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

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.