Global Big Day, 11 May 2024

Yesterday was Global Big Day and World Migratory Bird Day. Global Big Day is organised by the Cornell Lab, in association with Swarovski Optik and Global Birding. My team, Champions of the Flyway, included the original trio - Jonathan, Re'a and me. It was good to be back in the game with this team. In Global Big Days we normally take the northern route. This year, because of the war, the northern route is more challenging. For example, Mt. Hermon is out of limits currently. Also the northern sections of the Hula Valley and the Upper Galilee are not safe now. We planned our route for yesterday staying away from trouble, hoping that it will be a relatively quiet day on the non-avian flying object front... 

We left early and arrived at the entrance to the Hula NR to try for owls. Nothing. A pre-dawn drive through Agamon Hula was quiet, Barn Owl was the only decent bird or mammal. Disappointing start. At dawn we were positioned by the lake and started our daytime birding. The lake itself was quiet because the water level is very high. Still, there was a small flock of terns that flew over the water including Gull-billed, Little and Common, and our first Marbled Ducks. 

Global Big Day under fire! We're in the Hula Valley, enjoying great birds but keeping an eye open for other flying objects too...#globalbirding #birdsuniteourworld pic.twitter.com/859aGiHgue

— Yoav Perlman (@yoavperlman) May 11, 2024

The big trees west of the lake were actually quite good with many Golden Orioles and other migrants in the mulberry trees - Great Reed (in the pic below), Barred and Garden Warblers etc. 

The most surprising observation however happened shortly after Jonathan mused over the possibility of finding an African vagrant. We spotted a large bird flying low towards us over the reedbed - what's this!? Bloody hell - a turaco! One of the smaller species, schalow's-style flew quickly over us and disappeared. Obviously an escape but totally crazy to see this bird flying around here.

We continued birding through the open fields picking up some stuff including Lesser Gray Shrike. Nice to see large flocks of migrant Turtle Doves in the fields. More Marbled Ducks were spotted in the canals - I love them.

Because Re'a is an Odonata expert, on top of being a top birder, we did pay a little bit of attention to critters. Re'a recommended that I take a photo of this Levant Clubtail because it is endemic to our region, and because it is so pretty:

Overall birding was slightly quieter than we had hoped for but at least the weather was OK (the day before it was awfully hot) and there were no sirens. We left Agamon Hula at 07:30 with 74 species, semi-pleased with a half-decent list to start the day.

Our next destination was the Petroleum Road running along the western slopes of the Golan Heights. I became more familiar with this region after the discovery of breeding Yellow-throated Sparrows there in 2022. It was so excellent up there. Many quality species, lots of migrants - especially raptors. Highlight was a pair of Yellow-throated Sparrows that eventually gave themselves up after quite a long search. 

Other great birds added to our list were Upcher's and Eastern Orphean Warblers, Eastern Black-eared Wheatear, Cretzschmar's Bunting, Roller, both cuckoos. We really enjoyed birding there. We did have to keep an eye open for rockets and missiles - we made sure to stay away from the danger zone in the far northern end of the road, close to the Lebanese border.

Upcher's Warbler singing

Check that magnificent dark tail

Woodchat Shrike - high density including fresh juveniles

We then drove to some sites in the Golan Heights, picking quality stuff along the way like Black-headed Bunting, Calandra Lark, Little Swift, Great Crested Grebe, Griffon and Egyptian Vulture. 

When we arrived in Susita it was already very hot. The site was developed recently, including a better access road, carpark and cashier for those wanting to walk into the site... INPA who manage this national park and developed it thought it would be a good idea to stick a huge metal horse on the mountain top. The local Long-billed Pipit agrees with that and is using it as its favourite singing spot - can you see it?

We then headed down towards Bet Shean Valley. It was getting really hot and the fatigue was kicking in. Cold drinks and ice cream were necessary to keep us going. When we arrived in Kfar Ruppin, with around 100 species in the bag, it was already properly hot. Check the video here.

Global Big Day update!#GlobalBigDay #globalbirding #birdsuniteourworld pic.twitter.com/jf3mKYkqyv

— Yoav Perlman (@yoavperlman) May 11, 2024

Kfar Ruppin and other fishponds in the area provided us with some species of shorebirds and other waterbirds. It was a bit frustrating - there were very large numbers of Ruff, Wood Sandpiper, Little Stint and Ringed Plover, but the variety mixed in among them was minimal. Still we had hundreds of Collared Pratincoles, Temminck's Stints, Whiskered Terns and more. Dead Sea Sparrow is a local specialty and was well appreciated. I love those blackish hind-trousers the males have:

And that was that. I must admit that after several years of doing big days, our motivation to do a full full day, including afternoon and evening, has dwindled a bit. We are content with the amount of effort we put into this mode of birding. We ended the day with a respectable 131 species - see our eBird Trip Report here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/235300

Our daily total is quite OK, given the difficult date for this event here in Israel. Migration slows down, quite dramatically, after May 7th-8th. Also it becomes much hotter by the day. The current date, the 2nd weekend of May, suits better northern countries (North America and northern Europe) but is much more difficult in southern latitudes. The current date choice reduces the level of interest in Global Big Day here in Israel because many birders are already in post-migration mode and couldn't be bothered to go out and see few birds. 

I call here the organisers of Global Big Day and World Migratory Bird Day to consider moving next year's event one week earlier, to the first weekend of May. With climate change that should be a good date even in northern North America and Scandinavia, and certainly a favourable date in the Mediterranean Basin and Middle East for example. 

Hey Jonathan and Re'a - it was another blast of a day, so much fun birding with you guys. Till October 12th, Go Champions!

Spring catch-up

It's been a very strange spring for me. On the one hand, how can one enjoy the beauty and thrill of bird migration spectacles when all of *this* is going on in my country. On the other hand, what else can I do other than go out birding, enjoy the healing power of nature, appreciate every little bird hero that makes it despite all the troubles. As I have been doing for over five years now, I am out birding every day. During migration seasons this habit offers me even more thrill and excitement, to detect the seasonal changes in the sites I visit often, and enjoy impressive migrations. In recent weeks I have been all over, but often my motivation to photograph and to write is low. This damn war.

In any case, I am still trying to bird hard and see as many birds as possible, without doing a Big Year. This is quite enjoyable actually, and liberating, seeing news of rarities show up in far-flung corners of the country and not going for them! Still, I am doing OK, I think. Here are some of the birds I saw and the few photos I took:

Luckily, fieldwork and site visits take me to places with loads of good birds. While monitoring our restoration site in Maagan Michael I was dazzled by the variation in Western Yellow Wagtails - in this composite are (I think) dombrowskii, superciliaris, feldegg, thunbergi, flava and a hybrid Citrine X Yellow, all in one small flock.

superciliaris

Striated Heron in Tel Aviv

A work visit to Eilat Birding center rewarded me with this gorgeous, deadly Painted Saw-scaled Viper:

Our restoration sites in Kfar Ruppin are exploding with birds now, so much quality too:

When a flock of tired White Storks drops out of the sky after a day of migration and rests on a wetland you've recently restored, you guess you did something right pic.twitter.com/LMfaiiEGg4

— Yoav Perlman (@yoavperlman) April 20, 2024

Clamorous Reed Warbler

Not only birds enjoy our restoration project - also invertebrates. Here are Black Percher and Ivory Featherlegs.

In May, when much of the country clears out of migrant passerines, the relatively cool and lush Jerusalem Mts. still host large numbers of migrants. Mulberry trees are especially attractive to Sylvias, also favoured by Golden Orioles. This photo was taken out of my friend Rami's window:

The Jerusalem Bird Observatory is at its best in early May, with huge numbers of common migrants using the habitat to refuel. Among the common warblers also good numbers of Olive-tree and Barred are seen; I have seen also River, Marsh, Icterine and Upcher's there in recent dats. Also plenty of European Nightjars this year.

One of the Eurasian Sparrowhawks that visit the JBO regularly

Champions of the Flyway 2024

On Monday (April 1st) it was Champions of the Flyway again, for the 11th year. It was a strange one, all-Israeli, without the international component. Because of the war we didn't even try to engage with the international birding community - not easy to be an Israeli organisation or individual these days. Despite the ongoing war situation, we decided to go ahead with the Israeli race this year for several reasons. First, the conservation project, to support Nature Tanzania's work in tackling illegal killing of White Storks and other birds, is so important that we were determined to raise whatever funds we can through COTF. Second, the race is a central event for the local birding community, bringing together so many people and connecting the birding community with conservation. It was great to be part of the leading team of COTF, with Alen and Noam but very strange without Jonathan Meyrav. You were missed, bro!

I headed down to Eilat on Sunday, March 31s, the day before the race. The weather turned terribly hot and migrant numbers on the ground were very low. In Yotvata sewage there were a few migrants, shorebirds, wagtails and pipits, best of the bunch was a Little Crake. In hot and windy Canada Park, this male Collared Flycatcher (one of my favourite birds) was the only migrant of note.

Over at the IBRCE we did a live birding webinar, broadcasting from the JBO (Dror), Hula (Nadav) and IBRCE (Daniel and Moritz ringing, I was out with my scope). You can watch the webinar recording here. I had phone issues (demonstrated also in the attached video below), so I contributed only visual, without sound. But it went OK I think. Outside of the zoom there were some nice birds in the park, including Whimbrel, Gull-billed Terns, a pale-morph Western Reef-Heron and Citrine Wagtails. Identifying this pale morph is a bit more challenging - note the dagger-shaped, non-black bill, and less black and yellow legs. It was also slightly larger that an adjacent Little Egret:

Citrine Wagtail

Whimbrel, Whiskered Terns, Glossy Ibis, Caspian Tern, Gull-billed Terns:

In the evening at North Beach the Brown Booby was sitting distantly on a buoy, and I saw my first White-cheeked Tern of the year.

Race day (April 1st) started in an unexpected way:

With this wake-up call (siren) teams sprang into action. I spent the whole day out in the field, with teams, making sure they are working well and seeing as many birds as possible. First thing in the morning I headed up to in Uvda Valley, that was actually quite good with decent numbers of migrants. The habitat looks great there - one of the few productive spots in the Negev this year. Most of the Negev is stone-dry, literally, after a rain-less winter.

My birding started well with a Striped Hyena that disappeared behind a ridge just as I got my camera on it... I had Bar-tailed and Med Short-toed Larks there, and another lark that got away and was probably Arabian. 

In Neot Smadar sewage a male Semi-collared Fly showed nicely:

Heading down towards the Arava valley, I intercepted a fantastic stream of migrating raptors, mainly Steppe Buzzards - thousands of them! Somehow, photos of such migration spectacles are always underwhelming; it is impossible (for me) to capture the size and power of this awesome experience.

During the hottest hours (it was already above 40 C / 104 F) I checked some sites near Eilat, including IBRCE and the football pitches. The most impressive creature that I photographed was this poisonous grasshopper Poekilocerus bufonius, here on its poisonous plant host - Sodom's Apple Calotropis procera.

In the afternoon teams started to concentrate in the Eilat sites. At KM20 Flamingo Pools there were many shorebirds and ducks, including two Red-necked Phalaropes and Collared Pratincoles. So great to see the kids and teens in action:

At North Beach the classic evening gathering of teams was photogenic as ever:

After dark we opened the finish line at the IBRCE and worked with the incoming teams until midnight.

On Tuesday (April 2nd) before the closing events I used the early morning for a little birding, with Itai and Meidad. In Holland Park it was nice to find a 'wild' Black Scrub-Robin (unlike the sedentary 'feral' ones in Samar).

At quick whizz through the IBRCE produced a columbinus Greater Sand-plover and a female Oriental Honey-Buzzard. I am still bewildered by their rapid expansion in Eilat - they have become a regular feature of birding here almost year-round. Note that in this photo the bird is half-gliding, therefore the first finger is tucked in.

Then it was the traditional group photo at North beach, classically interrupted by a passing Eurasian Curlew:

And a proper photo by Yuval Dax - thank you to all who participated!

The award ceremony was exciting and emotional as ever. Five titles were awarded to different teams - Guardians of the Flyway (most fundraising) to Women in Steppe, Knights of the Flyway to the young Bee-eaters (most noise and impact towards the cause), Green Champions of the Flyway to the Francolins (on foot in the heat!), IBRCE Champions of the Flyway to the Woodchat Shrikes (full day in the park), and classic Champions of the Flyway to the Desert Owls, led by Nitay Hayun, with an excellent score of 152 species! They received Zeiss binoculars, donated by Zeiss Birding - thank you! The Desert Owls are a brilliant team - exceptional birders and fine young lads - from L to R Yagel Yamin, Nitay, Beeri Abramov and Amit Spivack. This photo and the next are also by Yuval - thanks!

Uplifting to see the engagement and commitment of so many young birders to the project (41 participants under 18!) - not only their participation in the bird race itself. I also witnessed the importance of the conservation component and the connection of the younger participants to a 'bigger' story. I only wish there were more girls in this photo - still a big challenge we need to overcome, how to make birding more inclusive and safer for young girls.

From a birding point of view it may have been one of the quieter Champions, with very high temperatures and low numbers of migrants on the ground. However, this made the race itself even more challenging. With harder work of all teams most expected species were seen (195 species seen in total during the race by all teams) and lots of good species. Check my eBird trip report for the three days here.

From a public POV, as always, this event is so unique and motivational that I am very proud to be part of its leading team. Of course, that lack of international teams decreased the volume of the message, the importance of the battle against the horrible illegal killing of birds, and also decreased the amount of money raised for Nature Tanzania. You can still donate to COTF and support the work carried out by Nature Tanzania to tackle illegal killing of birds - please follow the link here,

Within Israel this still is one of the most prominent birding events of the year, that connects birding with conservation. IBRCE hosted the event and the the team did a stellar job. Huge love and appreciation to Noam and all IBRCE team - Tzadok, Libby, Sasha, Shachar, and Moritz and Daniel who operate the ringing station.

Alen and Noam deserve huge thanks for leading the whole campaign and event, with the online support of Mark Pearson. Hats off - you all did a great job in difficult conditions. Thanks as well to all of my team who came down to participate and help - Yuval, Meidad, Yotam, Ofir and the entire JBO team, and two BirdLife Israel 'affiliates' - Dan Alon and Amir Balaban - thank you all!

See you in Champions of the Flyway 2025! Go Champions!

From scarce to mega

Wow what a day. My morning started nicely with a visit to a flock of Cinereous Buntings on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Cinereous Bunting is a scarce migrant through Israel, mainly in spring, favouring open rocky slopes. Despite seeing quite many over the years, I have never managed a good photo. This morning I did. Kfar Adumim, where I visited, is a traditional site for them. The flock of five I had were quite mobile and a bit shy, but with some patience I managed a couple of decent photos. Not perfect, but certainly much better than those I had before. I find the subtle males very neat and attractive, not as flashy as their Cretzschmar's relatives but still very beautiful. The birds I saw belong to the more westerly subspecies cineracea, with their grey bellies.

In the afternoon I was caught up in a family event when news came out of an Asian Desert Warbler on a beach near Haifa, found by Sagi Shual. Given the first (and non-twitchable) African Desert Warbler was also in Haifa in spring, alarm bells went off in my head. I asked for the reporter to send me photos, which confirmed my suspicion - it looked spot-on for deserti! I upgraded the news, but sadly I was stuck in the family event and couldn't go immediately. With the advancing afternoon I was totally deflated and gave up on the idea I'd see the bird. When we were done, I checked Waze just out of curiosity. I figured out that I could just make it to the site 10 minutes before sunset - doable, somehow. Thankfully there was no traffic heading that direction. When I got to Haifa my GPS went crazy (because of the war GPS signal is being distorted in different parts of the country) which cost me a wrong turn and an extra ten minutes. From the carpark there was another 15 minutes walk (or 7 minute run in my case) to the bird with the light fading quickly. The sun had already disappeared when I made it breathless to the bird, expertly staked out for me by Ido - thanks! I quickly saw the bird, it was showing well, foraging on the sand dunes and low in the bushes. I really appreciated the supreme optical quality of my 8X NL Pure, performing so well in the dim light, allowing me to pick out the plumage details. I was surprised how striking the bird was, very pale below, so bright gingery above, open face pattern, very yellow legs, and those plain tertials were very distinctive too. Such a sweet little bird, spending lots of time running on the ground. This was a global lifer for me, having not birded (yet) in NW Africa. My first lifer in 2024. My photos are shit - others (that arrived when there was light) have much better photos.

Check those unstreaked tertials!

The warbler utilized the coastal sand dune habitat with scattered bushes

Spring bliss

This morning was one of those mornings that demonstrate best (to me at least) why I am a birder and how rewarding being a birder can be. I visited Mt. Amasa, at the southern tip of the Judean Mts. This is one of my favourite birding sites in March - the habitat is beautiful, the landscape is stunning, and birding is magnificent. The open, rocky slopes, now covered with flowers, attract juicy migrants, and support healthy populations of quality breeding species. For me, a mid-March visit to Mt. Amasa is really one of the highlights of my birding year in Israel. I know the sites there very well, and I could predict almost precisely what and where I would see. It made no difference - it was a beautiful morning, albeit a bit short (family stuff...).

I met up early with Barak (in the photo above), Avi & Ron. At first we checked around the ruins of Tel Krayot, then descended to the adjacent Wadi Tov. It was a bit cold early on but soon the sweet warm sun lit up some beautiful birds for us. Check out this handsome 2cy male Woodchat Shrike, likely a migrant (not quite in breeding habitat), glowing in the soft early morning light:

There were really nice numbers of Cretzschmar's Buntings, several flocks moving through and quite many hopping on the rocks. They do breed here but despite some males bursting into their sweet 'Si-si-seee' song, I think they were mostly migrants.

Male

Female

Using the ruins and boulders as breeding sites, there were good numbers of Rock Sparrow, Blue Rock-Thrush and Eastern Black-eared Wheatear, all seen in advanced breeding activity. Wait for it and turn your volume up:

Down by the wadi there were more Sylvia warblers in the scattered bushes, including Rueppell's, Eastern Orphean and Eastern Subalpine. I have seen brighter subalps before - still a very neat bird.

There were many redstarts about - lots of wintering Western Blacks still here, one cracking male Eastern Black (likely semirufa), and several Commons, including three male Ehrenberg's. Barak talking in the background:

Twas also fun watching several Wrynecks rockhopping. Always fascinating birds.

There were many common migrants around. I enjoyed that immensely. A few scarcities weren't seen this morning (Cinereous Bunting, Rufous-tailed Rock-Thrush) - next time hopefully. More images and videos in the eBird checklist here.