25 July 14 - Photospot6 - Palearctic Wheatears

I wonder how many Birders living in the Western Palearctic don't have a soft spot for the Wheatear group. Living in Dorset, we only really see Wheatears as migrants with the very occasional bird hanging onto into the Summer suggesting they might occasionally breed. But I like seeing them as it means that when I see them, there will also be other migrants on the move. Also all the Wheatear species are great characters. The only regular species we get in the UK is the Wheatear (I don't do the trendy name of Northern Wheatear), with another 5 species having appeared once or more as vagrants. They are White-crowned Black Wheatear, Pied Wheatear, Black-eared Wheatear, Desert Wheatear & Isabelline Wheatear. Fortunately, I've managed to see them all over the years, including the only record of White-crowned Black Wheatear: which I suspect will remain high up on the wanted list of many twitchers who weren't twitching in the early 80s for many years to come.

I have been lucky this year to see a number of different Palearctic Wheatear species in Gujarat & Rajasthan parts of India, Morocco & the Western Sahara, Israel & Croatia. They have all appeared on this blog in various posts (or are new Croatian photos), but I thought I would bring them all together in one post, as I'm sure I won't be the only person who thinks the Wheatear group are great. So sit back & enjoy. The backgrounds are all bright & sunny, which goes with the current UK weather. Ironic as when I started writing this post it was bright & sunny and as I come back to put the finishing touches to it, I can hear the rumble of thunder.

White-crowned Black Wheatear: Adult. Eilat Mountains, Israel (10 April 14). This photo had the approval of the local Israel army checkpoint guys

White-crowned Black Wheatear: 1st Winter bird. Aoussard Road, Western Sahara (8 Feb 14). The black crown with a single white crown feather indicated this was an immature bird. The tail pattern was checked & found that the black was primarily on the black central tail feathers & did not have the strong T shape (that the Black Wheatears have)

Black Wheatear: Dakhla Bay, Western Sahara (11 Feb 14). The brown plumage & broad T shaped tail pattern, confirmed the identification

Wheatear: Aoussard Road, Western Sahara (12 Feb 14). A nice bright male showing off its tail pattern

Wheatear: Ne'ot Smadar, Israel (12 April 14). Female

Wheatear: California Farm, Swanage, Dorset (2 May 14). Guess I had better sneak in a shot from the UK

Eastern Pied Wheatear: Desert Coursers, Gujarat, India (15 Jan 14). Also known as Variable Wheatear as there are 3 distinct colour forms across its range. This is the picata form

Eastern Pied Wheatear: Desert Coursers, Gujarat, India (16 Jan 14). This is the picata form 

Eastern Pied Wheatear: CEDO, Gujarat, India (20 Jan 14). Male of the picata form transforming into adult plumage

Eastern Pied Wheatear: Tal Chappar, Rajasthan, India (25 Jan 14). This is the opistholeuca form & would normally winter in Northern Pakistan, rather than Gujarat

Red-rumped Wheatear: Male. Tan-Tan, Morocco (6 Feb 14). This is the moesta subspecies which occurs from Western Sahara to Egypt

Red-rumped Wheatear: Female. Tan-Tan, Morocco (6 Feb 14)

Black-eared Wheatear: Beit Yatir, Israel (8 April 14). Male. Eastern melanoleuca subspecies

Black-eared Wheatear: Male. Amran Pillars, Israel (10 April 14). Eastern melanoleuca subspecies

Black-eared Wheatear: Male. Velji Do, Croatia (5 May 14). Eastern melanoleuca subspecies

Black-eared Wheatear: Female. Velji Do, Croatia (5 May 14). Eastern melanoleuca subspecies

Persian Red-tailed Wheatear: CEDO, Gujarat, India (20 Jan 14). This is the Red-tailed chrysopygia subspecies. Note, the pale grey upperparts & slim, weak build for a Wheatear. This bird was wintering on a small Kopje (a small stony hill on the sandy plain)

Persian Red-tailed Wheatear: CEDO, Gujarat, India (20 Jan 14). It occurs from Transcaucasia to Afghanistan & winters in Pakistan & NW India. This is the Eastern of the two species (the Western xanthoprymna species being the one that occurs in Turkey and is now split as the monotypic Kurdish Wheatear

Desert Wheatear: Desert Coursers, Gujarat, India (16 Jan 14). This is the atrogularis subspecies (which is combined with the nominate deserti by some authors)

Desert Wheatear: CEDO, Gujarat, India (20 Jan 14). This is the atrogularis subspecies

Desert Wheatear: Aoussard Road, Western Sahara (8 Feb 14). This is the homochroa subspecies which occurs from Western Sahara to Egypt

Isabelline Wheatear: Tal Chappar, Rajasthan, India (24 Jan 14). Note, the upright stance & heavy bill

Isabelline Wheatear: Tal Chappar, Rajasthan, India (25 Jan 14). Note the black tail, uniform pale upperparts, black alula, and heavy bill & head

Unfortunately, there are a few gaps here. I did see a Hooded Wheatear, but right next to the Israeli-Egyptian border & an Isreali road checkpoint. The army guys on the checkpoint weren't worried about us being there, but were insistent no cameras were used along the border. They did check my camera earlier that day, but fortunately, they were happy with the White-crowned Black Wheatear (above) & didn't look further. As for the other gaps, hopefully I will get to fill some of those in the next few years & maybe give me the opportunity to republish this post.

19 Jan 14 - Close Waders & Rock Eagle Owls

By early afternoon we were heading out again to head off to a large lake near to CEDO & its surrounding bushes & dried grassland. The good thing I had seen both of the 2 likely ticks on the first morning: Sykes's Lark & White-naped Tit. Therefore, the pressure was off & I could just enjoy the birding & photography. On the way to the lake we stopped in a small basic village. I couldn't see why we were stopping at first, but when I looked on both sides of the road were small wet pools under the trees. Despite being in the village, there was a good selection of Waders present. Clearly, they are very tolerant of the villagers & the villagers aren't a threat to them.

The wet pools were right next to the road

Not surprisingly we attracted the attention of some of the local kids

Black-winged Stilt

Snipe: The other similar Snipe species are out of range

Common Sandpiper

Green Sandpiper

Marsh Sandpiper

Citrine Wagtail

Finally, we were heading onto the lake, having had our fill of close Waders. The lake is surrounded by a large area of dry grassland & scattered bushes on a sandy soil, although the grass was largely dead. There were also scattered hills of varying sizes & one small hill was particularly good. It reminded me of the kopjes of Africa where small stoney hills project from the African plains & have their own distinct local wildlife.

The majority of the area was scattered bush country & dried grassland

With some quite large hills

This smaller hill had its own Persian Red-tailed Wheatear & Eastern Pied Wheatears

Persian Red-tailed Wheatear: This is the chrysopygia subspecies

Persian Red-tailed Wheatear: This is a winter visitor to Pakistan & NW India

As we were driving towards the lake, the driver spotted a Rock Eagle Owl trying to keep out of the sun by a low bush. Clearly, there is good feeding in this area, as we saw a second bird on the way out & 2 more on the following morning.

Rock Eagle Owl: Roosting by the bush

Rock Eagle Owl: As we got closer it tried to hide in the bush, but was clearly watching us

Rock Eagle Owl: The second bird was out hunting in the late afternoon

Rock Eagle Owl: It finally got bored of the attention

There were a good selection of other birds around the lake, although the Water birds were too far away to photograph.

The Tower hide

Pallid Harrier: I was struck how slim & buoyant this Harrier going to roost was when taking the photos. This is a female bird as it has a streaky breast & belly. The dark secondaries on the underwing separate it from a female Montagu's (which has pale secondaries)

Pallid Harrier: Really magnifying this I can see the trailing edge of the secondaries gets broader towards the base of the wing & there isn't much of a central pale band along the middle of the secondaries (a female Montagu's Harrier is photographed in the An Enigmatic Family Year Tick post)

Steppe Eagle: The long gape line, stout bill, grey coverts & white lines in the wing point to a subadult Steppe Eagle

Short-toed Lark: A fairly common lark in the more open areas

Crested Lark: Less common, but still a few around the more open areas

Crested Lark: That's an odd looking shadow

Sykes's Warbler

Lesser Whitethroat: The distinct mask separates it from Desert Lesser Whitethroat (or a migratory Hume's LWT). The most likely subspecies in Gujarat is blythi

On the way back to CEDO, we ran into this Jackal by the roadside as the light was starting to fade.

Jackal