Orrible January

January out here in the desert is not a great time for ringing, Firstly its damn cold, the nets have been frozen a couple of times when i've been out to them, its also wet this is the wettest month of the year, its rained at least 4 days and one of them was on a scheduled ringing morning, bummer. But the biggest factor is there are very few birds around! still we caught a few and managed to ring the 100th species for the greater Sde Boker region ( all be it the 99th for my main station in the pistachio plot) and what a beauty it was two, a 2cy male great spotted cuckoo. so due to the lack of activity and Chris not sending me the latest photos yet heres some from late last year.

Southern grey shrike

yellow wagtail



Isabelline Wheatear



Saharan horned viper

Black eared wheatears

White breasted kingfisher

Blackstart

Palestine sunbird