The season proceeds and with it there are evident changes both in the field and at the ringing station.Today we saidgoodbyefor 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…
Also there are many new birds which are evident and this time its the turn of the Caspian Ploversto 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 Pipitsand the last Citrine Wagtailsand Little Bitterns…
Still some Wrynecks, Cretzschmar’s & Ortolan Buntings, nice aggregations of Purple Herons, first Temminck’s Sandpipers…
reports from Neot Smadar of Baillon’s & Little Crakes. Pied & Hooded Wheatearsat K76 and today I found a Cyprus Pied Wheatearat 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 Kingfisherretrap 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…
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”
Itai Shanni
Itai Shanni is the coordinator of the Eilat Birding Blog, which is jointly written by the Israeli Ornithological Centre (IOC) and the International Birding and Research Centre Eilat (IBRCE). Itai is working to promote bird and wildlife conservation throughout this area. As an Israeli A licensed ringer, he also gives support for the IBRCE staff when needed. Itai has also developed a real passion for Odonata watching and spends many hot hours chasing also Dragonflies and Damselflies.
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