wheatears and 11 Zitting Cisticolas were impressive. Other nice species included two Marsh Warblers, one Thrush Nightingale and two Whinchats.

Isabelline Wheatear

Whinchat

Zitting Cisticola

Yellow Wagtail - feldegg, 2cy+ male

And this is how it sounded like when I released it:

Yellow Wagtail - flava, 1cy male

And it gave these calls when released

Lots of good birds in the field. I estimated about 40 Isabelline Wheatears and 50 cisticolas. Two Lesser Grey Shrikes, at least one Citrine Wagtail among the yellows, Montagu's Harrier, Tree and Red-throated Pipits, etc.