Tuesday 21 June 2011

Boring June

i was getting so bored with the lack of ringing i decided enough was enough and i was gonna get out and do a little. I took 5 nets and decided to try somewhere new. so i i had seen a Blackbird around the university and thought lets try there. Bingo! first bird out the nets. there was not a lot else though with a couple of sunbirds a very late olivaceous warbler and 5 bulbuls. a total of 9 birds may not sound a lot but for me it relieved the last couple of weeks boredom. and with only a couple of weeks until july when i have 10 groups booked, a day out in Tel Aviv to see Jello Biafra and a birthday to look forward to, it was just what i needed.

the back of a sunbirds head

Thursday 9 June 2011

Migrations end

things on the migration front have gone quiet over the last few weeks, i did manage to catch 17 garden warblers in 2 days which increased their totals considerably also a few river warblers were a nice late addition, but not much else of note except a bulbul first caught two years ago by Francis on one of his trips down this way, also a Turtle dove from 2008 and my first Blackbird inside the plot, i had caught them inside the village before but never out here, whats so special about a blackbird i hear you foreigners shout, well we are right on the edge of the species southern most range 60 km into the desert and its almost certainly only here because of us humans with our manicured lawns and hedgerows so it was a nice addition to my plots species list..
meidad also reported a long eared owl flying around his home and i have not managed to locate the Mynah birds again so hopefully they have dispersed back north and wont decide to settle here.

Last week we joined some of Israels top ringers Yoav, Nadav and Roni in attempting to ring trumpeter finch and rock sparrows not far from the watering hole we had great success at last year, but alas it was not to be, after a 3am start and surrounding the pool with nets we waited and waited for the birds to arrive, but arrive they did not, i dont know what meidad had been smoking when he saw hundreds of birds there, but it must have been good stuff!! the morning was saved from being a complete wipe out by the first spectacled warbler i had seen in the hand.

blackbird


The A team

Watering hole

Spectacled warbler