The end of Spring 2013

Spring 2013 is almost over for us here in Eilat and it won't be long before we shall start looking into Autumn migrants coming back already in mid Aug'...

This last spring was a very strange one with relative low numbers over whole, while some species had a very high peak mainly towards the end of the season.

There are still few waders hanging around with Red-necked Phalaropes, Broad-billed & Curlew Sandpipers and Little Stints being the most common. 2 Sanderlings and 3 Greater Sand Plover were a nice addition of species during the beginning of the week. 

At north beach still few migrants flying through with Common & Little Terns  the most common but also Oystercatchers, Sooty Shearwaters and the first White-cheeked Terns all seen almost daily.

Markus Lampinen our dedicated volunteer who had to carry the ringing station throughout the season on its back with the help of many others, have left today back to Finland and in this opportunity if would like to express our big thanks to Markus and the rest of the volunteers (Tzadok, Liat, Jan, Arnold, Eran, Roger, Will, Yochai, Yael, Roni, Ron, Yaara, Merav, Sylvia, Noa, Utte, Shachar and all whom I forgot to mention) who made this season a successful one despite all the obstacles on our way!

We will be happy to see you all back with us in the future.

Itai

Below is a summery by Markus, just before he left back home, this after noon...

"The end of the season is here and I must head back Finland to finish my studies, earn a lot of money and to do some ringing and birding there.

Last two weeks haven't been very busy with ringing but still some nice species like Olive-tree and River Warblers have been caught. Also some Marsh and Barred Warblers were still around this week. One of the season's most surprising birds was caught on May 10th when a female Sand Partridge flew in one of the pond nets. What a silly bird. 

Another not-so-common catch was a Spur-winged Plover that also was hanging in a mistnet during a swallow roost catch (check its spur over its cheek!).

In the field it has also been pretty slow, but still last week I saw a stunning adult male Crested Honey Buzzard migrating over the park and also twitched two Terek Sandpipers from the saltpans. At North Beach we saw three White-cheeked Terns, 3 Oystercatchers and a few Sooty Shearwaters. A female Black-headed Bunting was also found from K20 today while Barbary Falcons were hunting over the pools. Quite nice! 

Last evening we also re-checked the daily drinking routine of Liechtenstein's Sandgrouse at K19. Altogether three (1 male, 2 females) individuals arrived. In the end of April me and my Finnish friends visited the Dead Sea area and saw a lot of great birds including of course Nubian Nightjar, Hume's Tawny Owl, Sinai Rosefinch and Striolated Bunting. Thanks Yoav & co for good company!

Since this was the first time for me in Israel there really was a lot to see and I didn't actually get bored at any point even though the season was not the busiest one. If I should pick up some highlights of this season a White-throated Robin would certainly be one of the top birds. I'm also still seeing dreams about the 17 Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters we caught during the season. They are such a beauties! 27 ringed Rueppell's Warblers, 4 Olive-tree Warblers, 3 Namaqua Doves, 5 Little Bitterns, 5 Golden Orioles and a Spotted Crake also especially thrilled me. And of course it's always a great experience to handle any kinds of raptors or owls. Handling over 200 Eastern Olivaceous Warblers makes also a life bit easier when facing such a bird for example in Finland where it shouldn't occur.

In the field I really enjoyed of all the species at the Dead Sea area but also Crested Honey Buzzards, Thick-billed and Temminck's Larks, all Sandgrouse, Mourning Wheatears, Black Bush Robins, Pharaoh Eagle Owl and Pale Rock Sparrows only to mention few of them. During the three months I managed to see altogether 259 species here in Israel, mainly around Eilat area. Still some species like Ménétrie's and Cyprus Warbler, Pallid Scops Owl, Upcher's Warbler, Sooty Falcon and Egyptian Nightjar are waiting for the next trip to show up for me.

Finally I really would like to say thank you to all the wonderful people who have been helping, accompanying and having fun with me here in Israel. I have learned a lot about ringing, identification and Israeli culture during this trip and I know this won't be the last time I visit here.

Especially I want to thank Itai and Tzadok who guided me to work at the station and always took a good care of me. It was a great pleasure to work with you. You were like parents for me during this season. You may decide yourself which of you is mom and which dad :)

I would like to thank also Arnold, Eran, Jan, Luc, Re'a, Roger, Ron, Roni, Tom, Yaara, Yael, Yohay & Will for staying and ringing with me here at the station. It was great fun!

Thanks go also to Anthony, Jon, Liat, Limor, Maor, Merav, Noa, Ofir, Shachar, Sylvia, Utte & Yotam for helping me with ringing and other stuff. Life would've been much more difficult without you.

And last but not least thanks for my Finnish friends Emma, Esko, Hannu, Jände, Miksu, Petteri, Roni (again) & Tomppa for birding company and help also. You're always fabulous!

Hope I didn't forget anyone but if I did, he/she should know that I really will never forget anyone of you.

See you soon again Israel!

Markus Lampinen"

Migration on the move again

After several days of  low numbers, migration has decided to show itself once again.
over the last few days we had good numbers both in the field and at the IBRCE ringing station. A very big wave of Red-backed Shrikes, Thrush Nightingales and Barred Warblers all over with amazing numbers trapped daily (numbers represent total new birds for the season respectively - 63, 72, 41). Also a late wave of Whitethroats with 28 new birds between 2-3 May...

A very unusual wave of River Warblers which are considered rare in Israel, nevertheless are being reported from all over the country this year and in our region at least 3 different individuals (Elifaz, Neot Smadar and the IBRCE). 

Honey Buzzards are streaming in full gale and among them there are Oriental Honey Buzzards which are found almost daily. Last Friday while guiding the Southern Arava Bird Club (SABC) we had 2 beautiful males and another one over the ringing station earlier this week.

This year (as said already) is a behaving very strange and a late Pallid Swift and Black-eared Wheatear were a great surprise to the dreamteam in the nets.

All the resident species are in full breeding and some are already on their second round...

 While we were busy ringing, I got a phone call from Frank Mofet who was observing 2 Terek Sandpipers in the salt ponds south of the IBRCE (found earlier by Bark Granit et al). He also reported of a Red-breasted Flycatcher at Holland park on the Fri'...
I must admit, that I've been scanning K20 over the last few days in search for the Terek Sandpiper ,as it is usually arrives in this time of year ... when Shachar heard about it he rushed to get a very long distance record shot and while on it he reported of 4 Oystercatchers (again not a common species around here) from K20 yesterday.

 

The weather seems to be stable now but we hope that this is not the end of the season. Stay tuned for the last summery report by Markus which should be written towards the end of his season sometime next week...
  

Up and down and again...

This Spring is surely the one to be reminded as one of the least stable migration we had for years down in the Arava. While some morning start in full swing and there seems to be birds on every bush in the Arava and the sky are filled with migrating raptors, we have many mornings which seems to to be in an urgent need of a good kick-start!
Nevertheless we still enjoy a great variety of species that are coming through and like a ride on a roller-coaster some times we're up and sometime down...

At the beginning of this week we got a report through Jan, that one of our  Lesser Whitethroats was controlled in Belgium! a short communication revealed that this bird has been trapped by our dreamteam 42 days earlier in Eilat and has covered the distance of at least 3577 Km during this period.

We also had an important visit by the Tourism Corporation Office staff of Eilat and they have enjoyed a great demonstration of the IBRCE ringing station with many species, great food from Tzadok and a good speech from Jan who has left us the next morning and we would like to thank him again.

But this is blog is about birds!







Over the last few days we've been re-trapping the nice 2CY Irania that was trapped also last week and every time it is a great addition of colours 

and there were many more Barred Warblers among the big wave of Blackcaps and Thrush Nightingales

Honey Buzzards have shown a huge influx and many thousands are passing daily over the mountains and the station. During this time of year we usually get many birds to treat and release just like this female which still retained one inner secondary of a juv' bird on both sides and thus is proposed to be a 3 CY bird.

 A morning at the Gulf together with Avi Meir and Itsik Cohen produced no less than 11 Arctic, 3 Long-tailed and 1 Pomarine Skuas as well as 1 Sooty Shearwater, 4 Whimbrells many Little & Common Terns  a single Black Tern, White-cheeked Tern few Gull-billed and Sandwich Terns and long staying Baltic Gulls.

Below is a  another summery of the last period by Shachar (our Kiwi representative)...

"The Acacias of the Arava are bulging with fruit under the greenist caonopy seen here for many years. The ground ripples with insects and the air buzzes with dragonflies, flies and swarms of bird delicacies. The sea is overflowing with fish and the weather has been mild, beautiful.... in short a paradise for all birds. So where are they??? We stare down the gulf wondering if maybe they are waiting down there somewhere. Or maybe they have bypassed us? Some have even blamed that trapping in the Sinai Peninsula now that law and order has completely broken down there. But nothing deter our fearless ringers Jan and Markus as they coped with the onslaught of Blackcaps at the start of the week. 

The Levant Spaarowhawks have also not disappointed with 2-3 diving into the nets each morning. And this is the catch, some days big waves of birds come through with some species reaching their normal spring levels while others are just missing. Where are the Red-backed Shrikes which were so abundant in spring? On the other hand the Masked Shrikes are coming through as usual. Where are the Cuckoos? Willow Warblers? Spotted Flycatchers?
When the ponds and bushes are empty I go down to the North Beach where the Terns are sure to please. I can watch their poise,grace and skill all day. One evening I was treated to a rare sight of thousands of Common Terns in a feeding frenzy. They abandoned their normal calm composed tactics for high speed clashes, stealing and squabbling over every catch. On that evening the Little Terns, Sandwich Terns and lone White-cheeked Tern kept their distance from the crazy mob.

At Km 20 the number of waders has dwindled with Little Stints, Wood Sandpipers,Collared Pratincoles and Greenshanks making up the bulk of the birds there. But with a careful look I found some Temmincks Stints, a group of 5 Broad-billed Sandpipers, the first Curlew Sandpipers and 3 White-winged terns.

Friday morning at the station, Itai arrived with a local group of fledgling birders, a big and very welcome step on the road to building a local community that will support the station and conservation of birds in this important but sadly neglected area. Despite a slow morning they were fortunate to see in the hand both male and female Levant Sparrowhawks, a rare Red-backed Shrike and the White-throated Robin that was first caught earlier in the week.

On Saturday morning Marcus noticed a Eurasian Nightjar lurking near the nets as he opened them. He smartly put the Nightjar call on the speaker and minutes later the bird was in the net, a first for this season...

Later, another first for the season arrived in the form of a female Golden Oriole much to everybody's pleasure. The strange morning ended with less than 60 birds, half of them retraps but 18 different species including 2 Garden Warblers, a late Whitethroat, Great Reed Warbler and a young Pied Flycatcher. 

Can't wait to see what turns up tomorrow!"

Here it comes again

Late April is usually a very good season with a huge influx of migrants.

This year is no different and despite the very strange season we had (with relate to numbers), yesterday on my way to the ringing station I could count some 3000 Levant's Sparrowhawks on the ground, on the trees and in the air. I really wanted to stop and have a proper count as it seemed like a good morning, but a short call from the ringing station suggested otherwise (surely there were much more, but I was counting while driving...)

 At the ringing station we had the best morning so far for this spring (which is low comparing to the average springs) with a total of 440 new birds mainly comprised of Blackcaps, Eastern Olivacous, Thrush Nightingale, Lesser Whitethroats & Reed Warblers. But surely the most interesting species were Barred Warbler and a very late Kingfisher. The dreamteam was happy to get a beautiful life bird to both an Olive-tree Warbler which was trapped one day earlier though...

Later during noon time many raptors were seen over K20 including:
Booted Eagles, Steppe Buzzards, Marsh Harriers and the first Honey Buzzards.
Last week, Mr Klus Bjerre from Denmark photographed the first Oriental Honey Buzzard for the season over the mountains.

Let the Spring continue...

A crazy morning at the IBRCE ringing station

Spring is always hectic around Eilat and there is much to do at all times but yesterday i've managed to allocate the whole morning, to be with the Dream Team at the ringing station. Unfortunately to me, I decided that I won't need the camera today which has proven to be a very bad decision when a beautiful male White-throated Robin came out of a bag.

Below is a summery of yesterday morning by Jan Visser...  

"Today is an important day for Israel and its people (It is Israel's Memorial day which is followed by its Independence day).

The dream team has fallen apart and only Markus and I are left in addition to Itai and Tsadok of course. Moreover we are still being supported by Utte, Sylvia and Noa who is training to be a ringer some day. She is a good observer and quick as a lightning with her camera. Yesterday, in a nanosecond, she photographed an unidentified bird and only today it became clear that it was a Siskin, a species rarely seen in Eilat.

The morning started like any other day, the first two rounds with birds such as Blackcap, Eastern Olivaceous Warbler and Lesser Whitethroat interspersed by a Thrush Nightingale. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, the first Levant Sparrowhawk was caught in a mistnet; a young male! The day before, was the first observed (and there should be many more to come, now that it started) but it's really something else to have it in the hand! A beautiful new hand species for both Markus and I!

Sylvia surprised us all bringing a bag to the station, that should include "a beautiful bird"... When taking the bird out, Markus was totally amazed when he realized to be handling a stunning 2CY male White- throated Robin! A species that is not caught every year at the station and is still considered a rarity also in Israel. Once again, for us (the volunteers) a new 'lifer' and a new species in the hand. A beautiful bird, absolute special!

Today there was also an unrelenting stream of raptors above the ringing station including many Steppe Buzzards and Kites, a Long-legged Buzzard, some Booted and Short toad Eagles.

The weather stays unchangeable, a solid North wind plays tricks on us for days and this you can see in the numbers of caught birds.

We hope, of course, on more of these days because this is Eilat after all!
Jan Visser"

At K20 there is a drop in waders numbers but still there seems to be constant movement with the recent arrival of 11 Red-necked Phalaropes, at least 2 Broad-billed Sandpipers and 2 Greater Sand Plovers, Gull-billed Terns...

At north beach there is a growing number of Common Terns and the first White-winged Terns can be seen almost daily. And at the city parks there is more and more movement of B&W Ficedula.

Migration non-stop

The season proceeds and with it there are evident changes both in the field and at the ringing station. Today we said goodbye to Arnold and Luc from Holland who has been with us for 4 & 2 weeks each. The "DreamTeam" is never going to be the same again...

Top: Arnold, Jan, Itai.
Bottom: Luc, Markus, Tzadok

Also there are many new birds which are evident and this time its the turn of the Caspian Plovers to win the best bird of the week prize, after I found 5 on Tue' morning while guiding Dave Richardson (though we are still overwhelmed by the 15 Black Bush Robins which were seen up to now during this season).

Many B&W 'Ficedula' Flycatchers throughout as well as many 'feldegg' Yellow Wagtails, Rt Pipits and the last Citrine Wagtails and Little Bitterns... 

Semi-collared Flycatcher

Collared Flycatcher

'feldegg' Yellow Wagtail

Citrine Wagtail

Red-throated Pipit

Still some Wrynecks, Cretzschmar's & Ortolan Buntings, nice aggregations of Purple Herons, first Temminck's Sandpipers...

Purple Herons

Cretzschmar's Bunting

Wryneck

Temminck's Stint

reports from Neot Smadar of Baillon's & Little Crakes. Pied & Hooded Wheatears at K76 and today I found a Cyprus Pied Wheatear at the entrance to the Eilot North Palm grove.

Hopefully we will soon start getting the Levant's and other good late migrants.
stay tunes for more updates,
Itai

And here are some notes from Markus at the IBRCE ringing station:

"Last two weeks at the ringing station have been quite varying with a little bit better numbers of ringings compared to earlier. Last saturday we had the best day so far with 398 birds caught. Unsurprisingly 238 of them were Blackcaps. Yesterday was the best Swallow roost catch so far with 167 birds including also one Common Kingfisher retrap from last year. Evening sessions have also produced altogether 17 Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters. I have to say that these are the most gorgeous birds I've ever seen anywhere. Absolutely epic!

Almost every day have been caught some "season's firsts", most recently a Barred Warbler today. Numbers of Common & Thrush Nightingales have increased and the first Collared Flycatchers have been caught. Wood & Willow Warblers, Rufous Bush Chats, Great Reed Warblers, Ortolan Buntings, Namaqua Dove, Corncrake... 

Barred Warbler

Namaqua Dove

Corncrake

The station has also had its part of the Black Bush Robin invasion with two individuals in the area. Both of them were annoyingly close to get caught...

Rarities have been avoiding the station area lately. Luckily there has still been couple of nice things to be twitched somewhere else like White-cheeked Tern at the North Beach and Turkestan Shrike at Yotvata. Today the Dutch guys saw the 5 Caspian Plovers at Yotvata and last week I managed to see a single Thick-Billed Lark at Uvda Valley, which made me very happy.

For last two weeks our dream team has included three Dutch guys (Arnold, Jan & Luc) besides me. Unfortunately Arnold and Luc have to fly back home tomorrow but Jan will still carry on with me for two more weeks. In Hopefully we can still figure out something good!

Cheers!,

Markus"