1000 up

Migration here in the desert is starting to slow down, another couple of weeks and i'll put the nets away for a month for their post season rest, before the birds start to return in July. We managed to get another couple of ringing sessions over the weekend and one more this morning, with two more species to add to the list, a Great reed warbler and a Tree pipit. the weekend also bought the 1000 bird to be ringed here this year, a fledgling house sparrow had the honours, sorry there are no pics as 1) i didnt realise and 2) they are not the best looking birds at that stage. we processed yet another corncrake the fourth we have ringed plus there have been at least two more to our knowledge in the village, in all my time here i had only seen 1, and this year they seem to be dropping out of the sky into peoples gardens on a regular basis. i was told by a now ex friend that he had seen a golden oriole in the school grounds, i couldn't believe he never told me, i keep dipping out on this bird since seeing one in India 10 years ago. every year someone comes up to me and says did you see the Oriole, it was amazing blah blah blah, i'll catch one soon i'm sure or i'll have no friends left around here.

Great reed warbler

female house sparrow

Olivaceous warbler

Mad May

The first week of May has been phenomenal. There have been migrants everywhere. Since the 2nd of May i have ringed for 9 straight days and i'm looking forward to a long earned rest tomorrow. In this time we have ringed over 400 birds including 98 birds on Friday, we would have got the magical 100 but i managed to drop a blackcap and a babbler escaped the net. Luckily Eran had brought his new girlfriend Shira and we quickly put her too use scribing so we both could ring. The highlights included a Foreign ringed Garden warbler (more to follow when i have the info), a turtle dove first ringed here in April 2008, 3 terrific adult barred warblers, a river warbler, and a couple of olive tree warblers.

By this morning the rush had died down and i was back down to 27 birds, although i did manage a rather beautiful migrant, that bird that every time i see it it just fills me with wonderment at how a bird can be so magnificent, i caught the first bee eater of the spring, hopefully a couple more will follow as they are passing in great numbers at the moment.

Turtle dove

barred warbler

Barred warbler

Bee Eater

Wryneck

River warbler

Corncrake

Dawn of the blackcap

Everyone is probably sick of hearing me drone on about the lack of migrants here in the desert, i know my wife and non birding friends are, so after openings the nets and returning to what i thought was going to be a relaxing half hour watching the sunrise, i was amazed to find my 30m net was rammed with birds. Its sited in the open between a eucalyptus tree and the pistachio plot where we ring, and usually catches a few birds early on as they move to the plot and then used as a demo net. 13 blackcaps had found their way into it, i realised then that this might be a good morning. i ringed the birds as quickly as possible. By the time I had finished 3 youngsters from the local junior school had arrived, we entered the plot to find the nets full, the kids kept running back to me saying theres 6 in the next net, 7 in the next. it took me nearly an hour to take the birds out, so i quickly closed the nets as i realised that i couldn't cope on my own with many more birds. there was a total of 62 new birds and 3 retraps, in just over an hour, with a staggering 51 new blackcaps! also the first garden warblers (4) and spotted flycatcher (1), the catch was made up of 2 olivaceous warblers, 1 collared flycatcher, 1 house sparrow, 1 ortolan bunting and the 100th lesser whitethroat of the season.

the catch was that good that when i woke at 6 this morning i decided to get out there again and
added 29 new birds and 6 retraps. Another 19 blackcaps, 6 olivaceous warblers, wryneck, wood warbler, thrush nightingale and the first barred warbler of spring.

Spotted flycatcher

Blackcap number 1000 for the site

Y231115

After the excitement of the ringing demo for the president and with what is seemingly everywhere  in Israel  a very poor migration,  when i got out of bed and saw grey skies above, i couldn't resist cycling out to the patch and opening a few nets, and i was glad i did with the best day of the spring numbers wise. Although the catch was made up almost entirely of blackcaps 24 out of 31 new birds. Many species are most notable by their absence here, with hardly any thrush nightingales, redstarts, bluethroats, martins, swallows, wheatears, willow warblers and olivaceous warblers. i've probably caught around the same numbers of blackcaps and lesser whitethroats, but overall catching numbers are down by about 50% of what i would have expected from previous years (although i didnt ring here last year very much, so i dont have a lot of data to make comparisons with). anyways what is so special about ring Y231115? well it belongs to the 1000th blackcap that i have ringed in Sde Boker in 3 spring and 2 autumn migrations, not bad for a little patch of green (or burnt brown this year) in the middle of a desert

Presidential visits

Israeli President Shimon Peres gets his hands on a Syrian woodpecker

White tailed lapwing

It is usually mad here in Pesach, when thousands of tourists come from all over the country to visit the local sites such as Ein Avdat, Ein Akev, Nizzana, Ramon Crater and the rest of the pretty sites of the Negev. It is also peak bird migration and breeding seasons and so there is lots of action here. Last Thursday The annual "Vulture Day" organized by the Nature and {Parks Authorities attracted many visitors who had the chance to watch vultures and other raptors feeding on carcasses in the Avdat feeding restaurant. Amongst the birds observed were about 50 Griffon Vultures, Egyptian Vultures, a few Steppe Eagles, One Lesser Spotted Eagle and some Black Kites. An interesting sight was of a Griffon Vulture which was tagged in the Czech Republic!

The most exciting non-avian visitor we had was our president Mr. Shimon Peres who visited the area last weekend. We wanted to present him the new born Ramat Hanegev Birding Center and so we decided to give him a one-on-one experience with birds. Early morning while the president was sleeping Darren and I set up 7 nets in different spots we located a week earlier in the Holiday Village where he was staying and when he woke we waited for him outside his room with a cup of coffee and more than 30 birds!! Amir Balaban and Yossi Leshem entertained the president with fabulous stories the way only these two can.

After that I packed my backpack and went for a 3 day hike in one of the most remote areas of the Negev. We hiked from the Meishar to the Arava and had some nice birds such as Cinereous Bunting, which was the first I've seen this season, Ortolan Buntings and lots of the usual migrating sylvia spp (Lesser Whitethroats, Blackcaps, Orphean Warbler). We found a local Short-toed Eagle which my suspicions became true when I was notified by the local ranger that a pair breeds in the area and has one egg in the nest (I really hope that the hikers which recorded that didn't scare the bird away from the nest, that could be crucial for this species which scarcely breed in the desert).

I was also very glad to see the pink ball of fire (Sinai Rosefinch) with some chicks flying happily and feeding on the seeds of the low bushes along with a family of  Trumpeter finch.

Little late but worth mentioning is a White-tailed Lapwing recorded two weeks ago by Edith Katsnelson who spent the day in Sde Boker and Nizzana area. When I came the following morning it wasn't there but I had a nice view of 7 tired Purple Herons landing after a night of hard flapping.

More updates soon.

The woods are alive!

its been a busy week of ringing, with a couple of demonstrations and me making the use of some lax time at work to get in some extra ringing. the blackcaps finally arrived in force with close to a hundred being ringed this week. there have been all three species of black and white flycatchers about the village but only one managed to find its way into the nets, and the first bee eaters were around this week. We had our first house sparrows of the year, they only seem to venture away from the village when the spanish begin to move away. Also first turtle dove and surprisingly the first Bulbul of the year, but the star species of the week was the Wood warbler. i had only previously ringed 3 birds and one of those was a couple of weeks ago so imagine my surprise when 4 were found in the nets and these were soon followed by a further pair. Does anyone know if these birds move in pairs as they were all caught in twos?

Wood warblers

Pied flycatcher

Turtle dove

Ortolan bunting

Busy busy in the Negev!

Top: Barbary Falcon visiting the Golden Eagle before they deserted the nest

Bottom: Spotted Sandgrouse

It's about time I will join Darren and contribute something to our blog. As Darren focusses on the ringing activities I try to run around in the area and check on the birdlife in the Negev. I also try to collect all kind of interesting sights from people who are birding around and put it out there so if you've been birding here and wish to share it with us feel free to contact me on meidadgoren@gmail.com

We've been doing some interesting stuff lately including trapping soundgrouse in the sewage ponds at Nizzana area and monitoring one of the only Golden Eagle nests left in the Negev desert.

While helping the NPA to study the movements of sandgrouse species we caught a few birds in one of the sewage ponds and placed radio transmitters on two of them. Data is been collected these days and we'll try to keep track with the results of this interesting study. There are great concerns regards to all the sandgrouse spp and we are all happy about this initiative.

As you might know the Golden Eagle has become one of the rarest breeding raptors in the Negev. Not too long ago this species was quite common in the Negev where he roamed the skies effortless and breeding very successfully. But unfortunately, in the Negev, the number of pairs shrunk since the 80's from 25 to less than 5. As weird as it might sound we are not sure why. One of the things we hope to do in the new Ramat Hanegev Birding Center is study this case and try to protect this vulnerable species. We will keep you posted on the progress of this population which we, together with the NPA try to closely monitor. Unfortunately, a nest which was monitored by the local ranger and me has been deserted last week, probably due to interference. As sad as it may be we are trying to take it to positive places and already scheduled a tour with the local army unit to prevent this from happening next year.

Darren has been updating the blog with news from the ringing station. What also makes us all happy is the interest we're getting from the local community and every morning we entertain people who pop in to see what we're up to. As migration and breeding season is on fire you should hear from me very soon!

Cheers,

Meidad