Orpheans in the Undergrowth

the last week i have moved by to the pistachio plot, where i have ringed approximately 60 birds, half of these have been Eastern Orphean warblers, of which all but one have been youngsters.the youngsters leave the breeding grounds before the adults who hang around to do a bit of moulting, see the sites, relax on the Med islands etc. The adult i caught showed typical suspended moult of the 3rd and 4th secondaries.

Juv Orphean warbler with dark brown eye

Juv wing with moulted inner greater coverts

Adult bird with light eye

Adult wing with 3rd and 4th secondary unmoulted

Other highlights this week have included a Great grey shrike and a Hoopoe.

Hoopoe

Great grey shrike

Mt Hermon

i was recently lucky enough to join some of Israel's top ringers and a thoroughly nice bunch of chaps and lassies they are too. i managed a couple of ringing ticks, (rock bunting, and rock sparrow) and got to ring a number of other species that are not so common down here in the desert. here's a few images from a great weekend.

Rock sparrow

Rock nuthatch

Rock bunting

Rock tits!! (great and sombre)

Turkish Delight

in May i trapped my first ever foreign ringed bird. a garden warbler JA98286 which was first caught on the 23 august 2010 at the Kızılırmak Cernek Ringing Station, Kızılırmak Delta, Samsun Turkey. A distance of  1195 km, although we know it had travelled much further as  i caught it on its way back to europe after wintering in southern africa. This was also the first ever garden warbler control for Israel.
I also recently had my first ever control of one of my ringed birds. a 2cy reed warbler was caught in lake Yerocham the grand total of 22km away, where it most likely went to breed and maybe originated from there. the lake is directly east of my site, so how did this bird know how to get there! migration is a fascinating subject and one we know so little about.

ibex problem!!!

What's the most unusual thing you have had in your nets? i've had numerous bats, a gerbil, a kid on a pushbike and during the ringing demo's this month ibex, fortunately i have not had to extract them as when one of these beasts hits the net, it makes a big hole! i cannot say i have enjoyed the past months ringing as i'm on edge constantly checking where the ibex are, but most the youngsters that have attended the sessions seemed to have gone away happy even if they did have to get out of their beds early. It has also given me a chance to ring quite a number of breeding species such as bulbul and bush robins and to ring a small number of blackstarts which we only catch occasionally in our usual ringing plot. I also caught only my second ever pale rock martin which flew into a net as it was being lowered.
the first migrants have also started to appear this month with a number of olivaceous warblers and a female eastern orphean warbler being caught, along with me seeing a phylloscopus warbler on my way to work this morning. If just those damned ibex would disappear this would be a terrific little location as it's one of the most scenic ringing spots in the world.

Wadi Zin

Ibex

New Site

with lots of demonstrations booked for july and no birds inside the pistacchio plot, i had to try somewhere new, but still inside the village. So it was off to Ben Gurions burial site, which has a nice little park attached to it. ringing used to be good here until all the tamarix was removed. along with eran we put up 6 nets, and relaxed to watch the sun rise over the Zin wilderness, well that was what we hoped but along came the ibex and we had to constantly watch the nets too make sure we didnt trap an unwanted species as i would imagine they would make a fine mess. birds here where still few and far between. but we did manage a couple of bush robins, one of which had recently fledged along with his dad, its mom was a bit wiser and sat on top of the net before flying off. Then when i was coming back from a net round i saw Meidad, who finally made it by 6.45 running to the nets where what i thought must be a blackbird was caught, but to my delight i was wrong and we had a Tristrams Grackle, which are fairly common around here now, but we dont seem to catch any, these being the first since 2007. we had just finished ringing the first, a adult male, when a second female crashed into the same net, which delighted the small crowd of sightseers that were passing. We had only 9 birds in total but this site will have to do for the next month until the migrants start to return.

Tristrams Grackles

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

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